Kate O'Connor feels the fallout from the Olympic Games made her "realise the athlete I wanted to be" after coming home as a bronze medallist from the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Apeldoorn.
She finished 14th in the heptathlon in Paris last summer, a creditable finish given it was the first time an Irish person has competed in the event in the Olympics.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after coming home from the Netherlands this morning with the medal in hand, she said: "I think that after the Olympics, it kind of made me realise the athlete that I wanted to be.
"My team and I really put our heads down over the last couple of months and decided we were going to be up there with those top girls.
"I've actually surprised myself how quickly I've managed to get up there and I suppose now it's about building on that and trying to maybe become one of the best in the world.
"It’s amazing. I suppose I've always looked up to those kind of girls, and I've always wanted to get a medal like this.
"To have a medal in my closet at 24, who knows how many I'll get?"
Despite dreaming of what is to come, the initial achievement has yet to hit home for O'Connor.
She felt a medal was a possibility based on form alone, yet the standard being set made it extremely difficult.
"It definitely hasn't sunk in yet," she explained.
"I think it'll take a couple of days for it to fully sink in what I have actually just done.
"I'm just trying to lap up absolutely everything and enjoy the moment as much as I can.
"I knew I was in good shape. I had competed in Tallinn a couple of months prior, and I had done the exact same of putting out quite a few PBs. But I knew that there was a bigger score in me. And I suppose during the competition, it kind of came to light that I would need something really, really special to medal.
"After the long jump, I was a little bit disappointed, because I was thinking, 'oh my goodness, I've put out four world-class performances right now, and I'm still trailing'.
"I just really wanted to do something in that 800 metres that I'd be proud of, whether I finished third or fourth.
"But thankfully, it went my way."
The celebration with family and friends will only last a short time with a trip to China on Wednesday for the World Indoor Championships.
They begin on 21 March, with the general World Championships scheduled for September.
Ireland's other two medallists, Mark English and Sarah Healy, did not return home as they prepare to travel to Nanjing as well.
