Potential: A noun meaning latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success.
When you look at the podium for the women's 400m final at Paris 2024, the ages from gold to bronze read 27, 26 and 26 for Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser and Natalia Kaczmarek respectively.
They are all mature athletes in their primes, with significant experience behind them at continental, world and Olympic level.
And then you look at Ireland's own Rhasidat Adeleke. At 21, in her maiden Olympics and with only a few short years of know-how over the 400m distance, the fact that she feels a sense of what-might-have-been after finishing fourth in the final at the Stade de France brings us back to that word 'potential'.
"I don't think it was anything beyond what I can do. I just feel like it wasn’t meant to be today and that’s okay, I’ll move on," she told RTÉ Sport's David Gillick as she reflected on the blur of the Olympic final in the immediate aftermath.
She later revealed that she had been feeling far from her best after the semi-final - "very dizzy" and "shaking" - before her team got her back on track literally and figuratively in time for Friday night on the biggest stage.
"This is life, this is sport," Adeleke added, "things aren’t always going to go your way but it’s about how you bounce back. How you take this and make your future better."
Before touching on that brighter future, the context of the past is important. Adeleke's time of 49.28 may have been a small bit shy of her PB of 49.07 but would have been enough to earn bronze at Tokyo 2020, and gold at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Of course, times do come down incrementally as the years go on in athletics but still, at 21, to be in such company on the stopwatch is certainly significant for Adeleke.
It's her potential and the possibility that it could have been realised in the form of a medal as early as Friday night that also drew a large array of Irish fans into the Stade de France.
They were there in the Metros, on the walkways towards the stadium and all along the concourses. Up in the gods of the stadium, there was plenty of green on show and from that vantage point, tricolours dotted around the arena.
Certainly, she got huge backing from the Irish masses when her name was called out before the race and when it started, there was a sense of tension when it came to working out where she was in the context of her rivals' starts.
And then suddenly, after the first 200 and on the bend, the evidence was building that the University of Texas-based Tallaght AC athlete was in with a real shout of medalling.
With Paulino and Naser clear of the pack, Adeleke had moved into third going into the final straight. The question was whether she would have the legs to hold on.
We know the answer to that as Poland's Kaczmarek reeled her in, as happened in their previous duel for gold in the European Championship final.
Amber Anning, running a British record time, almost nipped in for fourth but Adeleke pipped her by 0.01 of a second to finish in that most frustrating of positions, just off the podium.
There was an air of acceptance among the Irish contingent in the stands and online as fourth sank in but also a burgeoning sense that that's one hell of a starting point with Los Angeles 2028 on the horizon when Adeleke will still only be 25.
More time to hone her craft at 400 which has already seen her make strides whilst working with 'Coach Flo', AKA Edrick Floreal.
As London 2012 Olympian Jessie Barr pointed out on the RTÉ Olympics Podcast, Adeleke , "is a '200' 400 runner and that's where a bit more time and a bit more experience" will come to the fore.
The next target is to dip under the 49-second mark, which all three Paris podium finishers managed - Paulino setting a new Olympic record of 48.17 - and what Kaczmarek also did in the European final when Adeleke posted her national record 49.07.
Go under that '49 mark consistently and the sky is the limit. But in actual fact the next target will be the women's 4x400 relay tonight.
In Friday's morning session, the quartet of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory and Sharlene Mawdsley surged into the final as automatic qualifers from their heat and their infectious positivity in the aftermath might just be the tonic for Adeleke, who confirmed after the 400m final that she will link up with the team, slotting in in place of McGrory and joining up with team-mates who she helped to silver at the recent Europeans.
Ireland were seventh fastest overall from the two heats but Adeleke gives them - that word again - the potential to push for a medal in a format that can throw up surprises. Look at how the men's 4x100 relay went for the USA as a baton change proved disastrous.
Even with Adeleke, it will be a tough task given the presence of powerhouse squads like the USA, Great Britain, France, Jamaica and the Netherlands but her presence and elite-level talent will help.
As Barr said on the podcast, iIf we have Rhasidat coming in, taking an extra two or three seconds off, Sharlene running what we know she is capable of and then Phil and Sophie who both performed out of their skins and probably ran faster splits than they did to win that European silver, why not dream?
"Why not because these are girls who are going in with nothing to lose. They're in an Olympic final - I've said it before and I've said it again - anything can happen."
The potential is there for a free hit to become something more. Let's see back at the Stade today.
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.
