Lewis Clareburt strides towards his media duties with a big smile on his face and croissants in hand, merrily dishing them out to the media pack waiting to quiz him before he takes on the swimming world.
The stride and smile tell a story. A story of a 25-year-old swimmer at his second Games, with more expectation but, seemingly, far less pressure.
"It doesn't actually feel like I'm going into the Olympics. It feels like I've just come off a three-week holiday and we're at a party spot where there's thousands of athletes."
It's been a turbulent 24 months for Clareburt; winning both the 400m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly at the Commonwealth Games and the 400m Individual Medley at the World Championships.
But it's also seen the end of a long association with coach Gary Hollywood, resulting in a move north to Auckland where he's now coached by Mitch Nairn.
He now wants to show he's one of the top Individual Medley swimmers on the planet.
"To be honest, I feel like I was ready two weeks ago," Clareburt says. "I'm excited. To be able to represent New Zealand and be on the world stage and be competitive, that's what I dream of.
"I didn't come to an Olympic Games — and I didn't get into this sport — just to be a number. I wanted to be a number who competed and performed and that's what I hope and that's what I want to do over the next two weeks."
To do that, he'll have to overcome a Frenchman who's got the country into a swimming frenzy.
Leon Marchand, 22, is one of the host's superstars of these Games. He's on billboards, he's on everyone's lips and he's the hot favourite to turn a 400 Individual Medley world record into an Olympic gold medal.
Clareburt spent time with Marchand in training this year and rumours are swirling the Kiwi's times have matched, if not bettered, those of Marchand's.
"Who's been spilling the beans?" Clareburt laughs after 1News put the rumours to him outside the Athletes' Village in Paris. "It was probably Mitch, he's got a big mouth..."
Nairn's reply? "I can't confirm or deny," through a big smile.
The pair have, though, given some insight into what's going on behind closed doors.
"We're doing different things," Clareburt turns seriously. "So it's hard to tell exactly how well I've been doing. In terms of my training pace, it's been better and that's all I can say."
Nairn delves even deeper into the specifics.
"We've been doing a lot of work around the backstroke and breaststroke [and] times are pretty good around that. We've especially found a lot of time in the turns so we've been working transitions there."
And in what could be an opportunity to play mind games, the New Zealander has upped the ante on Marchand.
"This is his home Olympics, he's the world record and he's going in as the guy who everyone wants to beat. He's going to have a lot of pressure on his back and I'm an underdog compared to him. Everywhere we go around this village, [whenever] we find a French person, they're telling us about about Leon Marchand.
"He's a big name and he's the guy we all want to beat — it's exciting."
Four days to find out if the rumours are true, or if Marchand will belt out La Marseillaise with passion.
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