Cillín Greene has endured his fair share of bad luck in recent years.
The Claregalway 24-year-old ran a blinder as part of Ireland's mixed relay team at the Tokyo Games last summer to help them make the final.
In 2019 it looked unlikely that he'd make the Olympics at all after he suffered a nasty fall during his 400m heat at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Greene broke his elbow, and was further hampered by other subsequent injury niggles that looked certain to derail his Tokyo dreams.
Covid-19 bought him time, he recovered sufficiently to make the relay team and then played a starring role as he set a national record - alongside Phil Healy, Sophie Becker and Chris O'Donnell - in Japan.
There was some frustration at the World Indoors in March where the Irish quartet of Greene, Cathal Crosbie, Brian Gregan and Chris O'Donnell failed to make the final after setting a new national record to finish third in their men's relay heat, but Greene was in a good place.
And then, he broke his elbow again.
"The Indoors was good. It was a nice start to the season, set myself up nicely for a good outdoor season," Greene said at the launch of the Irish Life Health National Track and Field Championships, which take place in Santry on 25/26 June.
"But five weeks ago I had an accident where I fell off my bike and broke my elbow and my wrist. I was going down a hill near my house, there was construction works going on and a couple of vans reversing. I just went flying over the handlebars!
"The healing process is going well, hopefully I should be fine for the summer, but it was a bit unfortunate, There's definitely going to be a few changes to my plans but hopefully once I get my fitness back I should be fine."
Greene is not one to let the grass grow under his feet. He concedes July's World Championships in Oregon will likely come too soon but he's got his heart set on making the Europeans in August.
There's also the small matter of a Masters specialising in Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, which he aims to complete by August. The broken elbow has slowed down Greene's typing, but he's making headway on his thesis.
It's certainly been an eventful three years for the Claregalway man, who could have been helping the Tribesmen to glory in the Connacht football final ten days ago had he chosen a different path.
"I was playing Gaelic football until I was 18 or 19. It was only when I moved to college that I properly stuck with the athletics.
"The year I was playing minor was the same year I made my first international appearance, at the World Juniors. I chose athletics because I was enjoying it more at the time and there was a lot more potential there I think."
That decision has been justified. Greene already has one Olympic Games under his belt and will hope for a couple more having experienced the impact, and the aftermath, of such an enormous spectacle.
"To be honest I'm normally quite a nervous runner, but for the Tokyo experience... I think there's so much building up to it that when it actually comes around, I was just in a state of mind where I knew I had to get my leg done, give that baton over to Phil Healy and then all the weight was off my shoulders.
"I didn't get to go home to Galway too much before the Games. I was receiving messages from people and things but as soon as we were in Tokyo and the media started, I was getting videos from my primary school and secondary school, videos of people tying up flags and bunting around the village, putting up posters with my face on it.
"When we got back home I was shocked by how much support we received.
"I was being paraded around in a car through my village in the rain. There was a massive turnout and loads of bonfires, which was really strange for me! It was a really good experience.
"A lot of people reached out from primary schools in particular, asking me to come and speak to the students. There's been a massive uptake in athletics since the Games because they were all watching. You don't really think about the impact you're having on these young children.
"The community was a huge support."
