For discus thrower Mélina Robert-Michon, everything in her long career came together at the right time as she earned Rio 2016 Olympic silver with a fifth-round throw of 66.73 metres, bettering her own French record. She was 37-years-old.

In December 2016, Robert-Michon was chosen for the second time in her career as the French female athlete of the year.

At the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the then 42-year-old mother-of-two missed making the final by three places with a best of 60.88m.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, she said: "I wish to be better than I was in Tokyo, and 62 or 63 metres may be possible tomorrow." She added that a lack of training opportunities before the Olympics meant "something important was missing" when it came to the Games.

But if anyone has the experience to re-set their career, it is Robert-Michon.

She came to wider notice in 1998 when she won silver at the World Junior Championships in Annecy, and a year later took part in the Summer Universiade in Palma de Mallorca.

Two years later she took part in the next Summer Universiade in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal with a best of 58.04m. This was behind two Chinese athletes, winner Li Quimei, who threw 61.66m, and Li Yanfeng, who took silver with 60.50m. Yanfeng went on to win China’s first world discus title at the 2011 Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Speaking to insidethegames in Paris about her memories of the university competitions, Robert-Michon described winning her medal at Beijing in 2001 as "a big motivation" for her career.

But she gave her first Universiade the greatest credit for her development.

"I first competed two years before, in 1999, at Palma de Mallorca," she said.

"That was a very important competition for me as it was the first at world level and was like a bridge between youth and senior events.

"It was like a mini-Olympics. It was a good motivation and a good step forward to the next level."

Tokyo was Robert-Michon's sixth Olympics - and she is looking forward to a seventh - the Paris 2024 Games on home soil.

"A home Olympics will be an unparalleled occasion, and it is really a motivation for me," she said.

"I want to be there, to be a part of a home Olympics. 

"To be able to compete in front of family and friends. It was something missing in Tokyo. I want to show that age is just a number and if you work hard enough you can do it."