Recovering from gallstone surgery just over two months ago, Australian women's sevens stalwart Sharni Smale (nee Williams) has been named in her third Olympics team in what will be her farewell to the sevens format in Paris after 12 years in the game.
Preparing to say goodbye to the brutally fast-paced, short format of the game, Smale will not be hanging up her boots for good, with her eyes set on yet another Rugby World Cup with the Wallaroos next year.
"This is it. I'm done," Smale told ESPN at the team naming in Sydney on Wednesday. "It was quite emotional this time around, but I'm 36 now, you don't get to play forever, as much as I've dragged it out and it's almost been forever for me. But it's not over, I'll be pressing for the Wallaroos."
At 36-years-old Smale is the oldest player in the Australian sevens squad, both men's and women's, and will be one of the oldest participants in the Australian Olympic team. But surrounded by teammates as much as 16-years her junior, it's kept the fire burning to continue growing and pursuing her Olympic dream.
"There's a lot of lingo that I definitely don't pick up on, all the different Tiktoks going out there, and some of them are not great at the moment," Smale said with a laugh.
"I guess they keep you young, right? [But] it's unbelievable, like I pinch myself every day that I'm still hanging around. These girls are so athletic, and they just keep pushing you every day as well. For example Faith Nathan will jump a PB and she'll jump like 60 centimetres, and you'll be so far away from that, but it just motivates you and drives you to definitely be better."
Making her sevens debut for Australia during the inaugural World Series Sevens tournament in 2012, Smale has seen the growth of the women's game firsthand, from the Pathway to Gold program that launched ahead of the Rio Olympics that saw the likes of Ellia Green unearthed and the side's journey to Rio gold in 2016 to now with the most talented women's side Australia has produced.
"This bunch of girls are so much more talented than the Rio girls," the dual-Olympian told ESPN. "They're so much more stronger[sic] as well as and we're a united front, so all they've got to do is go out there and just do their role.
"These young kids are coming through, and they've got skill level from grassroots, they've learned how to tackle [from a young age]. I was teaching Alicia Quirk and Emily Cherry how to tackle before Rio. I would just run and run and run at them to try and get them to have that confidence. This time around, I can just really focus on me because the girls have their skill levels already set.
"We talk about our roles so often and not to overplay your hand and just support each other, and that sisterhood and you know the goods are there."
Looking back on her time in the Australian sevens program and when she first picked up the rugby ball she could only dream the women's program would be so well funded with players on full time contracts and developing a skill-level never seen before.
"I'd hoped it would be [this good]. And I still hope for so much more for the program as well, those little one percenters for women's equality. But you know, life is slow. It's a slow process.
"Women have been playing rugby for a long period of time, women have been working in the work force for a long period of time, but we still don't get equal pay there. So it's about keeping on showing up and keeping on being a role model and showing the next generation that women are supposed to be here. They're supposed to play rugby. They are just like men as well. They deserve everything."
With a 2016 Olympic gold medal, Commonwealth Games gold medal, Rugby Sevens World Cup title and several World Series titles to her name, Smale has already won it all in the sevens game and she's preparing to bow out as a gold medalist once again with her eyes set on a podium finish at Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday July 31.
"Hope [to finish]? I know we're bowing out as gold medalists. We're going to be standing up on that podium with gold around our necks. I had that same, strong feeling in Rio."