It all began in the most unlikely of places — Invercargill.
Erika Fairweather was in the midst of a hard training block when she headed down the road to dip her toes into the South Island championships in March.
The Dunedin swimmer had been building over the past few years, getting more competitive racing under her belt since the Tokyo Olympics, and finally pulled off what she had been searching for.
Fairweather, 19, broke her own New Zealand 400m freestyle record with her time of 4min 0.97sec at the South Island event, becoming the eighth-fastest 400m freestyle swimmer at the time — she jumped to fifth later in the year — and edged closer to the elusive sub 4-minute mark.
Looking back on her year, Fairweather highlighted it was one of her favourite races from the past 12 months, reminding herself that all pools are 50m, so she was capable of anything, anytime.
"It was just such a random place," Fairweather told the Otago Daily Times.
"It was kind of one of those, you know, you can swim fast wherever — you don’t have to be at world champs."
During the same weekend, she broke the national 200m freestyle record with her time of 1min 56.73sec, lowering Lauren Boyle’s mark of 1min 56.82sec from 2014.
It was the catalyst for what turned into a monumental year for the Neptune swimmer, but she knew it was just a matter of time before she broke it again.
"Even going into last year I knew it was building.
"I just got a bit unlucky with illness last year, and that kind of thing, which happens, and that’s fine.
"I feel like it had been coming a while, but it was so great. It kind of showed that I can do it."
In April she broke her 200m (1min 55.63sec) and 400m (4min 00.62sec) records again at the national open championships, and won gold in the 100m (54.61sec) and 800m (8min 17.65sec).
Two months later, Fairweather put her stake in the ground as one of the all-time greats at the world championships in Japan.
Racing against world record-holders, world and Olympic champions Ariane Titmus — who set a world record during the race — Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh, Fairweather produced the swim of her life in the 400m freestyle to win bronze in 3min 59.59sec.
She became just the fifth woman to go under 4min, again breaking the national record in what has been called the race of the century.
"I kind of flew under the radar a little bit going in, which probably played to my advantage, looking back," Fairweather said.
"Getting to be a part of that race, and then ending up in the top three was something that I was really surprised by, but I think it opened a lot of doors for me.
"It’s a big confidence boost when you know you can compete with those girls at that level."
She acknowledged it took her a few attempts to "crack" the4min mark, but it was satisfying when she finally did.
"It was kind of those breakthrough swims that we knew had been coming for a while, but I just hadn’t pulled it off in a race scenario.
"It’s cool to be out there and do it on the world stage."
She returned home to break more national records in the 200m (1min 53.07sec) at the national short-course championships, before heading back overseas for the world cup series.
The Aqua Black won the world cup triple crown, winning gold in the 400m freestyle across the three weekends in Berlin — where she set a world cup record — Athens and Budapest. She also picked up four silvers and a bronze in the 200m and 800m events across the series.
The world cup circuit was an interesting three weeks, and travelling between three countries, and competing back-to-back, was harder than most people thought, she said.
It made backing up her results even better.
"I was really consistent with my performances.
"They were all going really well and . . . there were different pressures going into each stop of the world cup, so it was awesome to be able to throw down those times in all different scenarios."
After being a competitive swimmer for several years now, Fairweather believed she was starting to see the fruition of her training — "everything just gels really well" — tied with more experience and being a little wiser.
Yet despite that, she will went into competitive events without big expectations on herself as she could never control what would happen come race day.
"That world championship swim was just an example of that — we didn’t expect that at all.
"You never know who’s going to be swimming well, who’s not going to be swimming well.
"If you just go out there, and stick with your guns, and stick with your plans, it should all work out anyway."
While Fairweather has paved her own path this year, it has not been without the help of those behind the scenes in Dunedin.
Her coach Lars Humer, with whom she has been training since she was 14, knew her journey inside and out, which was handy to have in his "back pocket" to support her at various competitions.
"He spent years overseas coaching in Olympic-quality programmes so to have him here in Dunedin is so good," she said.
His knowledge was invaluable and added greatly to the swimming crew that is starting to gather in Otago, thanks to his experience.
Fairweather was loving the squad they had created at Moana Pool, including Caitlin Deans, Ruby Heath, Zac Reid and Luan Grobbelaar, and having top-level swimmers to train alongside.
"We had like a mass migration down here at the start of the year," she laughed.
"We’ve kind of grown our little squad a bit which is so fun.
"It just keeps things fresh. There’s a lot of banter in this squad and . . . you can hype each other up.
"It makes a big difference to our little environment."
After spending the last half of the year all across the country or overseas — "I haven’t been home for over two weeks in, like, six months" — Fairweather now finally gets to spend some time with her family.
But she goes back to Australia next month, heading into a big training block ahead of the world championships in Doha in February.
She will compete in the women’s 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle, in what will be an interesting world championships, the first held in an Olympic year.
Next year she also has Olympic trials, with national relay spots still up for grabs, depending on how she swims at the world championships.
She was excited about the prospect of swimming at her second Olympics and feels better prepared heading to Paris.
"I have had a lot more race experience, and that kind of thing, which I kind of lacked going into the first one, due to Covid and due to my age.
"I’ve definitely set myself up better this time."
