Abbey Harkin is bracing for a "full on but exciting" couple of months in which she is targeting finals and potential medals at her first world titles and Commonwealth Games.
The Hunter product was last week named in the Australian swimming team for both events and leaves for Europe this Saturday.
The world championships will be held in Budapest, Hungary from June 17 to July 3 then the Commonwealth Games are in Birmingham, England from July 28 to August 8.
But first stop is Slovakia for a 10-day staging camp before heading on to Budapest, where Harkin will swim in the 100-metre and 200m breaststroke. She will potentially also swim in the 200m individual medley in Birmingham.
"World championships is going to be a harder event in terms of performance," Harkin told the Newcastle Herald.
"My goal would be to final. Anyone's ultimate dream is to win or medal and be on that podium, but for me my ultimate goal would be to final.
"Now I've got the 100m individual spot in the breaststroke, it's also a relay opportunity for me, so I would love to have that relay opportunity because it's definitely a chance for a medal and then I'd reassess for Comm Games.
"I think there's a couple of medal opportunities at Comm Games. I definitely would have to be doing personal bests. But when you get into that situation, you'll thrive off the energy and everything that's going on."
The 24-year-old former Maitland schoolgirl, who is now based in Brisbane, made her Olympics debut in Toyko last year, swimming in the heats of the 200m breaststroke.
The experience only made her hungrier for more and, after ticking off a world titles and Commonwealth Games appearance, Harkin will have the 2024 Paris Olympics in her sights.
"I know I didn't swim my best at the Olympics and I was disappointed," Harkin said. "I didn't get any negative feedback from others about that but I feel like I want to show others what I really can do and that I'm determined to be the best.
"That may come now, that may come in a couple of years time. But after Olympics it has really pushed me to become the best I possibly can and show people that I can really do it."
The Australian teams were named following the national championships in Adelaide from May 25-29, where Harkin finished second to Jenna Strauch in the 100m and 200m breaststroke finals. She was also third in the 200m Individual Medley final.
"Obviously, my goal was to make the team and I feel like I've really gone beyond that," Harkin said. "I made the team but I made it in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and potentially the 200 medley for Comm Games.
"Personally, I wasn't that happy with my time for 200 breaststroke at trials but overall I know I can be better on that.
"I was pretty relaxed and I knew I'd probably been training the best I ever have, even pre-Olympics, so I was confident ... I was just happier. And my coach always says a happy swimmer is a dangerous swimmer."
Between the world titles and Commonwealth Games, the Australian team will spend around two weeks in Spain before another staging camp in France.
Harkin was expecting a much different experience to the Olympics, where athletes lived in a bubble due to COVID then had to quarantine for two weeks upon return.
"Last year we were in a bubble for pretty much the whole eight weeks," she said.
"We didn't see anyone outside of the bubble. Family couldn't even come across to watch us, so I'm hoping that my family can come across to Birmingham to watch me swim there.
"We had to leave Tokyo immediately, so this time there's an opportunity for us to go off and travel by ourselves after competition, which I'm hoping to do. Obviously Covid is still around and we've got to be careful but it's just nice to have some flexibility now."
