Ahead of Ireland's two-legged Olympic qualifier against Canada in Dublin this weekend, Anna O'Flanagan reflected on the highs and lows she has experienced in attempting to realise her Olympic dream.
These are heady times for those associated with the women’s game in Ireland. An unforgettable run to the final of the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup, where they were defeated by the Netherlands, led to the team scaling new heights in the world ranking, rising to eighth, having never been higher than 14th previously.
However, just over three years earlier O'Flanagan and her team-mates were coping with the agony of missing out on a place at Rio 2016 after falling at the final hurdle.
A penalty shootout defeat to China in Valencia at the World Hockey League may have led to a period of self-reflection, but that ultimately prompted a response which led Ireland to that unprecedented success.
"We realised that we could do something special and that we all had another four years in us," O'Flanagan told RTÉ Sport.
"We all had the same dream and we realised it could be achieved because we were so close last time.
"The lows were tough, but it was about coming together and realising what we were all going through and helping each other.
"Someone’s good day could be someone else’s bad day, so it was just helping each other through that and realising what we could achieve if we came together and just pushed as hard as we could."
The steely resolve forged in adversity has now led Ireland to the brink of Olympic qualification once more, but this time they’ll be favourites to realise their dreams by virtue of their higher world ranking and the home advantage which that has conferred.
"Home advantage is huge," the 29-year-old admitted.
"If you had told me even a year or two ago that we would have 6,000 people watching a hockey game in Energia Park in Donnybrook, I think I would have laughed at you and said you’re absolutely mad, but it’s a reality.
"Just to be part of that is something so, so special."
O'Flanagan paid tribute to the role former coach Graham Shaw played in the team’s development and believes Sean Dancer, who succeeded Shaw in April, is helping the side eke out further improvement.
"Sean has been brilliant for us and he’s just adding layers and layers on to what other coaches have already brought," O'Flanagan added.
"I think for us Sean has brought this real level of professionalism and he is extremely process focused and he has a lot of attention to detail.
"Adding that on to what we already had as a team has just been huge.
"All of our weeks have been very well planned and they’re colour-coded.
"He like to think that they’re 'red’, ‘orange’ and ‘green’, red being the hardest and green being the lightest, but we say that they’re all just red."
O'Flanagan and her team-mates could have been forgiven for basking in the limelight for longer than they did after their World Cup heroics, but their collective Olympic dream burns so brightly that their attentions were soon redirected to thoughts of Tokyo 2020.
"When I first started playing hockey, I said I want to play hockey for Ireland and I want to go to the Olympics," the Dubliner added.
"That’s the same for every single girl on the team.
"The World Cup... I wouldn’t change it for the world, it was the most amazing experience of my life so far, but it wasn’t the Olympics.
"We refocused very quickly.
"It’s not just about qualifying for the Olympics for us. Next weekend is a step for us. But it’s not about going to the Olympics, it’s about competing at the Olympics and it’s about doing well at the Olympics
"It’s not just this weekend that means everything, it’s the next 15 months that are so important to us as a team.
"I think that’s what’s really driving us forward.
"We know now what we can achieve on the world stage. We showed that at the World Cup
"This weekend is a stepping stone and then we’ll push even further to achieve greater things."
Watch live coverage of the Ireland v Canada Olympic qualifiers from Energia Park on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player from 6.30pm on Saturday and Sunday.
