Six years after winning silver in Rio, Annalise Murphy found herself in a Team Ireland colleague's garage taking a hacksaw to her bike.
Murphy's successful Olympic sailing career ended in Tokyo last year. She never officially retired at that level, but she knew before the racing started that part of her life was done.
"I just stopped turning up to competitions," Murphy laughed, explaining her almost Stephen Cluxton-like move. "But sailing is part of my life."
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She will explore professional opportunities in the sport and love to go out on the water with friends and family.
"I have a huge amount of happiness that I got to do what I loved every day," she reflected.
"It's only when you look back on it that I see I got to live the dream. It was hard but I was passionate about it.
"You always remember the ones that you miss out on rather than the ones you did well in, but I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to be a sports person because it was the most fantastic career.
"I had the best time in my 20s in terms of pushing myself and seeing what was possible and I will never regret that.
"Unfortunately, you can’t be an athlete for your entire life and I wanted to figure out something else that gives me satisfaction.
"There's probably nothing that will give the same satisfaction and enjoyment as Olympic sailing, because the thrill is like nothing else."
Some athletes struggle to fill the void afterwards. Murphy, however, has identified a platform for her talents and will drive a new OFI mentoring programme along with other former Olympic stars in the new year.
And, at 32, her competitive spirit lives on through cycling.
The Dubliner was always on her bike for training reasons anyway, but her desire to try her hand at racing had to be suppressed until now.
"I'd look like a bit of an eejit if I fell off my bike in a bike race and then it would be, 'You're meant to be sailing, Annalise'," she smiled.
"So this year I got to get out and race a little bit nationally."
Murphy entered a number of competitive races, including the Road National Series and the National time trial championships. She finished fourth in the time trial.
"It was my third time on the time trial bike so I had no real idea what I was doing," she laughed.
Murphy found herself in Bryan Keane's garage on the eve of the race. Keane, who represented Ireland in the triathlon in Rio, was helping his former Team Ireland colleague get the bike ready.
"I was actually in the garage with the hacksaw hacking bits of the bike off because it wasn't UCI legal," she beamed. "I was there looking at the rulebook and had the tape measures out but I had no idea what I was doing!
"We were sawing away, going, 'We need to saw more!' and eventually got it to the right size.
"It's so much fun, you get such a buzz from a different sport - and then you realise that no matter what sport you're doing you get the same sort of buzz from racing.
"I'm not that good at cycling but I get more of a buzz from challenging myself to see how well I can do at it in Ireland.
"My only tactic is to go as hard as I possibly can and hope that no-one else can go that hard, which hasn't really worked out that well for me!".
Training on the bike allowed her to link back in with the Irish sailors she once trained and travelled alongside, and has given her the opportunity to find out how they're getting on and if she can help them in any way.
It is a big motivation for Murphy, who thinks back on how fortunate she was to have the guidance of her mother Cathy, a former Olympian, and her father Con, who coached her. Rory Fitzpatrick, her coach, sailed at the Athens Olympics too.
Other sailors helped her along the way and even Gary Keegan, the former Irish boxing high performance director who now works with Ireland's rugby squad, was a massive help between the London and Rio Games.
Now as a member of the Athletes' Commission, she wants to play her part with the mentor programme that will go live early in 2023.
"My idea is so that we can give back because I just think that one conversation with someone can make a huge difference," Murphy remarked.
"When I was a teenager, one of the most well respected Irish sailors, Maurice O'Connell, said 'you're going to be in London 2012'.
"It hadn't even occurred to me at that point that I could be, that seemed so far away from me, but it put that little seed in my head.
"The importance of someone saying, 'You can do it, this is possible' can make a huge difference, particularly in young athletes in the pathway they're moving through."
She stresses that sport has a big problem with the loss of knowledge that occurs when people retire.
"It's trying to keep some of that knowledge that can be passed down to the next generation," said Murphy. "It's like trying to download everyone's brains to help them.
"When you're talking to an athlete you can be really honest. You can talk about your mistakes and what you would have done differently.
"Like, I wish I could have been better at treating the Olympics as just another event.
"Even though it isn't like any other event, if you can go there and try to treat it the same, you're going to do so much better. It's not something you're going to know until you've actually been there."
Initially it is hoped the programme will cater for eight or more athletes, with training provided beforehand for both the mentors and mentees about how it will work.
"People do really want to give back, and particularly when you're retired and figuring out those next steps in life," Murphy added.
"People have so much to give, and for young athletes I'd go back to my own experience and the amount I got from my mentors throughout my career makes a huge, huge difference, just for your own self belief."
Green shoots in women's sport
Women's sport in Ireland and worldwide reached new heights in 2022 and, Murphy argues, with that has come a realisation that the product is just as exciting as that produced by men.
The list of Irish sportswomen who have excelled this year is a very lengthy one and includes the exploits of boxers Katie Taylor, Amy Broadhurst, Lisa O'Rourke and Kellie Harrington, Rachael Blackmore in horse racing, the Ireland soccer team, golfer Leona Maguire and the World Cup qualified Ireland soccer team.
In Murphy''s own sport, Eve McMahon posted notice of her exceptional talent by winning double gold at the Youth Sailing World Championships.
"It's going to take a long time for it to catch up with men’s sport because women were held back," Murphy said.
"It was only 50 years ago when women were told they can’t do this or do that. It is changing and changing.
"In sailing, the first time that women had their own competition at the Olympics was 1988, when my mum went.
"It's really not that long ago - only 34 years ago - that women had their first competition.
"It's mad when you think about it now that one of the amazing things about the Olympics is that it is pretty much 50-50 men and women across all sports.
"And in Irish sport, the success that Irish sports women are having is only going to give belief to younger generations that I can do that, that could be me.
"And it is a huge thing."
Murphy points to the growing number of authentic role models for Irish girls as a result of the success that is now coming.
"When I was growing up, the big female sport star was Sonia O’Sullivan but there weren’t that many female sport stars in Ireland," she reflected.
"Now Sonia was above every male sport star as well, she was a phenomenon. It is finding those other role models, I guess.
"Leona Maguire is an amazing example of someone who can make it professionally in sport, it is so great to see that women’s golf is pushing the boat out and trying to get up to the level of the men’s game.
"A woman can make an incredible career from sport.
"And I think people are starting to realise that it is watching sport which is exciting, it doesn’t matter if it is men or women.
"It is the excitement, the emotion, the uncertainty of it, not knowing who will win on the day.
"Something I am loving watching is women’s cycling at the moment. The same excitement, the same crashes, maybe even more crashes, so many things going on."
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