Yelena Isinbayeva, who missed this year as she became a mother, is set to return to training next month in her first step towards chasing a third Olympic gold medal in Rio in 2016.
The Russian pole vaulter celebrated the birth of her daughter at the end of June and she could even be back in competition for the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague in March.
There have been no plans announced by her team except for the long-term challenge of being in Brazil in less than two years.
She has been based in Monaco but is going back to her home city of Volgograd at the end of this month when the preparation will begin for winter training.
Her coach Yevgeny Trofimov, speaking to en.itar-tass.com, said: 'We have very serious intentions to compete in the Games in Rio de Janeiro. She has not lost motivation to continue her sports career after her daughter’s birth.'
As the Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova proved this summer at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, being a mum can still mean winning gold as she did with her brilliant javelin performance.
Isinbayeva, 32, has had an incredible run in the pole vault, with her outdoor world record of 5.06m now lasting more than five years in an event where she has the top 11 best clearances in history.
Her championship medal success is second to none - with 15 golds led by her Olympic glory in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, followed by bronze in London 2012.
She was the European Athletics Indoor champion in 2005 in Madrid and she would be one of the stars of the competition if she returned in Prague.
Even after not winning at the last Olympics, Isinbayeva came back in style to celebrate her greatest moment when she won her third world title in front of her home crowd in Moscow in 2013 with 4.89m in an event where this summer’s leading mark was 4.80m from Brazil’s Fabiana Murer.
Ironically, the support that Isinbayeva received in Russia would then be replicated for Murer in Rio where there is the potential of a thrilling duel between these two stars.
But for now, for Isinbayeva, it is about making her way back in an event that she has made her own and, it seems, where she has the determination to reach the top again.