Sheila Taormina has coped with threats from a stalker, faced down her own self-doubts, started over twice in her sporting career and even sold her house to finance her Olympic dream.
The result is Olympic history.
The 39-year-old motivational speaker will compete in her third different Olympic sport next month at Beijing when she appears in her fourth Games, this time in the modern pentathlon.
'No one has made an Olympic team in a third sport. I thought it was an interesting challenge and maybe I could do it,' Taormina said.
It's not like she is chasing gold. After failing to qualify for the 1988 and 1992 US Olympic swim squads, Taormina won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as the third leg swimmer on the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Taormina switched to triathlon for that sport's Olympic debut at Sydney and finished sixth, then placed 23rd at Athens after leg cramps while cycling. That looked to be her farewell.
But she explored modern pentathlon in 2005, looking for support but finding little.
'I was on websites looking up depression. I definitely had anxiety. I would cry all day,' Taormina said.
Then a former triathlon coach prodded Taormina, saying, 'This is your dream. Nobody owes you a thing. If you want to sell your house, sell your house.'
She did, leaving Florida two years ago to spend a year training at the US Olympic Center in Colorado before moving back to Michigan, where she grew up.
Now Taormina is ready for the five-sport challenge - shooting, fencing, swimming, running and horse riding. This really will be her Olympic swan song.
'No other sport in my life ever again,' she said. 'I know there will be no desire. Picking up the sports is what led to anxiety. It's not an obsession. I wouldn't be competing now if it weren't my goal to make a third Olympic team.
'It's time for me to retire soon. I'm much more interested in life and people and not so focused on my little mission.'
Taormina has endured the death of a older sister when she was a child, and a stalker who in 2002 began making threats and harassing with messages and calls. He was sentenced to five years behind bars in 2003 and released last January but has not made contact with Taormina again.
After her swimming gold, Taormina drove 8,000 miles around the United States and made motivational speeches to children. She turned to triathlon to get back in shape after months of junk food took a toll.
'I truly had no Olympic aspirations. I just wanted to get back into shape,' she said. 'It took everything I had to stay in the water. It was exhausting mentally to fight every day.'
After 14 months she was ready for the triathlon challenge.
'I'm definitely one of the lowest-confidence people you will ever meet,' she said. 'The lack of confidence makes me a super-hard worker. What is a weakness, low confidence, morphs into a strength, hard work. When I step up, I know I've worked harder than everyone else.'
Now Taormina struggles the most with fencing and still fights her fear on horseback.
'The riding is super hard because I'm afraid of getting hurt. If I do something wrong in shooting I'm not going to hurt myself,' she said.
'Before I started riding, I thought, 'How hard could it be? The horse does all the work.' I've been bucked. Horses have stopped in front of the jump. The hardest part is the fear. I've been fortunate to be healthy. So far.'
