Ireland's reigning Olympic champions Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy will lead the medal charge in Paris. Not that the gifted rowers would frame it in such terms.
The Skibbereen duo will be the men to beat in the lightweight men’s double in Paris, and having won two World titles together and Olympic gold, will be among the leading contenders in Team Ireland over the next few weeks.
O’Donovan, who shot to fame at the 2016 Games rowing alongside brother Gary as they claimed silver, is noted for his calm demeanour, both inside and outside the boat.
On Friday, 2 August, if they qualify for the final, he can potentially become the first Irish Olympian to medal at three Games.
The 30-year-old, who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in medicine from UCC last year, remains philosophical over a career that has been stacked with highs.
Asked how he remains so calm is such pressurised situations, he told RTÉ Sport’s Darren Frehill: "I don’t know how to explain it really. Maybe as you get a little bit older, you stop defining yourself by achieving particular goals. When you look at it, most people, most of the time, don’t achieve their goals.
"I do set some goals for myself, but when you look back on my life, I’ve probably not achieved 99.9% of them. So if you define your life by achieving your goals, my life would be fairly miserable.
"I look at it that this is a sport I really enjoy doing, I love racing and competing, training day to day and having a bit of a laugh with the lads, making memories along the way. I think that’s the most important thing.
"It’s the stuff that you do that people probably don’t see that defines who you are as a person, which is more important than winning medals.
"A bit of an outlook like that on life helps you stay calm ahead of a race."
Ireland will be represented by a record seven boats and 16 rowers in Paris, a far cry from London 2012 when Sanita Puspure was the sole representative.
As well as O’Donovan and McCarthy, Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh – part of the bronze-winning women’s four in Tokyo – in the women’s pair, and their male counterparts Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle – winners at the final World Cup regatta in Poznan last month and 2023 world bronze medallists – come into the Games with genuine hopes of a medal.
How does O’Donovan attribute such an upturn in fortunes for Team Ireland in the sport?
"We’ve always had a lot of talent in Ireland, but sometimes, some of them were lacking a bit of self-belief to fully commit," he said. "Sometimes it does take a number of years to develop aerobic and endurance capacity you need for rowing.
"Once people saw that was possible, they started committing themselves.
"It’s not just a big team, but a really strong team. We win medals from right across the board, from seniors, to Under 23s and juniors across Worlds, Europeans and other Championships. The future is looking bright."
Looking ahead to their own lightweight double sculls assignment, O’Donovan isn’t fazed by May’s third-place finish World Cup II in Lucerne.
Italy's Gabriel Soares and Stefano Oppo shot off from the start of the final, and while they were pipped by the Swiss, they held off the Irish challenge for silver.
"It wasn’t the ideal result," he admitted, before rejecting the idea it may have dampened down expectations and lowered the pressure on the pair ahead of the Games.
The pair had had limited time together before Lucerne due to injury and other commitments.
"I don’t think we had too much pressure on us anyway. We have the same expectations of ourselves, regardless of the results.
"We came third, but we’re not too concerned about that at the minute. We have a plan that we think should give us a little bit of a boost over the next few weeks.
"All going well, we’d be confident we can put in a good performance in Paris."
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