Not content with unlocking the secret of being a serial athletics winner, Nicola Olyslagers reckons she's also mastering the art of global travel to help her quest for yet another major gold.
The high jump maestro will seek to defend her world indoor crown in Torun, Poland on Friday at the start of the three-day championship following another long-haul excursion to Europe that's the burden of all Australian athletes.
But despite jetting between her Central Coast base and big events around the world more regularly than ever before, the 29-year-old Olyslagers is convinced her more relaxed spells back home are making her a better athlete.
"The more I get older, the more I'm learning how to win the travel game," explained Olyslagers.
"Usually, I would spend three to four months at a time in Europe, all throughout summer, so I wouldn't have to deal with jet lag and and readjust to different time zones and climates.
"But I've found I get a lot of extra strength now when I do visit home, so I tend to fly a lot more now.
"When I can train at home in Australia, even though the travel is so long, it allows me to think about when I'm going over to Europe, so the sharpness of anticipating competing there really gets heightened."
And the next mission is to become the first Australian athlete to win three-straight world indoor titles as well as being the first to annex four golds in senior world championships, indoors and out.
She'll jump in a hugely competitive final on the championships' first morning session, up against seven other two-metre jumpers, including perennial Aussie rival Eleanor Patterson and Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who's determined to reassert dominance after Olyslagers got her measure in 2025.
Mahuchikh, who holds the world record of 2.10m, has already cleared 2.03m this season, just one centimetre less than Olyslagers' all-time best.
"I love competing at the end of a program," Olyslagers admitted. "So to be in action in the first event, I have to treat it almost like a one-day Diamond League meeting.
"I'd prefer being on at the end, but every timetable change prepares you one way or another, so I'll take it."
Olyslagers says she feels good after winning her only competition this year with a 1.96m leap in Canberra just over a fortnight ago and then enjoying a brief training spell in Italy.
She wants Torun to be the springboard for another soaring season, which she hopes will be climaxed with victory in World Athletics' much-vaunted, season-ending $US10million ($A14 million) 'Ultimate Championships' in Budapest in September.
"That's almost like the highlight of the year for me," she says.
