But for Hockeyroos midfielder Renee Taylor, the decision to retire is a gift she’s taking all the way to Paris.

Before leaving the Hockeyroos high-performance base in West Australia, her home away from home,  the Queenslander closed a door on a chapter of her life.

She packed up her changing room and left her mark, signing her named locker before walking out the door to Paris. It’s an official sign-off on her esteemed sporting career.

Despite taking control of her future, the two-time Olympian still harbours a fear of, ‘What am I going to be if I’m not a hockey player?’.

“I suppose in Paris it will be my last game for the Hockeyroos,” Taylor said.

“I'm really excited about that, it feels freeing to have made the decision to retire. I'm really proud of what I've managed to achieve in my 10 years in the program.

“I'm really looking forward to going out there and playing on the pitch with some of my best mates for the last time. I've got one last crack and I’m going to have a bit of fun with it.”

The drive to compete at her second Olympic Games in Paris was ignited three years ago when the side endured a heartbreaking quarter-final exit in Tokyo with a 1-0 upset to India.

“I knew I had to continue to Paris,” Renee said.

But her campaign was almost over before it started when doctors broke the news she required a major hip surgery just months after returning from Japan.

The surgeon broke her hip in four places, twisting it backwards to correct an ongoing complication that restricted her ability to play.

Renee admits she was naive about the recovery but fortunately, she was back in time for the World Cup in 2022 before claiming silver at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games later that year.

Even after making a swift return, Renee said doubts about whether she would make it to Paris still weighed on her mind.

“There were definitely times where I thought, I'm not going to get through this. I'm not going to get back, I'm not going to be the player that I was,” she said.

“The surgery was nearly three years ago now and I look back on the last three years and look at my performances in recent months and I'm only just starting to get it back.”

For two years, coach Katrina Powell played Renee in the back line because she physically couldn’t sustain full games as a defensive midfielder and suffered multiple injuries.

“Now to step back up into that midfield position and feel like I'm playing just as well as I was pre-Tokyo, is really nice and I’m ready to go,” she said.

The Australian women’s team won three Olympic golds in 1988, 1996 and 2000, two of which Katrina Powell was a part of. Renee believes the side is primed to continue that legacy in Paris and leave their own mark.

“We've essentially had over two decades of not winning gold,” she said.

“There’s a really special opportunity for us to follow in the footsteps of people like Lee Capes, Michelle Hager and Katrina.

“Some incredible women have come before us that we know are going to be sitting in the stands cheering for us, or better yet, sitting in our dugout yelling at us!

“We have the opportunity to put our own names in that Hockeyroos history book. Now we just have to take it.”

The Hockeyroos open their campaign against South Africa at 8.45pm AEST (28 July).

Katrina said the Hockeyroos were expecting a tough opening encounter against the team they last played, and defeated 5-0, at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

“It's typically a difficult first quarter at the Olympics. Just settling in and getting used to being there with all of the distractions, excitement and nerves as well,” she said.

“So with an uncertain opposition team we'll have to be ready right from the start, so that there aren't any surprises.”

“We’ll be concentrating on what we need to do and our way of play for each individual athlete. It's what they need to do, and it’s their job. Their tasks and really narrowing it down to some of the smaller details rather than looking at anything big picture.”

Kristina Eddy