CLEARLY, it will not quite be the same. The stands will be empty, family and friends will be watching on television on the other side of the world and the pre-race nerves will relate to the result of an early-morning Covid test rather than anything that happens in the pool.

But when Aimee Willmott walks up to the starting blocks for her 4x100m individual medley heat in Tokyo tomorrow lunchtime, all of that will be forgotten.

It will still be the Olympic Games, the pinnacle of any swimmer’s career. It will still be the golden moment that has driven the Teessider through the last five years, a period when the contemplation of retirement crossed her mind on more than one occasion. And for Willmott, it will still be the chance of a golden final hurrah. Crowd or no crowd, atmosphere or no atmosphere, it was always going to be special.

“It’s an Olympics, and you get to wear the Team GB kit and represent your country,” said the 28-year-old Teessider, who first started swimming as a youngster at Middlesbrough ASC . “At the end of the day, it’s about the competition. That’s why we swim – to show off and race against the rest of the world.

“It’s really special to make an Olympics. I’ve done two, and this is my third one. I feel really fortunate and lucky to be able to compete in Tokyo.”

As she freely admits, there have been plenty of occasions since the last Olympics in Rio when it looked as though Willmott would not be lining up in Tokyo.

Her long-time training group, based at the Olympic pool in Stratford, was closed down, forcing her to relocate to the University of Stirling. She was stripped of her central funding, forcing her to exhaust her life savings just to continue training and competing. Then, just as it looked as though all the sacrifices were going to be worthwhile, the Olympics were moved from last year’s scheduled date to 2021.

Could Willmott really put herself through another 12 months of early-morning starts, intense physical strain and mounting financial strife? In the end, the answer was easy. Once an Olympian, always an Olympian. The lure of one final Games was always going to prove too strong to resist.

“If you’re not done and you’re still enjoying it, then what are you stopping swimming for,” said Willmott, who is nevertheless adamant she will be leaving competitive sport no matter what happens in Tokyo. “It kind of just made sense to carry on, and to give it one final hurrah.

“Through the pandemic and everything that’s happened, it’s been nice to have that focus and to still enjoy swimming every day, training, and working towards that goal.

"I’m fortunate enough that I qualified, and it all went well, so I can’t really begrudge swimming for another year.”

All of which takes us to tomorrow, and the heats of the medley. Willmott will join a select band of British sportswomen when she makes her third Olympic appearance tomorrow lunchtime, with her first having come at London in 2012 when she was just 19.

She narrowly missed out on the final in London, but put that right when she qualified in the top eight in Rio. Her career has seen her win Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast in 2018 and European Championship silver in both Berlin in 2014 and Budapest last year. When she eventually calls it a day though, it will be her Olympic appearances that give her most pride.

Olympic achievement runs in the family - her father, Stuart, competed for Britain in the 1,500m freestyle and medley events at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles - and of all her achievements, emulating her dad on the Olympic stage understandably gives Willmott most pride.

“I think I’m the only triple Olympian (on the swimming team), and it makes me feel a little bit old to be honest,” she said. “I looked at the squad list, and I even think that other than Molly Renshaw, every other female on the team is at their first Olympics.

“I did feel a little bit old when the announcement came out, but also proud at the same time that I’d managed to hang on and still perform with this new wave of really good, fast British swimmers, and especially British girls.

"It’s an honour to be at the end, with these girls experiencing their first Games. It’ll be a really special Games for us all, no matter what level you're at.”