No angles. No controversy. No mud-raking. The homecoming was as simple as it could be. Emily Maher's statuesque frame bearing the weight of two Youth Olympic gold medals. Her mother Frances across the tarmacadam at Dublin Airport, showing some turn of pace herself, to hug her feted daughter.
Irish born, Irish bred, Irish coached. A homecoming that was Irish made. The scent of satisfaction hung over the arrivals lounge as Ireland's latest running success added her name to the list of home-produced sprinters who are daring to perform at international level without the assistance of the US collegiate system.
A colourful swathe of Hugginstown, Co Kilkenny, made the trip to add body to the swarm of dignitaries who turned out to celebrate the 17-year-old's return from Moscow. Those who didn't arrive were, it was sworn, preparing the town for a rare non-hurling jamboree later in the evening.
"The World Junior Championships are in two weeks. There are no expectations. I just want her to go over there and enjoy herself, have a good time. I have an idea that she might break 24 seconds. That would be absolutely fantastic. Anybody talking about Emily and the Sydney Olympics is only an amateur athlete. We're talking about 2004," said her coach Robert Norwood, hoping to turn down the volume of expectation before the Aeroflot jet had even landed.
The inaugural Youth Olympics may never have registered in our consciousness but for the teenager, a confident speaker but sensibly unwilling to dip her toes into the bad blood that has been sloshing around the front pages of national newspapers recently.
Whoever it is making things tick, the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), the Irish Sports Council or the Russian government, she doesn't mind. It has worked so far and yesterday, despite her coach's prudence, she was shooting for the stars.
"I'm amazed. I didn't expect this outcome at all," she said. "It was very tiring, physically and mentally. It's been a great reception and I'm delighted with everyone. I hope I'll be going to the Olympics in 2000. I hope I'll be going on a relay team or something. But now I just want to go home and have a good night's sleep."
"So you'll just take a rest?"
"Yes I'll just take a rest. . . no. . . no sorry. I can't take a rest. I'm off to France on the 26th to compete in the World Junior Championships, which is for under-19s. I don't know how I'll do yet. I'm a bit tired, but I'll see how things go when I go home."
The almost-forgotten World Championships will be a sterner test. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that those who did not arrive in Moscow could well turn up in France bounding with energy. Demanding she compete in another major championships two weeks after her recent success may be asking the champion to draw from the well once too often, although those in Moscow agree that she is at her most engaging when competing.
"I was totally relaxed but confident going into the races. I'd seven races within three days, but I was very happy with my personal best (24.16 seconds) and I hope to break that PB in France. I'm going to get 23, not 24 seconds (for 200 metres). I think that I'm at a peak now and yes I do think that I will be able to hold on to it for France."
The form of Lena Barry, Aoife Hearne, Ciara Sheehy and now the young Olympian hold the key to any future Irish female relay teams. Emerging now from the programme that was initiated three years ago, Irish athletics is slightly giddy at the prospects of a new generation of short-distance performers.
In the last two years the governing body, BLE, has walked away from major junior championships with four medals. Both Colm McLean and Ciara Sheehy won gold medals at the 1997 European Championships in Lisbon, with Maher adding two more in Moscow.
"Younger sprinters are now able to win. In the Olympics before Atlanta 80 per cent of the Irish team were middle-distance runners, it is very satisfying to see that speed events are moving up along the ladder. It is a planned progression," says BLE coach Jim Kilty.
"Emily's success was excellent, but when you look around you see runners like Paul Opperman running 47.35 for 400 metres as a pure novice who had never run more than 150 metres in training, it's fantastic.
"Last year Emily came up to Dublin every week as part of the scientific testing part of our programme. Of a group of around 16 runners, five have made it to major championships and three have now brought home medals. This is only the second year of it. We were expecting them to come through in maybe four years' time."
Borrowing from the expertise of Italian and German specialists Bosco and ScheidtBleicher, world experts on power-event training, the Irish system is deliberate and well-monitored.
"This is not a system put in place lightly," says Kilty. "These two guys are leading authorities on speed and power. It is not a flash in the pan. The programme is there."
And the medals are gathering to prove it.
