It was one of the most arresting images of the Tokyo Olympics, at least from a Great Britain perspective: Bianca Cook - or Walkden, as she was then - bawling her eyes out in the Makuhari Messe Hall after a shock first-round defeat in taekwondo. It wasn't even her defeat. Cook responded to housemate and best friend Jade Jones' surprise breakup at the hands of Kimia Alizadeh, a former Iranian athlete who competed under the white flag of the refugee team.
Jones' loss foreshadowed an unhappy Games for these two pioneers of GB Taekwondo, who had dominated their respective weight categories for the better part of a decade prior to Tokyo.
Jones, who had won gold in London and Rio, had sought to become the first taekwondo fighter to win three titles on the biggest stage of them all.
Cook, meanwhile, had already suffered one Olympic upset when she narrowly missed the gold medal match at Rio 2016. Tokyo would prove even more painful, a final defeat to South Korea's Lee Da-bin in the +67kg semi-final. last.
Although she went on to collect a second bronze medal, in addition to her first from Rio, she was inconsolable afterwards and admitted she felt 'dead inside'.
"Obviously now I sit back and see that I have two Olympic bronze medals," Cook says of those surreal Tokyo Games, which took place in near-empty arenas amid the Covid chaos. "It's still an achievement. I can see that. But I have always been open about my ambitions. I'm in it to win it. My life is all or nothing. And I was in Tokyo for the gold...'
Fortunately, she still has a chance to make her dream come true. Paris 2024 looms on the horizon and Cook is, of course, desperate to get third time lucky next year.
She knows that this time she has the last chance. At 32, the Liverpudlian - who last year married her long-term partner, British-born Moldovan taekwondo fighter Aaron Cook - jokes that things are "getting along well".
"The body is starting to break down a bit," she says, laughing. "I still have the ability to be where I need to be for the Olympics. But I've had a difficult last six months. I had very serious knee problems and eventually had to have surgery. I just got back now. But I'm going to give it everything I've got. One last dance and then hopefully you will see me win the gold in Paris."
The story continues
It would be a story if she could. Cook already underwent two anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions before Tokyo. She also experienced an endless series of circumstantial trauma when her then-boyfriend Aaron endured a long and ultimately unsuccessful struggle to achieve Olympic glory, a journey that first began to go off track when he was controversially left out of the GB team for the 2012. London Olympics despite ranking No. 1 in the world in the -80 kg division. He went on to represent the Isle of Man and then Moldova as he desperately sought a route to glory. But it was all to no avail.
"He's retired now," Cook says. "He's actually the national coach of Saudi Arabia, so he travels back and forth to Riyadh a lot, which gives me the opportunity to move back in with Jade!"
'This is my last dance. My one and all. And I will give it my soul'
Cook only moved out of Jones' flat and into her husband's house after they tied the knot in Italy last year, a "magical day" attended by around half the GB team.
She later sends me a photo of her in her wedding dress, lining up with her new husband. But she assures me that she and Jones, two years her junior but for whom Paris will also likely be a last chance at glory, are still "joined at the hip."
"Oh, sure. Aaron and I are only 10 minutes away, so I'm still with Jade the whole time! She can't get rid of me. While Aaron was away recently, I think I slept over at Jade's for about two weeks straight. So we are still always there for each other. And we always will be. We're not just teammates. We are family now. She was one of my bridesmaids.
"When we are not together - for example, she is currently training in Croatia - I miss her every day. But we're still on the phone together all the time, talking about training and pushing each other to make sure we give a great final run and see if we can both come away with gold.
Their combined impact on GB Taekwondo cannot be underestimated. Beth Munro, a parafighter who won silver in Tokyo and will go for gold in Paris next year, says both Cook and Jones are generous with their time and knowledge.
"As a fellow Liverpudlian I get on really well with Bianca," says Munro, the 30-year-old who was born without part of her left arm and was scouted by Disability Sports Wales in her late 20s after growing up playing.. .physical sports together with twin sister Faye. "She is a nice person and she helps all the younger players. When she's on the pads, you can see how much fun she has in passing on her knowledge.
"I actually think we are in excellent shape as a team. We now have young people nipping at our heels. Once the big names advance, I believe they will be able to reach the same heights they have now."
How high will those heights ultimately be? We're about to find out. Cook is set to make her comeback from surgery at this year's World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final, which takes place at home in Manchester early next month. For once she doesn't put too much pressure on herself.
"If I'm honest, I'm probably a little rusty," she says. "The ultimate goal is obviously Paris, and as long as I'm 100 percent on track for Paris, that's the main goal. But that doesn't mean I can't go out there and give it everything I've got and do my job. I look forward to being part of the best of the best again."
Then the head is down and the blinkers are on. Paris awaits. Even the honeymoon had to be postponed until the serious matters were out of the way. "We don't have anything planned, but I would like to go on safari," says Cook. "That's on my bucket list. But it is quite expensive. If a holiday agent would like to sponsor me, please contact me! But hey, that can wait.
"This is my last dance. My one and all. And I give it my soul. I want to end up where I want to be: on the top step. Like I said before, I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy, so I'm going to give it my all. Hopefully this last dance will be the fairy tale I dreamed of."
