Injured javelin star Kim Mickle reckons she'll be able to throw even further when she makes her next return from shoulder surgery, saying it will be a piece of cake to recapture her best form in time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Mickle's Olympic Games in Rio ended in disaster when she dislocated her reconstructed right shoulder on her third and final attempt in qualifying.
It was the second time she'd dislocated her shoulder in the space of a year, but the 31-year-old insisted retirement never crossed her mind.
Mickle is determined to come back stronger - and she thinks another round of reconstructive surgery could even bolster her hopes of throwing a new PB.
"If the shoulder's not going to come back the same, I actually think it's going to come back better, because I've got hyper mobile shoulders anyway, which can be a negative," Mickle said.
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"So if we can make this shoulder nice and tight, and I get the force through it and get in the same position I got into (with my throw) in Rio, anything is possible.
"My Australian record of 66.83m - I feel like someone could still take that away from me.
"So I'd like to add on a few more metres to that and defend my Commonwealth Games title."
Mickle, who will undergo surgery in coming days, is also warming to the idea of competing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
"My teammate Kathryn Mitchell is 34 and hitting the best shape of her life," Mickle said.
"I'll be 35 at the next Olympics. So yeah, we'll just have to wait and see how the body goes.
"The hunger's there still. I'm certainly not going to give up."
Mickle will skip next year's world championships in London to give her enough time to make a full recovery.
"The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are 20 months away, so piece of cake," Mickle said.
"I now know what to do. We had the rehab perfect (for my last reconstruction). It was just that we didn't have enough time.
"I knew the risk and I took the gamble."
Mickle won silver at the 2013 world championships in Moscow, and gold in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
