But while Olympic selection for a second consecutive Games in 2021 remains at the very top of the list of goals for the 30-year-old, his immediate focus right now is getting through a two- week quarantine period at a Sydney hotel before getting back into full training again.

Royle is currently holed up with his fiance, Welsh triathlon champion Non Stanford, at the Intercontinental Hotel after flying in from the UK early Monday morning. Because of coronavirus protocols, they are banned from leaving their room and not allowed to come in physical contact with anyone for a period of 14 days.

While there have been reports of some people in quarantine being highly critical of their treatment at some hotels, Royle told the Newcastle Herald he had no complaints other than with the standard of the food.

"The room we are in is good and we've got really nice views of Sydney harbour," he said. "It's actually kind of teasing you a little bit because while it's not busy by any means outside, you see people out running and the sun is shining and for obvious reasons, we can't take advantage of that.

"But everything is fine to be honest except the food, which has been a bit awful. The disappointing thing is we've been told we can't organise to get food brought in ourselves.

"The hotel staff have been nice but they are saying they are not allowing anyone to bring food in from elsewhere. There is no menu, you just eat what they provide which gets left outside the door, and like I said, it has been pretty awful."

Royle said he would happily pay for healthier food.

"I just can't understand why we can't arrange to have better food brought up which I believe is happening at other hotels who are doing a similar thing," he said.

Royle, who finished ninth in the triathlon at the Rio Olympics in 2016, admitted it was a tough decision to have to make to return to Australia during the pandemic.

"We live a fair bit in the UK now and we were planning on staying there," he said. "But cases over there are growing and it's further down the line than Australia is and coming out here seemed like the safer option.

"I'd actually organised an Air bnb in Newcastle to move into and I bought a treadmill to have delivered for when we were self-isolating.

"Unfortunately, with Non coming too, it caused the process to be delayed for four or five days which I guess is understandable when borders are closed. In the meantime, people out here were obviously not respecting the self-isolation rules and they brought in the stricter quarantine rules before we could get here."

While aware they would be quarantined on touching down in Australia, Royle said there was still uncertainty.

"We got on a bus at the airport without knowing where we were going until we got here," he said.

"We walked into the hotel, were checked in by the police who brought us straight up to our room, let us in and took the key with them, saying with a smile that we wouldn't need it.

"We can't go outside the room. You open the door to get food and open the door to leave rubbish out and that's it. We have a window. It doesn't open but we have a window. We knew we were going to be in quarantine so we did bring our bikes with us and a stationary trainer that you can put a bike on so we're killing time by riding inside, taking shifts between myself and Non.

"I've bought my Nintendo and we've got a swiss ball and a gym mat and they are providing bottles of water so we're using those as little weights.

"Like I said, everyone has been really nice - the police were fine and the staff - other than the food, it's all been good. We'll just get through it the best we can.

"This is not how you'd like to spend a bit of an off-season break but we are still a while away from racing again and hopefully, we'll be able to build up our training a bit more freely when we get out than we would have been able to if we had stayed in the UK."

Despite the postponement of the Olympics, Royle says he is just as motivated to make the team next year.

"I've been part of the triathlon relay team for the last two World championships where we have been on the podium," he said.

"Obviously, the Australian team - whoever it is - will go into the Olympics as one of the favourites so of course I want to be part of that team.

"But there are a lot of Australian athletes now, like young Newcastle guy Lorcan Redmond, whose development is going to be helped with the Olympics a year further away.

"I know that I have the experience and like I said, I've been part of the team for the past two years that's won a world championships medal so I know I've done okay on that stage.

"I just have to keep performing when we finally start racing again."

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