For most of her life Australian swimming sensation Mollie O’Callaghan has dreamed of Olympic glory.

Of conquering the world’s best. To stand at the top of the Olympic dais, mouthing the words to Advance Australia Fair, gold medal draped around her neck.

She tasted that glory in relays in Tokyo. And she achieved it individually in the 200 metres freestyle in Paris a few days ago. But she wanted more. In her pet event, the 100 metres free. She was primed and ready.

But the race did not play out the way she envisaged. A miniscule error with her final stroke to the wall was ever-so-slightly mis-timed. Against the world’s best only a flawless swim secures gold.

The devastation on the face of the 20-year-old Queenslander was clear. Australian hearts sank for her. A handspan short of a remarkable double.

Post race she reflected on her preparation. She had struggled to sleep. Mollie didn’t bemoan the food in the Olympic Village, but others have. It seems the athletes are elite, the village housing them well short of it.

Victories do not come without meticulous planning, attention to detail with everything from their diets to training programs. For Olympic athletes it’s peaking at precisely the right moment.

Cate Campbell, a legend of the pool, is part of the Channel 9 commentary team and she offered wonderful insights into O’Callaghan’s swim. She had performed at 98.8% of her ability and finished fourth. The margins are that minute.

When these opportunities come around every four years you must seize the moment. Sure there are other big meets, world and Pan Pacific Championships, but the Olympic Games are the pinnacle.

Listening to Campbell so articulately dissect Mollie’s performance was captivating. As an armchair expert who tunes in every four years it was nothing short of enlightening. And immediately the fine line, even thinner than the one she followed on the bottom of the pool, was hammered home.

Zac Stubblety-Cook won the 200m breaststroke gold medal in Tokyo. After winning silver in the event on Wednesday he revealed he had contracted COVID five days earlier. Could the timing of his illness been worse?

As one does in rationalising these situations, my mind immediately related the torment of Olympians with the AFL. Specifically the Eagles.

The AFL bubble has been my life. Riding the highs and the lows.  Week to week, season to season.

The competitive cycle is far removed from that of swimmers, track and field athletes and cyclists.

The opportunity to erase an off-key performance usually comes within six or seven days, not 1300 of them. But so many other aspects of the respective elite environments are similar.

There are high performance staff plotting in finite detail every training and recovery session, dieticians on hand to ensure the appropriate foods are consumed to maximise output, weights programs are devised to suit specific individual requirements.

And some players establish their own standards, going to extraordinary lengths to maximise their chances of success, including additional ice bath or sauna sessions and weighing what they eat.

The results of that approach are not always immediate, generally its graduated but the majority of players are committed to getting the best out of themselves. And their teammates.

That’s why 2024 has, at times, been exciting. Results aside we have seen individuals grow, we have seen six young men debut this season, the most recent of them Clay Hall last night.

That is 10 debutants in two seasons. With more high calibre talent likely to be secured in this November’s draft, it’s an exciting time to be an Eagles fan.

We should be peaking for the LA Olympics – if not sooner.