At 31 years of age, it's a reasonable question, especially considering it was the second time in four years Docherty had been outsprinted for a gold medal in the last 400m of an Olympic triathlon.
Four years ago, it was compatriot Hamish Carter who relegated Docherty to the silver medal position. Yesterday, in the searing heat of a demanding Ming Tombs Reservoir course, German Jan Frodeno took gold, five seconds ahead of Canadian Simon Whitfield, with Docherty a further seven seconds down.
So soon after such a gruelling race, Docherty couldn't have been blamed for trotting out the usual answers: it's too soon to think about it... maybe a decision after some time off relaxing... it depends on whether or not I'm still enjoying it.
Dripping with sweat, sitting on the ground because he was too exhausted to stand and give media interviews, Docherty didn't hesitate a second.
"I know a couple of months down the track, that gold medal's going to haunt me. It's going to keep me motivated in the sport for another four years," he said.
"Right now, I'm stoked to get another medal, especially in a field like this."
Docherty said there was no real magic formula to his longevity in the demanding sport.
"I guess it's just wanting and setting goals. I try to look at positives rather than negatives. In Athens, the positive was that it kept me motivated for another four years.
"As the months roll by, you analyse it and there's always that want to perform better and move one step up. I'm sure it's going to eat away at me, that gold medal."
Docherty said yesterday's race had tried his patience sorely, as he paced himself, waited and watched through the 1.5km swim -- led out of the water by New Zealand teammate Shane Reed in 18 minutes flat -- and the 40km cycle.
Docherty, Reed and teammate Kris Gemmel were all in the main peloton that went into the second transition 45 seconds down on the two-man breakaway of Dirk Bockel (Luxemburg) and Axel Zeebroek (Belgium).
The 20-strong chase group caught the pair after barely two kilometres then, as the pace upped, the runners dwindled until only Spainish favourite Javier Gomez, Frodeno, Whitfield and Docherty remained.
"It was a game of cat and mouse out there," Docherty said. "At the start of the day, my coach (Mark Elliot) told me just to be patient, which is something that I'm not. It was just a matter of waiting, there were surges all throughout the race, but I knew it wa s going to come down to that last home straight."
With around 400m to go, as Gomez fell off the punishing pace, Whitfield tested his opposition with a burst to which only Frodeno could respond, as he powered past the Sydney Olympic gold medallist with about 100m to go for a 1hr 48min 53sec win. Whitfield took second in 1:48.58, and Docherty third with 1:49.05.
Reed battled on to finish 34th with 1:52.48 -- two places down on his brother Matty competing for the United States -- while Gemmell, who cut his foot badly during a build-up triathlon in Germany earlier this month, was 39th in 1:53.49.
Docherty said there was nothing surprising about Frodeno's win yesterday.
"This is the Olympics, people just come up to another level -- look at Frodo, he had an amazing race. I had the race I wanted, the best race I could, but I knew there'd be other other people right up there."
