Becoming a world champion is extremely difficult, but defending that title - when expectations are high - is even tougher.
That is the challenge that awaits Jonathan Broom-Edwards at this year's World Para Athletics Championships in Paris. It's the first time the biennial meet has been held since 2019, with the Covid pandemic forcing the 2021 edition to be pushed back.
Broom-Edwards, who is also the Paralympic champion, won the T44 high jump event at the previous World Championships in Dubai and is hoping to defend his crown in Monday's final. The MBE competes in the T44 classification for athletes affected by a lower limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement because he was born with talipes equinovarus - more commonly known as clubbed foot - in his left leg.
Broom-Edwards has told Mirror Sport he's "looking forward to getting out there" ahead of Monday's final. "With my event not being in the Commonwealth Games, I haven't actually had a major championships since Tokyo, so I'm really excited.
"I'm excited to be in front of a crowd again because we didn't get to experience that with Tokyo, and it's almost like a home games because we're so close [to home] it with being Paris."
Like all champions, Broom-Edwards' story is fascinating. A basketballer and high jumper in his youth, the Brit only considered competing in the Paralympics after being inspired by London 2012. Silver medals at World Championships and Rio 2016 followed before his big break in Dubai four years ago. Then, in the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, he struck gold.
Now 35, Broom-Edwards knows he's in the back end of his career and wants to go out on a high (no pun intended) by beating his personal best of 2.15 metres. "I'm in a very different mindset now and I think I can thank my involvement in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins for that.
"I feel quite calm, in terms of the pressure, because I know I'm in really good shape. I suppose what I'm chasing now - because I feel in such good shape - is a personal best. It's almost like I've been in and around it for a few years now.
"In Tokyo, I felt like I was ready to get a new lifetime best. But, when it came to the competition, there was torrential downpour - the weather conditions were just horrendous. To come out with what I jumped was, in some respects, a lifetime best [effort], but it wasn't a lifetime best height.
"I don't feel the pressure from [the other] competitors, but I feel my own internal pressure because I know I'm in good shape and I want to do myself justice for these competitions. [It's all about] just keeping this old body going! As a veteran now, as a masters' athlete. I'm still here!"
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As Broom-Edwards touched on, he competed in the fourth series of gruelling reality TV show Celebrity SAS last year. The athlete was pushed to the limit, both physically and mentally, by a team of ex-special forces trying to recreate the same demanding selection process they went through. Broom-Edwards put in a superb effort before withdrawing in the penultimate episode of the series.
"It had incredible effects on my own mind and my own resilience and my own perceived limitations. I think that's a good way of putting it because you're in a place where you feel like you've got nothing left to give, but you have to keep giving something.
"What I was personally able to do was to transcend pain. At one point, the amount of pain I was in was excruciating... and in an instant moment it vanished. To experience that, it kind of reaffirms in your mind that actually, I have more to give - my body has more to give.
"Once you have that understanding in your mind, I can take that into training. I know that when my mind's saying no or stop, I may have more. It's just a different approach.
"The thing with performance sport is you still have to listen to your body; you still have to gear yourself up to be at peak performance. That sometimes isn't about pushing your body to breakage. But it has changed my mindset."
This year's World Championships takes place in the same city as next year's Paralympics. Although the priority for Broom-Edwards is giving his all on Monday, he does believe the meet is a "really good warm-up" for Paris 2024.
"I'm getting to know the environment; I'm getting to know the set up and the lead into a major champs. For 2024, we'll be here in the holding camp for a lot longer, so it's really great to get a feel for how things operate and how things work."
He's also excited to compete in front of a crowd again after the Covid pandemic. "The crowd just offers that little bit extra, doesn't it? That's not to say the experience in Tokyo wasn't the same sort of vibe that you get in major championships.
"A stadium [even when it's empty] does something for a competitor like nothing else. You still get the same adrenaline kick; you've still got other competitions going on; you've got the Tannoy. It's almost like a beast to be tamed, that adrenaline surge you get.
"And the crowd can just add to that. I've experienced when the crowd and the clap of the crowd has taken me a little bit too far over the edge where I've not jumped very well. But I've also utilised the crowd before, and it's helped me jump higher heights."
Broom-Edwards is planning on keeping his feet on the ground after the upcoming Paralympics but hasn’t ruled out continuing until Los Angeles 2028. "I look at Paris 2024 as potentially my final one, but I suppose a lot can change. By the time I get there, it might well be that I have a spur of inspiration to go on for another four years.
"But I feel it would be a nice send-off... and I've got a lot more to give outside of sport as well. I'll make the decision when it comes, but part of me is like, 'You know what, this [tournament] will be a good one to do a final push for'."
Irrespective of what happens on the track, Broom-Edwards wants to continue his career as a motivational speaker. "I've created this platform of becoming a storyteller. Through my career in athletics and growing up with an impairment - a slightly less visible impairment - and going through SAS and managing to survive a fair amount of it, it's quite a story.
“To story tell, it adds this extra ability or platform to help others, which I find a lot of joy in. What are the messages from my experiences? Because what I do is quite specific: I jump over a stick! Not many people can relate to that!
"But elements of my journey; elements of what I've gone through; the grind that I've had to put myself through; the times that I haven't wanted to get out of bed; the times that I haven't wanted to train but I still force myself to train - those principles are what people can relate to.
"I have this aim to gift that to other people, gift what I've learnt about my mind and the limitations it's put on me in the past. I used to be someone that would succumb to my mind... now I know the benefits of going through something that's slightly more difficult.
"I think that's where I'm pushing myself towards being, so I can help others improve their own life."
