Musings about flagpoles were the partial order of the day on Thursday after leaving Paris 2024's Vaires-sur-Marne venue in the wake of bronze medal glory delivered by men's double sculls rowers Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch.
Returning 24 hours later for the final instalment in rowing's running order for Team Ireland, there was an air of expectation that the tricolour would be hoisted again, but this time on the central pole.
Three finals were at stake for the Irish on the lake, with defending Olympic men's lightweight double sculls champions Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy flanked by the finals for the men's pair and the women's lightweight double sculls.
While the respective duos of Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney, and Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey did not ultimately get the medals they craved, the fact that Team Ireland had four crews involved in A finals during Paris 2024 meant they doubled the tally from an already successful Tokyo 2020.
But it was the gold medal winners from three years ago who were in the spotlight and there was a real sense that O'Donovan and McCarthy would deliver.
Never in doubt? Not if you ask O'Donovan. Just after he and McCarthy made history by winning a second Olympic gold in succession this morning and individually becoming the first Irish athlete to medal at three Games in succession, the Corkman leaned on an underdog status that had been a common refrain in his post-race interviews here.
"It was always in doubt for everyone else. No one believed we could do it coming into this competition," he told RTÉ Sport's Clare MacNamara barely a minute after he and McCarthy exited the boat and strode up the path to the mixed zone.
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"And against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard and Italy out there today were the number one seeds, really put it up there and Greece underdogs like ourselves also put in a big dig and also got up onto the medal podium. We're very happy to have proven the doubters wrong, so it's a good day for the Irish."
He had previously made quips during the heats about being "the little Davids of this world, going up against the Goliaths of Norway, Switzerland, Italy" which appeared to be subtly referencing the fact that they came into the Games seeded third despite being reigning Olympic champions and world record holders.
But in truth most Irish observers at Vaires-sur-Marnes never felt that gold would go anywhere other than around the necks of O'Donovan and McCarthy. It honestly just felt inevitable.
Even when they were third in the early stages of the final, it felt eerily calm among the huge host of Irish fans and delegates in the stands, and only a matter of time before they pushed themselves into contention and beyond towards the finish line.
They did so by a comfortable two seconds. An inevitable turn of events for an Irish crew that have made it look easy for years.
Certainty like that is usually reserved for the bigger nations with larger pools of athletes but Skibbereen Rowing Club's golden generation is more than comfortable in that sort of established and expectant company, even if they would never say so out loud.
As O'Donovan and McCarthy made their way to the right towards the podium for the medal ceremony, this writer's neck had long primed itself to turn left and observe the tricolour going up the central mast long before the duo had taken to the water.
And now for O'Donovan and McCarthy's Olympic sign-off, it's off to central Paris for "some baguettes and wine downtown".
Bon appetit.
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
