2005 Summer Universiade, Izmir: women's javelin gold. 

Barbora Špotáková has amassed a unique collection of women's javelin medals, including golds at Olympic, world and European level, as well as holding the world record.

But winning European bronze in Munich's Olympic Stadium in August 2022, 20 years after she had competed there in the 2002 edition of the Championships and five years after earning her last major medal, a gold, at the London 2017 World Championships, was something she described as "a small miracle".

The Czech athlete was competing against a field half her age. The gold medallist with a personal best of 65.81 metres, Elena Tzenglo of Greece, was, at 19, the youngest winner of this title. Serbia's Adriana Vilagoš, aged 18, took silver.

Špotáková, at 41, thus made a podium where her age was more than that of her two companions combined.

Looking at her career, the first big medal - and a golden one at that - came 17 years before her bronze in Munich, at the 2005 Summer Universiade in the Turkish city of Izmir.

A throw of 60.73m in the Ataturk Stadium earned her victory in front of China's Ma Ning, who recorded a best of 59.18m, and Justine Robbeson of South Africa, who took bronze with 58.70m.

Then 24, Špotáková had experienced her first Olympics the previous summer when she attended the first of her five Games in Athens, finishing 23rd. 

Izmir allowed her to adopt the position in an international podium with which she would become serially familiar over the next 15 years.

After finishing second at the 2006 European Championships, Špotáková won the first of three world titles in Osaka the following year, with her final world gold coming at the London edition a decade later.

By then she had earned gold at the Bejing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics, and she added a bronze at the Rio 2016 Games. In 2008 she had also set the world record of 72.28m.

There was a long wait until her next major medal in Munich. But the manner of her competition showed that, while she may now be a mother-of-two in her 40s, she still has the champion's fire within her.

Tzenglo, of Albanian parentage, took a first-round lead with 60.82m and never lost it, but the competition for silver and bronze was volatile.

Špotáková moved into third place with her second-round effort of 60.31m, behind the 60.57m of Hungary's Réka Szilágyi, but was displaced, excruciatingly, by a centimetre when Vilagoš threw a fifth-round 60.32.

So here was the latest test in a long and storied career.

Špotáková was ready to step up once again, throwing the spear out to 60.68m with her last attempt to move into second place.

Vilagoš moved into silver medal position with her final effort of 62.01m but the veteran remained on the European podium - eight years after she had won her last medal in the event, taking the title at the Zurich 2014 edition.

"I am fighting always until the end," she said in the wake of her performance. "Nothing is lost until the finish of the competition. I knew that I would fight and I knew that I would throw more, that's what I knew."

Her success was witnessed by her mother, partner Lukas, her sons Janek - named in honour of her former coach, the men's world record holder Jan Železný - and Darek, who was born in July 2018. There was also a party of around 60 travelling friends and supporters.

"This is my first medal after the second baby, so it is actually a long time, and it's what I told myself before the sixth throw - that I have to show my boys how to fight," Špotáková said.

"That's what I told myself. And then they ran to me and it was the most beautiful moment in my career, I guess."