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"Tokyo Olympics - Today" the calendar entry read.
It was a moment thousands of athletes had spent four years building towards.
Except it wasn't.
A global pandemic put a stop to that. After weeks of deferring, the International Olympic Committee ultimately made the decision nobody wanted, but everybody knew was coming.
The Tokyo Olympic Games will be delayed by a year.
It's a decision that seemed inevitable at the time and with the benefit of hindsight, it seems crazy the IOC waited so long to make the move.
Given the state of the world right now, there is no way an Olympic Games, the biggest two-week sporting extravaganza on the planet, could have been held in their usual format.
But with the Games postponed, that leaves us sitting here today, torn.
Torn between celebrating Thursday's milestone of one year to go to an event that may not happen and commemorating the fact the Opening Ceremony to what had promised to be one of the best Games in recent memory was meant to be held on Friday night.
Is it even possible to do both?
For most sports fans it's an easy decision. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Lament the fact the Games are not proceeding as planned, take a quick check of the world and start preparing for these Olympics to not just be postponed, but cancelled completely.
If scientists are able to create a coronavirus vaccine and the world returns to normal, that's a bonus. We'll have a two-week feast of sport on our TV screens next July and August.
But the athletes, the centrepiece of that feast, don't have that choice.
They have to put themselves through the task of another year of training before they have the opportunity to achieve their Olympic dream.
They have to train in isolation, attempt to formulate a competition schedule and potentially put their health at risk by travelling to a coronavirus hotspot, just to prepare for Tokyo 2021.
All that while attempting to block out the negative thoughts. The doubts and fears that the hard work and training will all be for nought.
For Kookaburras star Blake Govers, those are exactly the thoughts that will ultimately bring athletes undone should they arrive in Tokyo next year.
"My mindset is I've got to prepare that it's happening," the Albion Park product said. "As a hockey player, I'm in my own world and training, I'm thinking 100% it's going ahead.
"You can't think otherwise. If you have any doubts, you're kidding yourself."
While Govers has his eyes firmly set on Tokyo in a year's time, with the Kookaburras scheduled to take on Japan in the competition opener on Saturday July 24, he concedes it hasn't been easy to hit reset after four years of building.
The goal-scoring threat was just 20 when he arrived in Rio in 2016 for what was ultimately a disastrous Australian campaign.
The time since has been spent growing as an individual to ensure he was peaking today. Re-calibrating that climb, he explains, is far easier said than done.
"The hardest thing is knowing you lost a year of good preparation. I rewind to this time last year and where we were at and what we were building to.
"We lost everything there.
"The hardest thing is not so much the unknown, but knowing we did a big preparation and now have to basically hit reset."
For fellow Albion Park product Jessica Hull, that climb will restart in Bankstown on Sunday night.
Racing in front of a handful of spectators in what will likely be wet and windy conditions, the middle-distance star will contest a virtual 3000 metre event.
It's a long way from Tokyo.
"It's definitely not what I was expecting," Hull said.
"I'll take a race at the Crest (Bankstown) any day, they do everything they can to make sure I have good opportunities, but it's definitely not the stadium I thought I'd be racing in this time in 2020. But we're adapting."
It may be a long way from Tokyo, but it's also what many Olympic athletes endure for four years as they train for their single moment in the spotlight.
This is no NRL, they don't have thousands of fans in the stands and millions watching on TV as they play on the big stage each week.
No, Olympic athletes spend so much of their time toiling in anonymity, many working on top of full-time training commitments just to fund their dream.
That is what made the delayed Olympics so tough to swallow for so many of them.
They've put their lives on hold to be in Tokyo right now. Instead, the Illawarra's finest are scattered across the country, some in Perth, others on the Gold Coast or Sydney, and others forced to spend this time at home waiting for state and national borders to reopen.
So now, it's another year. Twelve more months of slogging away in the gym, following a black line up and down the swimming pool, practicing the drag flick, solo runs in the cold.
And at the end of it, there may be no pot of gold. This might not be an attainable dream but a mirage.
Hull, like Govers, knows that's a possibility. But right now, the new dates have been set and the Games will be held next year. For her, that's the only thing that matters.
"We're always working towards the big, shiny end goal. Whilst it's there, I'm going to keep showing up every day.
"If it doesn't go ahead next year, it would definitely be devastating. But right now, I'm trying not to think of that, I'm trying to work hard to make sure I'm going to get that opportunity next year."
Amid all the doom and gloom, Australia's Olympic hopefuls have managed to find the silver lining in the current situation.
The past few months have been an opportunity for growth and development. Athletes have learnt to adapt to an unpredictable and changing world. The phrase control the controllables has never been more real.
And they have acquired vital mental skills that will serve them well should the Games go ahead next year.
The Olympics is a mental game. It always has been and always will be.
Govers, a member of perhaps Australia's most mentally tormented Olympic team, knows this fact too well.
"Mentally, the Olympics are always the toughest event," Govers said.
"It's amped up like no tomorrow, it's the biggest event on the calendar."
Tokyo will be no different. In fact, it will be an even bigger mental challenge.
With an extra year for the hype and expectations to grow and everything that has transpired since the global pandemic struck, the Kookaburras star knows the Games will be like no other.
But he's confident that when he and his teammates arrive in Japan, they will have the mental toughness to win the side's first Olympic gold since 2004.
"If it does go ahead next year, you can imagine it being a very emotional Olympics for a lot of people. With everything that's gone on with COVID, I definitely expect that.
"One real positive is the Kookaburras as a whole are in a better place now and will be next year as opposed to Rio. Hopefully in that respect, we'll control the controllables as a group and whatever happens, we'll embrace it."
After waiting an extra 12 months to do so, it will taste all the sweeter if Govers and his teammates can depart Tokyo with a gold medal hanging around their necks.