Twelve months on from the disappointment of finishing the Olympic year without the coveted medal from Rio, Joe Ward is in a happy place and looking forward to Christmas.
The Irish amateur light-heavyweight has just enjoyed a very successful year and has duly been nominated for the RTE Sport Sportsperson of the Year, after becoming European champion and winning the silver medal at the World championships.
And while the entire Ireland team endured a very disappointing Olympic Games in 2016, Ward's winning mentality has not changed and has helped him to continue his boxing journey, which will inevitably, in his opinion, end up with an Olympic medal for the two-time world silver medallist.
"Always," replied Ward, when asked about whether he believes he is going to win every time that he steps into the ring.
"I have a good process during the day and I go there fully confident and fully prepared mentally and physically and I am always ready to perform when I get into the ring.
"I love boxing. Boxing has given me a lot of opportunities in life. I won my first title at 11. It changed my whole life. And everything about life, boxing has changed for me in the right direction.
"It gave me great opportunities to travel all over the world and compete for your country and to wear that Irish vest which means the world to me.
"It’s something special when you put it on and it gives me goosebumps to know that you are representing your country at the major championship."
"Everything about life, boxing has changed for me in the right direction..." - @RTEsport Sportsperson of the year nominee, Joe Ward, sits down with @KevinBrannigans to chat about a very successful 2017. pic.twitter.com/HnTIKIC7r4
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) December 13, 2017
Ward has decided to stick with the amateur ranks despite receiving several offers to turn professional following the Rio Games.
And one of Ireland's most decorated amateur fighters in history felt that he left something behind in Brazil and is planning to put that right in Tokyo in 2020.
"In 2016, it was a very lonesome time, not knowing where I was going, what I was doing," Ward told RTE Sport.
"I sat down with my family and decided that I left something behind me and I wanted to go and regroup, correct what went wrong and set my focus on 2017.
"So my focus was to become Euro champion and World champion. I just fell short on the world championship, but to get another silver medal was a huge achievement.
"It was a completely different state that I am in now than I was in 2016 and I’m a lot more happier going into Christmas knowing that I have my job done for 2017.
And Ward believed that there was added pressure on his shoulders this year as team captain, tasked with the responsibility of building the confidence of the younger fighters and leading by example by winning medals.
"There was a lot of pressure on me after a disappointing year in 2016, and there was a new team as most of the lads had turned professional.
"So I was the leader of the team and going into the European championships. There was a lot of expectation from the boxing people, and I had to deliver. I knew I had no other choice only to deliver.
"I was under a lot of pressure with my funding so I needed to go and win a European medal. And I went on to deliver and win the gold medal for the third time, which was really special.
"Then going to the World championships and getting to another final was a magnificent achievement.
"When Michael [Conlan] and Paddy [Barnes] and Katie [Taylor] were around, we knew that someone was going to win a medal, someone was going to deliver because there was four or five of us who had that ability to go on and win the gold medal.
"But this time around, it was a young team and they hadn’t got much experience, so I was the leader and people expected me to go and deliver and show the new lads the way to success."
Ward is looking forward to another fruitful year ahead in 2018, but one eye remains firmly on securing that elusive Olympic medal in Japan in 2020.
"I’m looking forward to Tokyo and looking forward to getting what I deserve, an Olympic medal; it’s the only medal I haven't got.
"I have Europeans, Worlds, at all levels and the Olympic medal is something that I’m missing and is something that I want.
"And it’s something that I’m going to give my life to over the next couple of years, to go and achieve it."
The RTÉ Sport Awards are live on RTÉ1 at 9.15pm on Saturday 16 December.
