PARALYMPICS: Moments like these ease the training; soften the sore mornings of getting out of bed. The grinding down. The head colds. The smell of chlorine.
David Malone knows more about twilight, winter starts in the swimming pool than free-spirited swims at Paralympic venues. The impact of it all turned him away from the sport for more than six months as his appetite waned. Only with the urging of those who knew what makes him tick did he finally get back into competitive waters.
How the Irish Paralympic team are relieved. After stepping out of the pool with a silver medal yesterday, he said: "That was the hardest swim of my life. Ever."
A Sydney champion in 2000 and the current world record-holder in his S8 100 metres backstroke event, the Terenure swimmer can now add to his haul. He's once again alive to the game and a proven world leader. Once again on the podium he's looking at the possibilities ahead rather than what occasional misery it will take to realistically live them.
The world championships and even Beijing have become carrots not demons.
Malone is one of the predators in this event, the one whose times are monitored by the other competitors. Coming into the final last night with the third fastest time of the morning heats, but always, always with the world record in his back pocket, the expectations were he would again deliver Ireland with a medal. Probably bronze.
In fact it never looked like anything but gold or silver as he led the group out and turned for home first of the eight swimmers in 30.05 seconds, American Travis Mohr just fractions off at 34.08 seconds. It was Mohr who produced the strongest second leg, touching the plate more than two seconds faster than Malone's 1:12.55 seconds, the final 15 metres of the Irishman's swim governed by no more than bloody minded determination.
"I don't know why but that swim, it just hurt the most," he said. "That last 15 metres was just the hardest thing I've ever done. I was just really sore. Hurting like a demon.
"I didn't think I'd get silver. I thought I was in the hunt for bronze today because of my morning swim and just thought bronze was my realistic target. My friends and family were probably expecting a medal but I went up to them today and said 'don't be expecting too much'.
"I'm not in the same shape I was for Sydney because I took maybe half a year or a year out of competitive training to try and refocus and set my mind on deciding whether I wanted to come back here and defend my title. So I'm probably lacking a little bit of sharpness now although I've done absolutely everything I could do to come back here. Now my efforts have been rewarded."
For the Irish team the silver medal has come at a useful time as fears multiplied that Athens would be vastly over-shadowed by the medal haul of Sydney, where the Irish team brought back gold in five events. As ever, any colour of medal is becoming increasingly more difficult to get. Before yesterday's heats began, swimming alone had produced an almost unbelievable 74 Paralympic records and 39 world records over four days.
Malone can rest easy for now - his world mark of 1:09.28 seconds, set in Christchurch in October, 1998, is still standing.
Mohr was almost a second out but given the increasingly professional attitude by Paralympic athletes, the record will surely fall over the next few years. China are making an enormous push here and have already almost double the medal haul of any other nation.
"It took me years to achieve that world record. To be honest I think I've got my sights back on it again. I don't really want to retire until I have another stab at it. I think in the next year or two I'll get myself after that record again.
"I was thinking of retiring. Now I'm thinking of going on. I want to look at the world championships and see what sort of shape I'm in. To be honest, I don't want to go to Beijing and be a spectator in terms of making up the numbers. I want to go there and swim well."
Watching Malone achieve Ireland's second medal of the Games, after his namesake Derek's bronze in the T38 800 metres, was sports council chief executive John Treacy.
"Fantastic performance," said former world cross-country champion and Olympic silver medallist Treacy. "David is a genuine world-class athlete and I'm delighted that all of the hard work has paid off."
IRISH RESULTS - Athletics: G Culliton F52 shot put final, 10th, 6.81m Irish record; J Fulham T53 400m Heat 3, 8th, 55.12 seconds DNQ. Cycling: M Kehoe B1, 3 1km Time Trial (track)- 18th, PB; Equestrian: Grade 2 Individual Dressage, 17th; Sailing: F Kinsella 2.4mR: Race; 7, 13th, Race 8, 15th. Final race and classification today; Sonar Class: Race 7, 6th, Race 8, 11th. Final race and classification today. Swimming: D Malone S8 100m Backstroke, silver Medal.
