Holly Lam-Moores is delighted she has delivered on a promise she made to her mother seven years ago that she was going to compete at the Olympics.
The 21-year-old winger has been selected in the 14-strong squad to represent Great Britain women at handball, being part of the first ever Team GB squad to compete in handball at the Games.
It represents the end of a remarkable journey, having been a member of the centralised programme designed for GB to be able to compete at the Games for the last six years, and it gives her the opportunity to fulfil an ambition she set back in 2005.
"I am on cloud nine, it is like a dream come true," she said. "It's not 100 per cent true just yet but it is starting to become a reality. It has been one long winding road of a journey and there is still more to come.
"To be part of the first ever handball team at the Olympics is fantastic, but hopefully this is going to be the start of something special for handball.
"When London got the bid I was already playing handball and I told my mum I was going on the scheme. I hadn't done my GCSEs by then and she said I could go if I got straight As. I did that and I told her I was going to the Olympics.
"She used to hate driving me around and washing my kit, but it's all worth it now. She doesn't stop telling people about it now!"
While the women have been training together for much of the last two years at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, they will head their separate ways after the Games and Lam-Moores has secured herself a contract at a top Danish club.
And she paid tribute to the centralised programme for helping her develop, saying: "I will be playing in the Champions League next season and that was one of my targets after the Olympics.
"I didn't expect it to come this quickly, I thought I might have to have a couple of seasons elsewhere before I reached that level but it just goes to show what kind of miracle this programme has pulled off. It has been massively successful."