With much of the focus on the women's side at the European Athletics Championships, and on his fellow male team-mate, Thomas Barr, it could be easy to let Chris O'Donnell slip under the radar.
It could be his team-player attitude, or being the lead leg, which will always result in an unimpressive split on paper, which meant he wasn't in the full beam of the spotlight in Rome. But O'Donnell had an outstanding championship performance in the Italian capital that should be applauded.
A semi-finalist in the individual 400m event, where he subsequently got disqualified for a lane infringement, running a significant season's best in the heats on no sleep, and lining up again for the men's 4x400m relay was no mean physical feat.
Only Sharlene Mawdsley managed to out-do the Sligo man on the number of 400m races run over the six-day event, but he says it did take a toll.
"That was definitely the quickest week of my life and a part of that was, I got probably two or three nights worth of sleep in that whole week," O'Donnell told RTÉ Sport of the aftermath of winning on the international stage..
"I came back, people were still asking me when I came home if I was wrecked or not ,and I was, 'No, I'm actually absolutely fine'.
"I was still on a high for a few days when I came home, and then to be fair it did hit me a few days later. I ran one race, 46.0, I just was not at my best.
"I picked up a little bit of an illness and I was running through that."
The Sligo native is currently 79th on the Paris ranking list and only the top 48 will make the start line in the Stade de France.
O'Donnell's last chance to qualify will be at Sunday's National Championships at the Morton Stadium in Santry, and he will need the automatic qualification mark of 45.00 seconds.
O'Donnell has raced only four times individually this year, leaving his world ranking lagging. In a system that rewards racing often and in meetings that are hard to access with no agent backing, athletes like O'Donnell that either have no agent or are fighting injury are on the backfoot.
"The rankings haven't worked out for me this year," he said. "Like it's just a case of who has the best agent and I have no agent.
"I still think that I'm capable of doing it and if not, hopefully, I'd still be delighted to be on the relay."
The required time of is 0.25 of a second faster than his best, which was set in 2022, and would put him second on the Irish all-time list, behind David Gillick.
He missed out on several weeks racing at the beginning of the season due to travelling to the World Relays in the Bahamas, where he wasn't selected for the final team that claimed bronze.
Testament to his character, O'Donnell didn't let it effect him for long.
"In the Bahamas, obviously it was disappointing not to be picked for that, it was a bit of a shock, but I could have spent the next few months sulking about that but I decided not to.
"I decided to just knuckle down and run as fast as I could.
"I've put down a pretty decent marker in 45.6. I'd like to think that puts me in a good spot (for the mixed relay) and I've a lot of experience, but at the same time, I want to qualify individually and I've got one more shot to do that," he admitted.
The final team for the World Relays was likely picked on indoor performances, which the 26-year-old admits isn't his forte.
"I actually did race once, it's not on my World Athletics profile, it was very low key. I ran 48 seconds, which obviously is not good enough, but I do that every year. If you look back I have a huge discrepancy between my indoor and outdoor times.
"Every year when I open up I do get a bit of a laugh. People see me run 48 or 47s and say 'It's not going to be his year, he's not in shape this year' but I never lose any confidence. I can't run round those bends indoors," he laughs.
"I still put myself out there and I still race and I'm not afraid to sell myself short eventually, because that's what I'm doing, I'm going out there and selling myself short.
"I did that this year but the way my running style is and the way my training programme is that it's based on outdoors, and I'm good at the right times I think."
It has been quite the journey for O'Donnell, who has been a key part of the mixed relay success since the first event in 2021, where he ran the anchor leg to qualify the team for the Olympics in Tokyo.
Since then the mixed 4x400m team has been on the rise, making Olympic and World finals, and now they are European gold medallists, all with O'Donnell as part of the squad. He explains it hasn't always been a given.
"I started off with this team and almost every time we step foot on a track, we've been successful. And it started off by qualifying for the Olympics and then it was making Olympic finals, making World finals and while we were kind of scraping into those finals it was a bit of a miracle job.
"Every time we've been together it’s been such a high. This time has been even more of a high which is hard to explain because when we first made that Olympic final, when we first qualified for the Olympics, that high was crazy but this (winning European gold) was even on another level," he says.
"Everything we dream of"... "It means so much"... "We knew what we could do!"... "I've trained my life for this"
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 7, 2024
Chris O'Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr & Sharlene Mawdsley try to sum up their magnificent European gold 🥇☘️ #RTEsport pic.twitter.com/la703yHGSD
When first introduced the mixed 4x400m relay was seen by some as a gimmicky event and many were unsure if it would take off, but now that Ireland are successful it makes sense to support it and invest in it.
It ticks a lot of boxes for both entertainment and inclusivity. Prior to its introduction there were few occasions where you would see men and women competing together in any sports event, never mind in athletics.
Mixed gendered events is an approach that has been replicated in other sports, including swimming and has been a pillar driven by the International Olympic Council (IOC).
So much so, that Paris is being dubbed the 'gender equal Olympics', where 50% of participants are women for the first time in history and the number of mixed gender events has increased from 18 in Tokyo to 22 in this year's edition.
There has been buzz about one woman in particular and her choice of events for the Olympic Games. Rhasidat Adeleke took home three medals from the European Championships, running a blistering national 400m record in the process, but may be in doubt for the mixed 4x400m event in Paris.
With so much at stake, it is unknown if Adeleke will contest the mixed 4x400m, undoubtedly the event with Ireland's best chance of a relay medal.
O'Donnell admits that having the European silver medallist on the team would be ideal, but is pragmatic about that possibility.
"We just have to do our thing and try run the best ourselves," he said. "Obviously, it's not a secret that we’d love her to run but that’s a decision to be made by herself and her coaches and whatever they think is best. If she doesn’t run, we’ve made finals before without her. We’ve got good athletes to step up.
"Of course, we’d like her to run but then again, she’s going to make whatever decision is best for her. There won’t be any grudges held over that but all we can do between now and then is try and improve ourselves."
Not all athletes have the same mindset, but both himself and Mawdsley stand out as true relay runners that love nothing more than running for their team and country. He has a proven record of progressing to individuals semi-finals in the days following the mixed 4x400m, first in the World Championships in Oregon in 2022 and again in Rome this year.
O'Donnell doesn't find it difficult sacrificing his own performance in his individual event. A medal is a medal at the end of it.
"I get asked the question a lot 'Would you rather be a finalist or a relay medallist?'. It’s an absolute no-brainer, it would be the medal all day long. Over the years, I have tended to prioritise the relay on the basis of that.
"Even this year as well, I’ve probably taken a hit on my individual Olympic hopes. I went to the Bahamas for a few weeks, losing a lot of time there with jet-lag and I was unable to run individually in those big races.
"Even still at the Europeans, it was the priority and I’ve absolutely no regrets because we’re getting success with that. For me a medal, all day, that’s something I’m hopefully going to show the grandchildren and something to look back on and put on the CV."
O'Donnell played soccer in his teenage years for Benbulben FC and was picked to play for Sligo/Leitrim Youth Schoolboys League at the prestigious Kennedy Cup in 2012. An experience that may have some influence on his selfless choices on the track.
"I love being part of a team," he says. "I came from a football background and I liked the team aspect of it as well. I like giving my all for the relay.
"I wouldn't be skipping any relays but obviously everyone’s training programme is different," he asserts.
With the last chance to qualify for the Olympics looming this weekend in Dublin O'Donnell says he never doubted he would make it back Morton Stadium once more.
In a sport that is plagued with dropout and career ending injuries O'Donnell has persevered with the National Championships as an important and consistent feature.
"Even when at the start of the year I had a few kinds of illnesses and injuries, I never ever doubted that I was going to be there at Nationals.
"There was a crazy stat going around that in those six years I was the only athlete to be on the podium more than once. I'm someone that's into their sports and like the odds of that... I don't know how that's possible.
"It shows you that it's very difficult to come back year after year after year, but I pride myself on being able to do that. Hopefully it'll be more of the same this year."
Watch the National Athletics Championships on Sunday from 12.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
