Collier, from the Central Otago Whitewater nursery, has become the first New Zealander to win a medal at the world under-23 canoe slalom and kayak cross championships in Krakow.
He claimed silver in the kayak cross, the event formerly known as extreme slalom that will debut at the Olympics next year.
"It felt incredible to medal at my very first world championship event," Collier said.
"I’ve been watching these athletes, now my competitors, on the screen for many years.
"So sitting alongside them on the start ramp had a certain air of disbelief.
"Because it was my first world championship, I had no gauge of how I would stack up against these athletes, and if anything, that was the goal of this season: to find out how I compared, gain experience and build on my passion for the sport.
"Therefore, reaching the podium, becoming the vice-world champion and flying the New Zealand flag was a dream come true."
Collier had to show immense courage just to make the start line.
He suffered a compression fracture on his L2 vertebrae in April 2021 that left him out of the water for nearly six months.
"The injury left me feeling unsure as to whether I would ever be able to kayak competitively again," he said.
"Initially, I was angry at myself for putting my career in jeopardy.
"However, once I accepted my situation, I embraced the recovery and focused on coming back to the sport when my body was ready."
Collier was selected for world championship events in 2021 and 2022 but one was scuppered by Covid and the other by injury.
The sport had taught him to focus on the things he could control, he said.
His event in Krakow started with an individual time trial in which he placed 17th.
Then followed the intense head-to-head racing in which four people raced down the course at the same time.
Collier was sandwiched between two British paddlers and sat in fourth through the first leg as he could not get in many beefy strokes.
"I performed an overtake on a Polish paddler in gate two which moved me up to third position.
"I remained in third until the last upstream gate and went around it exactly to plan, which moved me into second position.
"From there it was a sprint to the finish line."
The University of Waikato student has one last event in Europe this weekend before returning to the Clutha River training course for the summer.
His long-term goal was to earn selection for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Central Otago Whitewater might already have an Olympian by then as senior paddler Finn Butcher is in line to compete in Paris.
The Goldsmith brothers, Ollie and Tom, were 20th and 44th respectively in the junior kayak cross in Poland.
Other New Zealanders to compete were Michel Uhl (20th) and Oli Puchner (41st) in the men’s under-23 event, Jaimee Wilson (21st) and Pipi Uhl (33rd) in the women’s under-23 race and Rosie Rex (32nd) in the junior women’s race.
