Coming off the back of an Olympic year, Sarah Lavin is not currently pondering the next edition of the Games, which take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
"The Hollywood Games are the cherry on top" is how the Limerick athlete views the end of the current four-year cycle, which will hopefully take her all the way to an Olympic final, or perhaps even a coveted place on the podium.
And the new cycle is up and running with Lavin having spent two months in the winter sunshine, training in South Africa, as she first embarks on the current indoor season, before turning her attention to the real goal for 2025, the Tokyo World Championships, which take place in September.
Lavin has been consistently improving over the past three years and has reached five major finals, and such are the levels of consistency that she is showing, it was, perhaps, viewed as disappointing that she failed to reach the showpiece in Paris.
The Limerick woman eased through the heats to reach the semi-finals, however, she had to settle for a sixth-place finish and miss out on a place in the final.
To her credit, Lavin ran close to her personal best in both the heat and the semi-finals and would have had to knock over 0.1 of a second off her fastest ever time of 12.62secs to have made it through to the decider.
Women's 100m hurdles is stronger than it has ever been, and while this might be considered a daunting factor, it actually is inspiring Lavin to feed off the speed and propel herself to her fastest times over the coming seasons.
"I’ve made five major finals in the last three years, so I want to convert that (to medals)," said Lavin, speaking to RTÉ Sport as Allianz were unveiled as primary sponsor of the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland.
"My best finish has been fifth at the World Indoors in Glasgow last March and obviously I want to be on the podium, that’s where the medals are at.
"I want to be better than I have ever been before and there is no reason I can’t be, I’m running faster than I ever have run before, so it’s building on that and going to the next level.
"It’s a really strong cohort of hurdlers at the moment, as the indoor record holder, the world record holder and the Olympic record holder are all competing in the same era and they are all different people.
"Women’s sprint hurdler is particularly strong at the moment, but I think it’s a brilliant opportunity to run something faster than I never thought possible before then."
Lavin spoke about the fine margins that are involved in taking her to the next level and a place on the podium, and she emphasised the importance of spending significant time with her coaching team, fine tuning her technique and her approach to the upcoming events.
"It’s all about technical precision," she explained. "At the moment [I’m working on] the margins from my take-off to hurdle one, and trying to minimise my flight time over hurdle one and two.
"My time over hurdle three, four and five is quite good, my speed is quite good, so it’s all about trying to get me there in as quickly as possible.
"I’m fit, fast, my speed endurance is good, my power is good and once you get to a particular level, it becomes incredibly technical and biomechanics come into play, and you work with your coach to try to create the pattern that is going to bring us this 0.1 of a second."
The sprint hurdler did have time to look back fondly on the 2024 campaign, which resulted in a successful Ireland outing at the Paris Games, and while there were no medals on the track, Lavin believes that the foundations have been set for a strong few years for herself and fellow team-mates.
And looking ahead to Los Angeles, Lavin believes that it is only a matter of time before another track star will emulate Sonia O’Sullivan and a select band of Irish athletes and take their place on the Olympic podium.
"Ultimately, our last medal came on the track with Sonia in Sydney," said Lavin.
"Thomas Barr finished fourth in Rio, Rhasidat and the relay girls came fourth in Paris and it is about converting that.
"In LA there is definitely a shot at a medal. The team is really, really strong, and having the right people in place is crucial to that and to giving support to the athletes that have shown that they can be major finalists, Olympic finalists and ultimately Olympic medallists because that is what we want and that is what we need."
And as for Lavin’s own aspirations, she is hoping to first follow fellow former hurdler Derval O’Rourke onto the podium of a major championship.
"I’m only getting going," said the 30-year-old, whose early career was stalled through illness and injury. "And there is an appetite and hunger there that if perhaps if I had a smoother career, it might not have been there.
"Derval won a medal at 33, I’m not there yet, I’m a long way off that yet."
