This Thursday will see Rhasidat Adeleke celebrate her 22nd birthday. As an athlete competing on the world stage, she has achieved a lot so far. The expectation of greater days still to come no doubt fuels her desire.
The past few months have been a whirlwind to say the least for the Tallaght native. In May, after cramming in extra classes, Adeleke completed her degree in Corporate Communications from the University of Texas. That same month saw her help Ireland's mixed 4×400m and women's 4×400m relay teams qualify for the Paris Olympics.
A month later there was medal success at the European Championships; gold in the 4x400 mixed relay, with silver in the 4x400 relay and the same colour for her run in the 400m final, where she set a new Irish record of 49.07.
Other prep races, including her appearance at the National Championships, came in the run up to the athletics programme at the Stade de France.
A medal prospect, we hoped, in the 400m final. Adeleke came close. An improvement on her run in the semi-final, saw her just miss out on a podium finish. Twenty-fours on and she, along with Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley, also had to ponder what might have been after finishing fourth.
No rest, however, for Adeleke. She was back in Diamond League action on Sunday last in Poland.
It was a case of Paris revisited in the 400m; the Irish competitor trailing behind the trio that medalled in the French capital.
There is the Diamond League final to come for Adeleke in Brussels. But speaking at an Allianz media event, there was time to reflect on a busy few months, while also starting to focus on where improvements can be made for the 2025 season.
On her Olympic experience and coming so close to a medal, Adeleke said: "It was an amazing experience to be there; it wasn't exactly what I wanted but having time to reflect I've cone to terms with it. I'm looking at it for what it is and shedding a positive light on it.
"I'm really excited for the future. I'm in the moment of experiment, of trying to figure out what's best for me in different situations. My coach (Edrick Floreal) and I are trying to nail down what the future could look like. We're going to get back to work this fall and try and improve on everything, so that next year and the years coming I'll be in a better position."
With her studies completed, Adeleke can now focus on being a full-time, professional athlete.
"Being full-time, it's going to be eventful," she added.
"I think it's important that I utilise my time properly and not get too comfortable sitting at home - but still be productive - using the free time that I have to become a better athlete. What can I do in this time to maximise my performance? It's about finding productive hobbies, getting to bed early, more time to cook my own meals.
"I'm hoping to get the plan [for 2025] soon; see what our main competitions are going to be. It's all about improving on where I had my weaknesses this year."
Small margins so often determine the outcome of races and while Adeleke has played back those fourth-placed finishes from Paris, taking note of where in each race things didn't go well, she is determined that repeat scenarios will not occur.
"I went through all the different situations in my head. I had so many different feelings. It was a process of having to think through all those things to eventually get over it. I still think about it once in a while and say 'I could have done this'. - but there is no point in continuously going over something that has happened, something you can't change. It's more a case of learning from it, taking pointers.
"I've seen snippets of it [each race]. It's not something I continuously go over. I know what happened at every single moment in the race; I have a good recall of knowing what I can fix at each point, at each stage."
In the aftermath of the Paris Games, it was revealed that 400m silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser, from Bahrain, who previously served a two-year ban for missing four anti-doping tests, was one of ten athletes allowed to compete at the Games from her country. This, after the governing body of Bahrain Athletics was found to have conducted itself "negligently and/or recklessly" in relation to doping matters.
Bahrain has also been banned from World Athletics Series events for 12 months, with some calling for greater sanctions.
"There should be harsher consequences for not being involved in a clean sport following the guidelines when it comes to anti-doping," was Adeleke's response on the matter.
"That would give people the opportunity to rethink their decisions.
"At the end of the day I'm going to focus on me; I can't really think about what anybody else does. I try my best to promote a clean sport and to engage in it in such a way that everything I'm doing is clean. That is very important to me. I would hate that on the flip side people were not clean.
"All I can do is work hard and do everything by the book. I can't say such and such is doping, such and such should not be allowed to run. I have no hand in that and have no ability to change anything in that situation. I just hope everybody is clean."
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