As one of Team GB’s youngest squad members at Paris 2024, a wide-eyed Megan Havers spent much of her time in the French capital pinching herself.
In a matter of weeks, the teenage archery sensation went from sitting her GCSEs to strutting her stuff in front of thousands of fans at Les Invalides, with the Eiffel Tower just a misdirected arrow away.
It meant rubbing shoulders with the stars – with one particular meeting standing out.
“I watched lots of gymnastics growing up and I always watched the Olympics anyway,” she said.
“We were sat at breakfast and Simone Biles walked past me and smiled at me. I was just like ‘what is this, who would have thought this was going to happen in my life!’.
“It was a pinch me moment, for sure.”
Much of the intervening period has involved Havers adjusting to her status as an Olympian and plotting her path to ensuring her Paris appearance is not a one-off.
The 17-year-old is coming to the end of her first season in the LA 2028 cycle while juggling her archery commitments with a BTEC course in sports performance and development at Loughborough College.
“It can be quite hard, it took quite a lot of getting used to,” she said.
“They (Archery GB) are really flexible with what they allow me to do, which is quite good, but everyone else trains 9-5, five days a week, whereas I have to fit school in around training as well.
“I’ve been working with my performance team and the college to fit in what I can do, whether I need an afternoon off to do schoolwork, for example, but it’s an interesting course.”
Havers did not quite feel a target on her back in competition this season but admits she has not hit her 2024 form.
Working with a psychologist and leaning on the advice of teammate Penny Healey, who reached world number one as a teenager, have helped, with Havers shooting a season’s best at September’s World Championships and finishing second at the National Tour Finals.
“Last year still hasn’t really sunk in,” she said. “Everything was new to me, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
“That’s why it worked quite well as I didn’t have any expectations on myself and could just go out and have fun.
“Bringing it into this year, I had more expectations on myself, so it was harder to forget about what I did last year and start from scratch.
“It has taught me so much about myself and how I can manage mine and others’ expectations.
“Penny set the standard of what you are able to achieve and having her do it just shows what can be done.
“She is so helpful in training, she pushes you and she is always there to give advice. She is a great teammate to have around.”
Havers does not get much downtime but plans to spend any she gets this winter doing things more accustomed to people her age – ‘going for walks and hanging out with my friends at the cinema’ – before working towards ‘coming out fighting next year’.
“Being in Paris, I was thinking I want to do LA, Brisbane… I had the time of my life,” she said.
“It brought a fire out in me that I want to do this for quite a while. I still look back at all the photos with a big smile on my face and I am really proud of it.”