Having once dreamt of competing in the winter Olympics in figure skating, Thrasher switched focus to shooting at the age of 15. It’s a switch that proved profitable to kick-start what is likely to be a medal table-topping performance from the US team at these Games, with gold in the 10m air rifle.

Meanwhile, absent from the 10m air rifle competition was Mongolian Yanjinlkham Olzvoibaatar. She and husband Dulguun Batshaikhan had their sights set on competing together in Rio. While Olzvoibaatar didn’t manage to qualify, her husband will be representing Mongolia in the 50m freestyle in the pool.

It hasn’t been an easy build-up for the part-time swimmer and coach though. With renovations being done to the pool he usually trained in, Olzvoibaatar had to travel 450km to train in a river. That’s where, he said, he only had “big fish” as training partners.

“Well, it was a bit cold,” said Batshaikhan, whose sister and cousin also represented the country at swimming in previous Games.

“But it’s OK. My philosophy has always been ‘water is water’.”