Katie-George Dunlevy revealed just how deep she had to dig to win her third Paralympic gold medal, after a nightmare year of injury and illness.
Dunlevy and her pilot Linda Kelly stormed home to win the women's B time trial at the Paris Paralympics, finishing almost a minute and a half clear of their nearest competitors.
It's was Dunlevy's seventh Paralympic medal of a glittering career, taking her overall tally to four golds along with three silver medals.
However, speaking on Morning Ireland, she revealed just how much she had to overcome just to be able to take to the saddle in Paris.
"It was a difficult year and I just actually, I don't know how I do it," she said. "It's maybe just the challenges and struggles I've had as a child, maybe. I'm just a very driven person.
"As my sister says, I'm a Dunlevy woman, we're stubborn women and we’re very strong as well.
"In the last year we’ve crashed and fallen off the bike five times and before that I hadn't fallen since 2016, so it was not a great year really.
"Linda's had Covid twice in that time, she had an infection in her leg. I had infection in my arm from crashing and road crashing.
"We had two World Cup events this year, and in the first one in the road race we crashed and Linda got really bad concussion. I hurt my hand. I couldn't use my arm for a week."
By far the most serious setback that Dunlevy suffered was a broken collarbone during a UCI Paracycling World Cup in Italy in May.
Riding with pilot Eve McCrystal, Dunlevy remarkably completed the race because Ireland needed the points to secure Paralympic qualification.
She explained. "Eve came on board with me on the bike and we raced and we then crashed and I broke my, collarbone in that race.
"So basically, yesterday, I only just really realised last night that yesterday was my first race since smashing my collarbone.
"I had to recover from that. I had to have a surgery and pins and plates recover from that, which took its toll. I was in agony for a long time. It was a very hard time for me physically and mentally as well because it was three months before the Paralympic Games and I wanted to be in the best shape of my life.
"I had to try and get through that and get back training. But I just took one day at a time and just thought, do you know, it could be worse."
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