Rob Heffernan is already a record holder.
Rio will be an unprecedented fifth Olympics for the Cork race walker and he may be awarded a first Olympic medal before he even touches down in Brazil.
The 2013 50-kilometre world champion finished fourth in the same event at London 2012 but may see himself upgraded to bronze as race winner, Sergiy Kirdyapkin of Russia, was last month hit with a doping ban.
Heffernan has not ruled out carrying on after Rio – which will be his fifth Olympic having debuted in Sydney and competed at Athens, Beijing and London – but in the first episode of a new Road to Rio documentary, the 37 year old hints at this being his big finale.
“There is so much sad stories and heartache in sport, but if you stick at it, the glory days, they’re the only ones that stick out in your mind,” says Heffernan
“For me if you can be all that you can be, whether I win the Olympics or finish fifth or sixth I can walk away with my head held high and say I did everything I could – I finished sixth, I finished eighth, I can say, ‘That’s okay, I’ve had a good career. I’ve done myself justice.’ I definitely want to go out on a high.”
