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In the space of just 10 months a group of female footballers have gone from the top of the world to lower than any team has descended before.
But this is not a tale of a loss of sporting form on a grand scale.
Rather, the incredible completion of two world record matches played at the summit of a mountain and, this week, the lowest point on earth.
Both events are the work of Equal Playing Fields (EPF), a grassroots, non-profit initiative seeking to challenge gender inequality in sport and promote sports development for girls and women on a global scale.
June last year saw two teams made up of women from 16 to 66 compete in the highest altitude football match ever played, 5,714m above sea level on Mount Kilimanjaro.
On Thursday another group played a 90-minute, FIFA accredited game on a purpose-built pitch 6,000m lower at the Dead Sea in Jordan, host nation of this month's Women's Asian Cup, a competition our own Matildas have a genuine chance of winning.
EDF was co-founded by British-born Australian Laura Youngson.
Having grown frustrated at the way women's sport was virtually ignored by the media, and aware of the challenges faced by women and girls at all levels of athletic endeavour, she decided to do something about it.
"The power of sport should never be underestimated," she says.
"It can change lives, through increasing young women's beliefs in their own abilities, encouraging them to take initiative and aim high."
Aim high she did, both figuratively and, last winter, literally.
Then, around 40 women from 20 countries trekked up Kilimanjaro and played on a pitch devoid of grass, volcanic ash instead the pitch. Biting conditions and lung-achingly thin air no barrier to the quality of football on show.
Thursday's match was the conclusion of a 12-day trek through Jordan with an even broader, more ambitious set of objectives to make football more accessible to women in the region.
And this time, at least, the water the team had taken with them didn't freeze.
Around a third of those who scaled Mount Kilimanjaro were part of the team in Jordan, where during the last fortnight four football clinics and three exhibition matches were conducted in cities and rural areas as part of what the team hopes will be a lasting legacy.
Included in the party were top-flight women's football players from Jordan and more than 23 other countries, including current and former pros as well as competitive amateurs from the USA, Pakistan, Spain, India, Syria, France, Palestine, Tanzania, Canada, the UK and Australia.
After some of the participants needed to crowdfund their trip to Tanzania for the first record breaking match, the latest endeavour has been better supported.
EDF were given the royal seal of approval with backing from HRH Prince Ali of Jordan — a football enthusiast who is an advocate for the women's game in the halls of the world governing body, FIFA — as well as the Asian Football Development Project.
"For Kilimanjaro we had to take everything up and leave no trace behind but, this time, we will be leaving a trace behind," said Maggie Murphy, another of the co-founders.
"A pitch for the community that, so far, has only been played on by female footballers."
For Youngson, the physically and logistically demanding trips are all about raising awareness over the gender imbalance in opportunities in sport at all levels, taking action to promote change for future generations of women and girls.
"I hope that in thirty years' time, it won't even be a conversation," she recently told HuffPost.
"It will simply be, you can be a girl and you can play sport and have the same respect as the guys and you can have a living wage to play the sport you want to play."
Through the visibility of these record-breaking games, the hope is to inspire women to think bigger and not accept the roles assigned to them.
Football projects have been established in countries from Azerbaijan to Mozambique, a truly global reach whereby coaches and players have been empowered through sport.
Action in countries where the challenges to female participation are huge and systemic is a primary concern of the initiative.
Though less restrictive than in some other territories, gender equality in Australian sport has been a live sporting debate in recent years, with encouraging steps taken, even if there is still a long way to go.
The success of the Matildas, who open their Asian Cup campaign against South Korea in Amman on the early hours of Sunday morning (AET), and the support they have received from the public has been heartening. As well as merited.
The launch of a women's AFL league, the second season recently completed, has also been a positive addition to the local spotting landscape.
However, no one is suggesting the fight for hearts and minds has been won.
The basic wage for the women who played in AFLW this year was around $10,000, barely a fraction of that paid to the men.
For all their success the Matildas players too are mostly on contracts under $40,000 per year and virtually all our top female athletes still face financial pressures that impede their training, often needing other jobs to be able to make ends meet.
EDF want to force change at this elite level, too.
Events like the match in Jordan can be used as a driver for such discussions, as well as celebrations of sporting achievement in themselves.
"It was great to play a competitive game of football on a top-quality pitch," Youngson says.
"We were able to showcase the best of women's football with our team of strong female athletes from around the world. It was humbling to see the size of the crowd and to inaugurate the community pitch with a world record match."
The work does not stop here. More events are in the pipeline. The battle for gender equality in sport, as elsewhere, has a long way to run yet.
"We want to encourage more girls to challenge expectations and have no limits when it comes to sport," says Youngson.
"Our message is clear: invest in women and girls in sport and see them thrive."
