When she set off for the belated Tokyo 2020 Olympics, however, it was a third senior title that was on the mind of this exuberant talent from Flint.

"The goal is to get three Olympic golds," she said. "The biggest legends - Team China's Jingyu Wu and Team USA's Steve Lopez - have not been able to do it, so that shows how much of an ask it is…I believe I could do it."

It was not to be. In her first contest the defending champion was defeated by Kimia Alizadeh, who would go on to narrowly miss becoming the first Refugee Olympic Team athlete to win a medal as she lost her bronze medal match.

Alizadeh, who had International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in attendance in the expectation of her success, had won bronze for Iran at Rio 2016 before fleeing the country.

For Jones it was a shattering anti-climax to what she had hoped would be a historic tournament.

She thus stands with Wu and Lopez on the two-gold podium, where she was joined a couple of days later by Serbia's Milica Mandić, who won a second women's over-67kg title after her earlier success at London 2012.

But nobody would be foolish enough to rule out the possibility of Jones, who is still only 28, returning to the top of the Olympic podium before she retires.

Her experience in Tokyo served to underline the wisdom of her words in the aftermath of her exhilarating 16-7 win over Eva Calvo Gomez of Spain in the Rio 2016 final.

"I know I am the best, but in taekwondo, anything can happen," Jones, who won in 2012 aged just 19, said.

"After London, I did not want to be a one-hit wonder.

"The run up to Rio was a different ball game, I had been undefeated all year, so there was so much pressure, so much expectation."

She added that victory had almost been a relief. "It was still joy," she said. "But more like, 'thank God'. Anything else would have been a fail."

At that time she was also looking forward to the 2019 World Championships, which were due to be held in Manchester.

"I will try to be an ambassador and for me it is an amazing opportunity for friends and family to come and watch as, usually, taekwondo is in faraway countries, so my family does not have the chance to come," she said. "Also, when it is in the UK, people say it is the best atmosphere."

She arrived at the Manchester Arena and fully lived up to her own expectations, and those of her family and friends in the stands, as she beat Lee Ah-reum of South Korea 14-7 to earn her first world title.

In terms of her inspiration, Jones has cited her former coach, Paul Green, and her grandfather. "My grandad took me to taekwondo at age eight, and he literally travelled the world and used his savings to get to the competitions," she said. "I still ask his advice."

She described herself as "family oriented" and says she likes to "laugh, joke and be a bit silly".

But that is not her taekwondo personality. On the field of play, Jones is aggressive, dangerous and venomous. 

"I am a bit rough-and-tumble the way I have been brought up, I am not scared to go toe-to-toe," she said. "A lot of girls shy away from that, it is not natural to fight."

And she is a hard-core trainer. An acquaintance noted - with awe - that Jones and Green sometimes finished gruelling all-day national team training sessions, before heading out to private dojangs in Manchester for extra evening training.

"I have quite an obsessive personality," Jones confessed, admitting to being "a bit bonkers". "Anything I do, I don't do half-heartedly."

At the 2017 World Championships in Muju, South Korea Jones took bronze.