Not too long ago, Aidan Walsh wouldn't have anticipated getting a second shot at an Olympic Games.
The first time round had certainly been memorable and worthwhile, coming home from the delayed Tokyo Games with a bronze medal in the welterweight class and etching his own name in the garlanded ranks of Irish amateur boxing history.
But since then, the 27-year-old has had his fair share of challenges to overcome and, for the guts of a year and a half, Paris 2024 was not on the agenda.
However, in three weeks' time, the Belfast native will have 'IRL' on the back of his singlet again and will put himself to the test at his second Olympics where he will be part of a ten-strong Irish contingent alongside sister Michaela once again.
"I'd walked away completely from boxing," Walsh tells RTÉ Sport as he reflects on the journey back from the brink of waving his sporting career goodbye.
"I was out of the ring for 14 months and decided to come back and just give it a go.
"There was a lot to weigh up. Would I come back? Would it be worth it? What would happen?
"It was due to mental health and I'm quite open about that. But I just said I'd come back and give it a go, and I've a good support network around me, I've good people around me and I've good backing.
"So a lot of factors came into play to make the decision to come back. But I've done it and it's paid off."
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Aidan Walsh was among six of the Team Ireland boxers to chat in-depth to RTÉ Sport as they convened at the Sport Ireland Campus
Walsh credits the support services and sports psychologists at Sport Ireland and Sport NI for helping him through the difficult period.
"Paul Gaffney has helped me a lot and Gary Longwell at Sport NI who has helped me a lot as well," he says.
"I think that was a very important key. To be able to have that support is crucial and for me it was something that helped me a lot, not only in sport but in life.
"I think it's very important to have good people around you and good people that you trust and care about and people that you work with.
"I've been very fortunate and I still work with them to this day and it's something that I very heavily lean on because especially in sport there's a lot of pressure and anxiety, and a lot of uncertainty.
"To have the skills to deal with that is very important."
Injuries had also taken a toll on Walsh, even before his memorable Tokyo medal run.
"Before Tokyo, I actually tore a muscle in my hand that I actually competed in Tokyo with," he recalls.
"Then I had my ankle injuries and then I came back and I had to get surgery on the hand again.
"I came back again and then damaged my hand again and had to get another surgery, so two surgeries on the one hand, alongside the mental health issues it was just an extremely difficult time.
"But at the time I was actually enjoying the surgeries because it was taking me out of sport for a number of months which was a good thing.
"It was giving me time to sit back and relax. But yeah, a numerous amount of injuries back to back. I think that was my body telling me that I needed to step away and get a bit of a break."
Having decided to return to boxing and target a place in Paris, the challenge would be to work his way through the qualification tournaments.
The IABA, which governs Irish amateur boxing, selected Walsh to fight at March's World Qualification Tournament 1 in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
That proved controversial because Dean Walsh, the National Elite champion at that weight class - a fighter who had dealt Aidan Walsh a shock semi-final defeat a year earlier - was overlooked.
The decision was made following a "behind closed doors assessment", the result of which caused consternation with the Wexford County Board of the IABA.
They penned a furious open letter criticising the decision, albeit making sure to recognise that Aidan Walsh was "a very good boxer and a person of fine character".
While that storm was raging, Aidan Walsh says he kept the head down to avoid focusing on something that was out of his control.
The controllable would be shedding the ring rust from 14 months out of the ring and in Italy, his journey was brought to an end after a round two defeat to Brazil's Wanderson de Oliveira, meaning Olympic qualification was still out of his hands.
However, he took encouragement from the previous round when his return to action saw him beat UAE's Husain Alkandari.
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"I stopped my opponent which I wasn't expecting to be honest because I'd been out a long time," Walsh admits.
"People get rusty, you're only human and you're not a super hero, you're a human like everybody else.
"But I came back and I felt good and I felt fresh. My body was fresh and then I obviously got into the next round and lost. But I performed well and that gave me a bit of confidence."
There would be one last chance saloon at qualifying which would come at World Qualification Tournament 1 in Bangkok, Thailand during the early summer.
Walsh would fight his way through three rounds before losing the quota bout to Jordan's Zeyad Ishaish.
That plunged him into a four-man box-off for the final qualification spot in the 71kg light middleweight ranks.
'I had been around a lot of people who had achieved that success at the Olympics and I always wanted to be a part of it and be in that club'
But he held his nerve against Cuban and Puerto Rican opponents to seal qualification and join his sister on the plane to Paris.
Now, as the Games loom, it's all about "controlling the controllables" and getting his preparation right, starting with the Irish boxing team's training camp in Saarbrucken, Germany.
And along with Kellie Harrington, he is in the unique position to bottle the Olympic medal-winning experience of three years ago and be ready to pop the cork when needed in the white heat of battle when the initial phase of the boxing competitions get underway at the Arena Paris Nord.
"It was something that I had always wanted to achieve since a very early age," Walsh says.
"I think I had been around a lot of people who had achieved that success at the Olympics and I always wanted to be a part of it and be in that club.
"So that was always the key factor in my career to do it. It didn't feel real. To be honest, it still doesn't feel real because you're always looking outside yourself and alwats looking at other people and their achievements and it's hard to take in.
"But when I did it, it was incredible. It's a moment I'll never forget and something I will cherish for a really long time."
