Nursing a wonky knee and needing two cortisone injections for her neck, Melissa Wu went further north to make Australian diving history.
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The 32-year-old focused heavily on her mind and it has paid off, with Wu about to be the first Australian to dive at five Olympics.
Last month, Wu secured Olympic selection by winning the 10m platform at the national championships.
Just four weeks out from the nationals, Wu's injuries meant the two-time Olympic medallist had been unable to practise her competition dives.
"As time goes on, it gets harder and harder - not just because I've had a lot of injuries, but it's putting your body through a gruelling sport like diving," she told AAP.
"The older I get, the more I appreciate it, definitely. This has been a lot harder, this prep ... not just physically, but having that trust in myself.
"I had to work very hard in my mindset. I started doing visualisation, something I'd always struggled to do.
"I knew I was going to have to dig deep and find something, do something different to make this team."
Given Wu's injury problems, some aspects of her training program have been reduced heavily and others, such as nutrition and psychology, have received a much sharper focus.
"I knew to get through the trials, I was going to have to rely on a lot of the mindset work I was doing, trying to focus on doing as much of that as I could," she said.
"I had to make a really strict plan as to how I was going to get there, when I was going to take up which dives.
"I was nervous, but I knew that I really wanted to be on this team - it means a lot to me."
Wu looks wistfully at what younger divers are doing in their training, but also knows what works now for her.
After repeatedly hitting the water at 60km/h from 10m up, her body needs a different preparation.
"I can't train like the young guns any more. Now it's about being smart ... making sure that everything I'm doing in training is in preparation to be on that 10m platform in Paris," she said.
"I've had to learn that more is not always more and the way we've always done things is not necessarily the right way for me, right now.
"I see the younger athletes training and I want to do exactly what they're doing, and do it better.
"But now it's knowing I need to trust myself, trust that what I'm doing is enough."
Australian Associated Press
