Olympic silver medallist Andrew Charter is in the best place - physically and mentally - of his life and says he will be putting his hand up for Paris 2024 for another shot at gold.
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The 34-year-old Canberran will discuss his Kookaburras future with national coach Colin Batch later this week, but he said he was in a good place to head to Paris.
"Every two years I sort of go on a moment of reflection for a week or two, which lines up quite well with quarantine, really, to look at where I am in my personal life, my relationships, my professional life as well, and then the body and the mind," he said.
"At the moment, I probably haven't been in a better position to keep going. So as long as my body is willing to come, and there's no significant injuries, I can see myself putting my hand up for another cycle.
"[My medal] will probably take pride of place somewhere in my living room or somewhere in my home office, where people can always check it out and it's always there as a poignant reminder of what we achieved, but hopefully there'll be another one in the future."
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The goalkeeper's heroics secured his side's semi-final berth in Tokyo, after preventing three straight Dutch penalties in a shootout with the Netherlands, following a tense 2-2 draw.
He again helped his side to a 3-1 semi-final victory over Germany to secure Australia a shot at gold against Belgium. However, it was not the fairytale ending for the Kookaburras after they went down 3-2 in a penalty shoot out.
Mixed feelings swept the side after they failed to break the 17-year gold medal drought and walked away with a silver medal.
"It was quite a unique experience for us. I've been part of it for 11 years now, and I don't think we've ever lost a final. We've never come second. We've come first or third or beyond that, so to stand on the podium ... and have that sense of loss, as opposed to winning your last game, was quite unique," Charter said.
"After the immediate event, there's an overwhelming sense of pride, but being up there at the time it was difficult and heartbreaking looking around the team and seeing guys in tears.
"We had achieved something really really great but, you know there's just no mending that grief in the moment."
Having lost their penalty shoot out in the World Cup semi-finals against the Netherlands in 2018, Charter said they conducted plenty of research to prepare for one in the final. One way Charter tried to stay on track with the plan was by keeping his nerves under control.
"There's no point having a plan if you lose the plot when you go out there," Charter said.
"Unfortunately we didn't get it done on the last day, but I still think we did the homework to give ourselves a shot. Unfortunately, we just didn't execute it."
One emotion that had prevailed since the heartbreaking moments after the loss was pride.
"On the day, it was a mixed set of feelings. Obviously not getting the gold was disappointing, but on reflection, there's a lot of pride there," Charter said.
"I think there's a lot of pride in the team of what we achieved with the Covid shutdown for us, and not being able to play many international competitions."
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