Mack Horton has been making up for lost time. In the heats of the 1500-metre freestyle at the Olympic trials in Adelaide on Wednesday morning, he casually found about 10 seconds that he otherwise might have left in the pool if not for a hurry-up from his coach Craig Jackson.
"Yeah, about 10 seconds faster [than I'd hoped]," Horton said as he heaved in air after the race. "I was pretty comfortable. 
"About 400m in, Craig waved me and said I was going too slow so I picked it up. Obviously I picked it up a bit too much. It felt comfortable so it was good.
"To be in an Olympic final, you have to post a time fairly similar to that. That would be a centre lane sort of swim. But it's good to practise it because in Rio I want to get it right."
The 19-year-old Melbourne swimmer has been, to an extent, lost in the wash of recent events at the Australian Championships, where most eyes have fallen on Grant Hackett's campaign for another Games, or the headlining sprinters such as Cam McEvoy, James Magnussen and Cate and Bronte Campbell.
Yet it may be his swim on the final night of competition that sends the most ripples through the sport, at least on the domestic front. Given Horton's imperious form, there is little doubt Hackett's Australian record of 14:34.56 may be given a serious shake.
Horton's heat swim of 14:48.77 was done with a leg in the air. His closest competitor, Queenslander Jack McLoughlin, was more than 30s behind, meaning Horton was left to race only the clock.
He has already bulldozed his rivals in the 400m, rocketing to favouritism for the Rio gold in that event, which has slowly crept up on his list of priorities, despite it originally being an aside to his 1500m ambitions.
Now it's a matter of "how far" in the fabled distance event, which still retains a mythical place among the Australian swimming community given the exploits of Hackett and Kieren Perkins, who dominated for years before passing the baton to the next generation.
"I'm aware of the significance of the event but I don't want to put that pressure on myself," Horton said.
"Australia has a ridiculous history in the 1500m. I'm just trying to do my own thing.
"It would be nice to be the fastest Australian in the 400m and 1500m.
"I think it's always been the 1500m but I've come to realise I can do a decent 400m, so I may as well have a decent crack at it.
"In the past year or so, I've really learnt how to actually swim it but there are still things I can tweak and improve."
Horton, another of Australian swimming's softly spoken male stars, is hardly the type to be making grand predictions ahead of the final.
But he made it clear he won't be keeping anything in the tank, meaning Hackett's mark - set in 2001 - could be lowered.
"What am I looking for? Can't say, I'm sorry. Nah ... I really don't know. I'm just going to go as fast as I can and see where I end up."