Canoe slalom star Luuka Jones is in the fight of her career, as she continues to battle the effects of long COVID.
Since contracting the virus in March, the Rio Olympics silver medallist hasn't been able to shake it, which has forced her to start thinking about life after kayaking.
"It's been a year like no other, really," she told Newshub.
In fact, Jones, 33, had to put her European season on hold to return home to recover and she's yet to make it back.
"I fell off a cliff," she added. "Just couldn't train anymore... was really puffed, fatigued."
Jones is now exhausting all options to find a cure, going to the lengths of setting up a specialised oxygen chamber at home in her garage.
"It pressurises you to the equivalent of five metres below sea level," she explained. "While you're breathing in oxygen, it's pressurising your body and saturating it in oxygen, so it gets to tissues that might not get that much oxygen normally."
The eight-week programme has helped, but Jones says she's still only at 60 percent of her peak fitness, with no idea when - or if - she'll make it back to 100.
The experience has made her think more about what life may look like after kayaking.
"When you can't do your main job, you start to think what is next on the cards," she admitted. "I think Paris will be my last Olympics… if I get there."
Jones hopes to compete at the national championships next month, as the next small step on her road to recovery.
"I think it'll take me probably up to a year to get back to where I was before, but this has given me perspective, so mentally, I'm in a better place."
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