The title of Australia's greatest Olympian has never sat right with Emma McKeon.
The understated, modest swimmer from Wollongong in New South Wales etched her name into Australian sporting folklore three years ago in Tokyo, matching Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya's long-standing women's record of seven medals at a single Olympic Games.
McKeon's 2021 medal haul -- which included four gold and three bronze -- took her career Olympic tally to 11, surpassing fellow Australian swimming icon Ian Thorpe as the nation's most decorated Olympian. Not bad for someone who had only twice competed on the world's biggest stage.
"It felt surreal three years ago and it still feels surreal now," McKeon tells ESPN. "From a young age, it was always my dream. I would watch Susie O'Neill, Libby Trickett, and Grant Hackett do all of these amazing things and I was like 'I want to do that one day'.
"But if you told me that it would actually be me one day, I honestly don't know what I would have thought. I still don't feel like I belong in that realm with them. I think that's just out of awe and respect for what they've done and what I grew up watching them do."
McKeon's final Olympic chapter will be written later this month in Paris. The 30-year-old made the decision public in April, saying "it felt like a good time" to begin planning her eventual retirement from the sport. And while McKeon narrowly missed out on qualification to defend her freestyle titles, she will swim the 100m butterfly and once again be a pivotal member of the 100m freestyle relay squad.
One more podium for McKeon would have her climb to tied 10th all time for most Olympic medals. Two more, and only American swimming superstar Michael Phelps and Soviet gymnasts Larisa Latynina and Nikolai Andrianov could boast a greater swag of medals won at the summer Olympics.
But McKeon isn't focused on any such legacy-shaping or enhancing hypotheticals. Instead, her focus remains firmly on meticulous preparation, the same as it was three years ago in the lead up to that highly successful Tokyo meet.
"I suppose, when it comes to the Olympics, you can never really be sure you're going to the next one, so you treat every Olympics like it's your last," says McKeon. "It's not really any different, this one compared to the last two. My goals are to stand behind the box and know I have prepared the best I can. Obviously, you've got those thoughts about medals, and you have an idea of what it might take to be on the podium, but for me, those things have always been put in the back of my mind."
The seismic "edge" McKeon will have over many of her rivals in Paris is that been-there, done-that Olympic experience. It's something you either have or you don't, something she herself could never have imagined would be so crucial to success.
McKeon's first Olympics, Rio in 2016, may have yielded four medals from five events -- including gold in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay -- but the overall experience, both from a mental and physical standpoint, was poles apart from what would play out five years later in Japan.
"The Olympics is not like anything else. It's not like the world championships, because that comes around often," says McKeon. "Going back to my first Olympics, I was extremely nervous. I wasn't prepared for how loud it was going to be inside the stadium. You definitely put the pressure on yourself, and you definitely realise the enormity of the moment.
"But in Tokyo, I just remember feeling very calm, which I actually wasn't expecting. I really did a lot of work on being able to be present in that moment. When I compare the two, it's definitely very different.
"I know what works for me now. Having that experience in those situations and high pressure environments, knowing what to expect, and all of those kind of things is definitely something I can remind myself [in Paris]. That's something I can use as my edge."
Regardless of what unfolds across her Paris programme, McKeon's legacy is cemented. But if you ask her, it's not solely the medals and Olympic successes she wants to be remembered for.
"I would love to be able to inspire or motivate young kids and people to go after their dreams. That would probably be the main thing I would want to leave behind," she says. "Whether it's in sport or not, help build that self-belief that they can do it.
"With the swim team, there's a lot of young ones coming through, and I think Paris there will be another big influx. That's exciting. I can remember my first time joining. I always hope I can be someone who makes them feel welcome and someone they can talk to about anything, because it is quite daunting. The older ones definitely have a big role and responsibility."