For most, the path to the Olympics has been one built over a lifetime of sporting excellence and dedication.
But for Kiwi weightlifter Megan Signal, the journey has been one far less trodden.
The 31-year-old is expected to be named in the Olympic team next week, the culmination of a journey that would have seemed impossible just 12 years ago, when she first joined a gym to try and lose weight.
"I could never, ever have imagined this," an emotional Signal told 1 NEWS.
"I drank a lot. I liked to socialise. I'd already been a smoker for seven or eight years by that point and my lifestyle was ... I would say it was unhealthy," she reminisced.
Then she discovered crossfit.
Fast forward a few years, in her late 20s, the possibility of going to the Olympics was raised.
"My coach stepped in and said 'these are the numbers you've hit, this is what it could look like if you want to be in contention for an Olympic campaign', and I still remember that conversation so vividly because I just kind of thought 'alright lets go'."
However, through it all, Signal had also been enduring a silent struggle, suffering from relative energy deficiency in sport — a condition research shows over half of active exercising females are at risk of.
"I struggle with energy, I don't eat very much or eat very well but I train really hard," Signal said.
"I think I was embarrassed, I was in the health and fitness industry and I was a coach and a trainer and to say that I haven't been doing what I'm preaching was kinda scary."
Signal counts herself lucky now. She found the courage to have the conversation before the more serious side effects could take hold, prompting a change in nutrition and in weight class.
She is now trying to teach other women the hard-earned lessons in health and life and to "keep doing what you love doing", as she sets her sights on Tokyo.
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