That Olympic gold medal, as a part of the 4x100m combined relay group, was the fruits of actually years of blood, sweat and tears and represented the achievement of a lifelong dream.
And when you think about the truth that she had achieved all she’d ever strived for regardless of her harm points, it’s hardly stunning that retirement significantly crossed her thoughts.
However strolling away from the game she’d devoted her life to was little greater than a fleeting thought for Dawson and regardless of the obstacles she knew lay forward of her by way of regaining health, she rapidly determined she wasn’t prepared to show her again on swimming simply but.
“After the Tokyo Olympics, with how I used to be feeling and realizing I had a gold medal and a world file, the considered calling it a day was undoubtedly there,” the 26-year-old from Kirkcaldy says.
“However being the aggressive athlete that I’m, I knew that wasn’t what I wished to do – I knew that I wasn’t completed within the sport.
So there was at all times motivation after Tokyo as a result of Paris was solely three years away, and I feel the actual fact it was three years quite than 4 helped lots.”
For fairly a while within the aftermath of Tokyo 2020, it seemed, to outsiders anyway, considerably unlikely that Dawson would ever regain her standing as one of many perfect backstrokers on this planet.
She was out of the water for months and on returning in 2022, was effectively in need of the requirements she’d set herself the earlier yr.
Slowly however certainly, nonetheless, Dawson started to really feel her kind creep again and with it, her instances started to get sooner and sooner.
It was, she says, virtually precisely a yr in the past that an actual perception that she might return to the British group started engulfing her and the Scot’s self-confidence has been fully vindicated this week together with her inclusion within the 33-strong GB swimming group that can head to the Paris Olympics this summer time and which additionally consists of her fellow Scots, Duncan Scott, Katie Shanahan, Keanna MacInnes and Lucy Hope.
And regardless of her profession having been so considerably disrupted by this again harm, which was a bulging disk which triggered sciatica in each her legs, Dawson has a surprisingly constructive perspective about every part she’s endured and believes that, having come out the opposite facet, she’s really all the higher for having overcome her struggles.
“I’m unbelievably pleased with myself to be again at this level. It’s been an emotional, turbulent journey over the previous few years,” she says.
“Bodily, I really feel effective now – one hundred pc. I didn’t count on to ever be pain-free so it’s such a bonus.
“I can’t say that, total, it’s been a nasty expertise for me. It’s generally good to have sabbaticals in your profession and I undoubtedly am higher off for what’s occurred.”
Dawson admits that she doesn’t reminisce on her success in Tokyo as a lot as she maybe ought to. It’s a typical trait inside athletes to relentlessly look ahead quite than replicate on what’s already taken place though she does acknowledge that, sometimes, she permits herself to look again with a view to remind herself of simply how a lot she needs to return to the Olympic podium.
What’s notably difficult for Dawson to return to phrases with, nonetheless, is that regardless of being pain-free now, she stays a way off the instances she was swimming in Tokyo three years in the past.
However with three months remaining till the Opening Ceremony of Paris 2024, there stays sufficient time for Dawson to step up yet one more stage from that which she displayed on the British Championships earlier this month.
It could be straightforward to imagine that having already fulfilled her lifelong dream of turning into Olympic champion, Dawson heads to Paris devoid of non-public targets however in reality, this couldn’t be farther from the reality.
“I don’t take into consideration Tokyo as a lot as I ought to however I undoubtedly need to be in that place, on the rostrum, once more,” she says.
“It’s an odd one as a result of regardless that I had bodily points forward of Tokyo, I used to be swimming extremely effectively whereas now, I’m not in ache however by way of the world stage, I’m swimming fairly averagely. I do really feel like I’m on that ladder again up, although, and so in Paris, I simply have to handle my expectations.
“I do really feel that, with the potential I’ve, I can return to that stage so it’s about the place I can get again to within the subsequent three months.
“When it comes to private targets, I need to swim 57 seconds within the 100m backstroke though I don’t know if that’s a risk for the Video games this summer time as a result of I clearly have to have a look at the place I’ve come from. And I’d like to be part of the medley relay once more in Paris.”