Jana Pittman comes across as being one barrier short of a full set of hurdles.
Australia's 21-year-old world 400 metres champion would probably laugh if you suggested she was barmy.
Delightfully eccentric she certainly is.
She has a bumble bee tattoo on her waist because she is convinced that scientifically the creatures should not be able to fly.
Pittman herself should not be able to fly at the moment either.
After tearing a right knee cartilage before the Zurich Golden League meeting on August 6, she was told by a specialist that she had a one percent chance of making Athens.
The tall, slender Australian, though, sought a second opinion before undergoing surgery followed by intensive, nine-hour-a-day rehabilitation. The new prognosis was 60 percent.
"Like my bumble bee theory, we are defying science," she told a news conference on Thursday.
"I was beside myself when the specialist said that. I wasn't expecting it.
"But the scan said I was out and we thought we were out -- it shows it pays off to get a second opinion. I don't know if that specialist knows I'm about to take part in the heats, but I would love to tell him."
{{/usCountry}}"But the scan said I was out and we thought we were out -- it shows it pays off to get a second opinion. I don't know if that specialist knows I'm about to take part in the heats, but I would love to tell him."
{{/usCountry}}Pittman, fifth fastest in the world this year, is talking at high speed, but not as fast as normal -- she is going into her pre-race zone.
"Basically, I just get a bit more anti-social. It's like the body knows it's going to do something that's special to me. I go inward. Normally I'm an outward, friendly person.
"It's a great feeling. You know you are getting ready."
But ready for what?
"Jana hasn't gone further than three hurdles over the last two weeks so the first challenge is to just complete the first heat," her coach Phil King said.
There will be 10 hurdles on Saturday, set 35 metres apart.
"I have to make sure I don't consider the leg...I must race like a normal person, like a normal Jana," Pittman added.
King does not go in for doubt.
"It is a word we can't use and it is a word we shouldn't use.
"She starts equal with everybody else. There is uncertainty but from uncertainty can come greatness.
"She has to take the attitude that she will have a crack at this. For me, she's 100 percent."
Pittman, a light bandage on her right knee and her fingernails painted in Australian colours, chatters away.
Zone or no zone, and despite King's calming influence, she is clearly excited.
"It's been a very long journey, initially one that was quite heart-breaking. To be here now, to be allowed to race is a dream come true."
Her parents, who had booked their flight to Athens and then cancelled it, are due to arrive at any moment.
"How come it happened to me, to get well again? To get this second chance...It's bizarre," Pittman said, shaking her head in apparent disbelief.
"There's the long breaks between the rounds, and the stadium seems an odd shape, with shallow corners. It's like it's been designed just for me."