There were moments when Sally Conway was basking in the glow of becoming an Olympic bronze medallist that she admits she wondered if she might just call it a day and retire from elite sport. A well-earned six-month break in the aftermath of the 2016 Olympic Games, at which she became the first Scottish judoka to ever win an Olympic medal, gave Conway the opportunity to live a "normal" life – and she liked it. “My time off after the Olympics was the longest break I’ve ever had from judo – it was the first time I’d been able to go on holiday, go to parties and to weddings and not worry about getting up for training the next day,” she said. “At first it felt really strange not to be training every day but then after a couple of months, I was thinking that I could really get used to it. That break was so important for me because I had basically been building up to Rio since I began training full-time at 16. My entire life had revolved around judo for so long and the qualification for Rio was so intense that I had no breathing space at all.”

However, the novelty of being a "normal person" finally wore off and the pull of the judo mat became too strong for Conway to resist. She returned to training and is now back up to speed and ready to re-enter the world of elite judo. The World Judo Championships begin in Budapest today and Conway is confident that her sabbatical revitalised and rejuvenated her and with the self-belief that being an Olympic medallist brings, she feels ready to take on the world’s best once again. “I’m in a good place at the moment and I’m feeling confident leading into these World Championships,” the -70kg fighter said. “The Olympic medal has given me confidence that I can win more major championships medals but I’m also aware that it was a year ago so going into these World Championships, I’m not putting pressure on myself. I know that if I put in my best performance though, I can win a medal. But I need to take it one fight at a time because that’s when I fight my best.”

It was Conway’s desire to add further to her medal collection that has brought her back into the cut and thrust of things. However, a shake-up in British Judo’s structure meant that if she was to remain on funding, she had to move to the GB training base in Walsall. Conway is Bristol-born but has lived in Edinburgh since she was a teenager, training at the Judo Scotland centre at Ratho and it was this training set-up that developed her into a world top-ten athlete and a Commonwealth and Olympic medallist but the the 30 year-old made the choice to stay a part of the GB system and move south of the border. It was, she admits, not an easy choice but one she hopes will, ultimately, pay dividends. “It was a massive decision for me whether or not to move because I’ve been in Edinburgh for so long,” she said. “My coaches, my friends and my life are all in Edinburgh so to uproot was a huge deal and there were lots of discussions about how it could work best for me. It’s not been plain sailing and I do miss Edinburgh but I still speak to my personal coach from Ratho, Billy (Cusack), all the time. I felt like I had to give Walsall a go though because I didn’t want to be sitting here in three years time thinking if only I’d tried it.”

While this week’s World Championships is important in itself, it is also the first step on the path towards Tokyo 2020, at which Conway admits that she has ambitions to upgrade her Rio bronze. “Now I’ve got that Olympic medal, I know that if I won nothing else, I’ll be really happy with my career,” she said. “But while I’m still competing, it’s hard to think like that because you’re always pushing for more. I feel like I’ve still got so much more to give and I still have the drive to do better. And I really want that Olympic gold, that’s what keeps me hungry.”