Competing at the home of the modern Olympic Games after taking up the sport at age nine and winning two gold medals at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, the archer from Adelaide instead headed home to Australia enthused by the opportunity but disappointed in his performance and pondering what comes next.

“It was an excellent experience, just to be at the Olympics was something like no other, though I came away without hitting my performance expectations. There was absolutely a hole when it comes to performance outcomes,” Barnes said.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that you can’t make a solid living out of archery and in the few years that followed I made the decision to go to university and build a life away from the sport.

“I got started on both a science and dentistry degree before realising it wasn’t for me but at the same time, I had started a business selling gym equipment and fell in love with the entrepreneurialism associated with it.

Barnes relished his life away from the high-performance environment of being an Olympian. His online retail business grew and he married his wife Amy before they together welcomed two children.

That niggling feeling of redeeming his Athens 2004 performance remained however, and it was 10 years after his retirement that the idea of returning to the Olympic arena took hold.

Joining like-minded business owners at a retreat, the then 31-year-old made a passing comment about returning to competitive archery and, as they say, the rest is history.

“In 2017, we were doing a goal setting exercise at a business learning retreat and a return to archery was something that I committed to, with the sole focus being winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games.”

Barnes initially teamed up with Sydney 2000 Olympic champion Simon Fairweather before moving ahead with Australian Olympic Team coach Ya-Ping Shih, winning men’s team silver and bronze medals at the World Cup and, critically, securing a quota spot for these Olympic Games.

His chance to duel for medals is once again upon him, and (together with Rio 2016 bronze medallists Taylor Worth and Ryan Tyack) he will start in the men’s individual and men’s team competition at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field.

For now, Barnes won’t be drawn on his plans beyond Tokyo 2020. His focus is the individual ranking rounds on 23 July, the competition that follows and a return to his family at home.

“I’ve got two young kids - six and seven - and the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time away from that environment to make this a reality. I think I’m in debt to them, I want to spend more time with them when they are at an influential age.

“My family are based in Adelaide and they’ll be cheering me on from there. We’ve been keeping in touch every day and it’s been great to share this with them.”

The question Barnes must face come the Closing Ceremony is simple, though – Paris 2024?

As his journey confirms, you should never say never.

Cody Lynch