She may have spent last month out at a training camp in Brazil, but diver Sarah Barrow insists there is plenty to be taken care of first before excitement can truly build for Rio 2016.
Barrow is one of a host of top GB divers opening their season in Plymouth this weekend at the British Diving Championships.
The event also kickstarts what is sure to be a busy year for Barrow and co. with the 2015 World Series, World Championships as well as Olympic qualification competitions all taking place over the coming months.
Barrow finished fifth on her Games debut at London 2012 alongside 10m synchro partner Tonia Couch, with the pair adding European silver in 2013.
Last year the 26-year-old cemented her status as one of the country’s best divers when she won Britain’s first female individual European diving gold since 1927.
But she is refusing to let success go to head however, insisting hard work is the order of the day for the coming months.
“I really enjoyed going out to Brazil, it was nice to get a bit of sun,” she said. “The Olympic pool is a nice pool to dive into, it has a nice view and you can imagine it’s going to great when all the stands are full.
“But it’s still quite a way to go though and we have to get through qualification first this year and then things will start to ramp up.
“I remember when it was 18 months out from London and I was not even training at that point as I was out injured.
“Our first Olympic qualification competition is not until July so it’s a case of training hard over the coming months. It’s going to be tough to qualify, there are a lot of competitors at the moment.
“We have got six World Cup series to come before the Worlds, they are almost like practice competitions for the Worlds so it is important to do well at those first. But the Worlds is the big aim for this year and will be an important stepping stone for Rio.”
Barrow, like Couch, will go into this weekend’s national championships as one of the leading candidates in the women’s competition.
And while bigger international competitions lie in wait, she insists it is still a crucial event for measuring where she is at.
“Training has been going really well at the minute, we’re working on our dives and it’s going well,” she added.
“It will be strange going up against Tonia at the British Championships but there will be other girls performing well too.
“It’s definitely an important competition on the calendar. I’ve done a fair few now. I’m 11 times British champion and I’d love to make that 12 this year.
“Synchro is the most important one for me, in terms of fine tuning things with Tonia but I’d love to do well in the individual too.”
© Sportsbeat 2015