But a few days relaxing — in Brisbane then his Central Otago home — will quickly ease any lingering frustration at missing out on a medal at the canoe slalom world championships in Australia.
Butcher finished fourth in the K1 slalom on Friday and backed that up with fifth in kayak cross, the discipline in which he won Olympic gold in Paris, on Saturday.
He would have dearly loved a medal to go with the silver he won in kayak cross at the 2021 world championships, and he went exceptionally close.
He started the K1 final as the bottom seeding, 12th, but put down a flawless run — no penalties, and a time of 92.47sec — as the first paddler away.
There was then a long wait for the other competitors, and while two did better than him, Butcher was still clinging on to bronze before the 12th and final paddler nudged past him.
Butcher finished just 0.13sec off third, and 1.66sec behind French winner Titouan Castryck.
"I was pretty stoked to make it into the final," Butcher told the Otago Daily Times from Sydney.
"I had a pretty good run in the semifinal but I just touched one of the last gates and I thought that might have put me out.
"I had a really good run in the final and I was pretty stoked to sit on the podium hot seat until the very last guy.
"When you get fourth, you’re thinking, oh, man, that’s so close to being really, really good.
"But if you’d told me before the week that I’d be fourth, I’d have taken that every day. I’m stoked."
There was an intriguing story on the women’s side when Polish star Klaudia Zwolinska became just the second paddler to do the double — K1 and C1 (canoe) — at a world championships.
Butcher had won his kayak cross heat and finished second in his quarterfinal.
He dropped to third in Saturday’s semifinal to fall out of medal contention but had the consolation of winning the small final for an overall placing of fifth.
"There was a bit of everything — pretty standard kayak cross hecticness.
"I was a bit disappointed not to make the final but even getting to the semifinals in that event is a pretty good feat.
"I had a poor lane draw, and I just made maybe a wee error in judgement and couldn’t make it through.
"It was nice to finish off with a solid win in the small final. Fifth in the world in that, and fourth in the world in slalom, is pretty good."
British star Joseph Clarke won a fourth successive men’s kayak cross world title, while Angele Hug (France) claimed women’s honours.
Butcher’s fellow Central paddler, Nick Collier, was third in his K1 slalom heat. In kayak cross, he was second in his initial heat then just missed the quarterfinals.
Butcher will take a short break before basing himself in Auckland to train over the summer.
