Zolotic - born in Florida to parents of Bosnia and Herzegovina heritage - had already made clear her huge potential in an Olympic context by taking silver at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics, losing by a single point, 17-16, to Russia's Elizaveta Ryadninskaya.

In 2019, she won two World Taekwondo Grand Prix events, including the final in Moscow, and earned victory at the Pan American Games in Lima.

At Tokyo 2020, seeded seventh, she lived up to all expectations and beyond in a featherweight under-57 kilograms tournament thrown open by the shock defeat of Britain's double and defending champion Jade Jones, by the former Iranian athlete Kimia Alizadeh, competing for the Refugee Olympic Team.

In the wake of her historic victory over the ROC's Tatiana Minina, Zolotic announced that she wanted to be "an inspiration for young girls".

USA Taekwondo declared its intention to "dominate" in the sport by 2028, when it will compete in an Olympics on home turf in Los Angeles, and Zolotic was in the vanguard of those ambitions.

"I try to tell people I want to be an inspiration for young girls and young athletes - just everything I've wanted and worked so hard for - it's like a legacy I'm leaving behind," Zolotic told Good Morning America.

"It was just like walking through and seeing how far I could push myself through each match.

"It's that little eight-year-old in me that's like 'c'mon, we can do this', pushing me through these matches.

"Whether you call it cockiness or just being prepared I don't know, but I was on it."

Speaking of her future hopes, she added: "Another gold medal at the next Olympics - 2024 I'm coming - or the World Championships."

Since that post-Tokyo high, however, her rising ambitions have been checked by injury.

First came a serious problem with her left knee which resulted in a shattered patella that required surgery.

For nearly eight months she could not kick or punch and considered walking away from the mat.

"Especially with my Olympic title," she said to Olympics.com. "I had just won it and I had to go through this and I kind of lost a sense of who I was.

“I was like, 'well, I don't deserve this title. I'm not even competing. I'm not training. Nobody even knows who I am anymore'. It's kind of like this uphill, downhill battle when I was going through that.

"I was thinking about quitting, like, why would I even get up and do this again? Finding my motivation again was like a really big one.

"I was living at home, my mom was helping because I couldn't walk. Having my family there was a lot easier, but not being able to do something you used to do every single day for like 10 hours of your day set my schedule off completely.

"My coach (Gareth Brown) pushed and encouraged me to come back, I wouldn't be here without him."

She recovered sufficiently to perform with honour at the World Championships in November in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she was beaten in the quarter-finals by Chinese Taipei’s eventual silver medallist Lo Chia-ling. 

But then a new challenge arose in the form of another injury - and she had to go under the knife again to repair the labrum in her right hip.

"I'm kind of religious, and I really believe that God put me on this path for a reason," Zolotic said in March 2023. 

"This happened so other things now can happen too."

Zolotic's life slowed down, as she was not training six hours a day but was sidelined after her most recent operation.

She intends to recover to defend her gold at Paris 2024.

The hip surgery, she hopes, will take care of a long-standing issue that has impeded competing and training and left her in constant pain.

"There always have been kicks I could not do, or moves I knew would be bad for me, so I just got around things," she said. "It's just what I had to deal with. Now, I hope that is behind me, and I can completely compete the way I am capable of.

"The thing I am doing now are part of the struggles that will lead me to winning my next gold medal. And that one, in Paris, will be for me. Mine. It's selfish in the best way. I intend to enjoy all of this journey to get to the top again.

"I am working hard to make the next moment for me, and I know that will make it even more satisfying."