SARASOTA, FLORIDA: She has not won a medal. She has not made a final. She knows medals are not seriously in the conversation in Rio but hopes to make the final.
Yet Michelle Jenneke was the face they wanted for the Olympics.
More Olympics Videos
Michelle Jenneke becomes Coca-Cola ambassador
The dancing hurdler broke the internet in 2012, and will now feature in Coca-Colaâs advertising campaign for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Jenneke is still better known for her warm-up dances to races than for world-beating times but she was the one that global giant Coke wanted for its Rio ad campaign.
All but one of the other athletes chosen for the ads in the US was a gold medallist. The other one had won a silver. Jenneke's appeal is not in medals but that she makes the Games look like fun.
![Michelle Jenneke waits for the start of the semi-final.](/web/20160804031506im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/a/h/2/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqiz83.png/1470118209377.jpg)
"The Coke ad was a lot of fun shoot. it was actually shot in Barcelona. I went on a sneaky tour to Barcelona, no one knew, not even my friends, I didn't tell anyone," she said from the Florida athletics team's camp.
"That was the end of September last year so it has been under wraps for quite a while now so it's pretty awesome now that it is actually out there and got all that exposure.
"It was really great to be a part of it, so many amazing athletes out there."
The serious business of running ironically kept her out of Europe this year. Last year she went to Europe to compete in the lead-up to the Beijing World Championships, where she made it to the semi-finals, but this year Jenneke decided to stay home and train rather than race.
"I went to Europe last year for a little bit. It was all right but I don't think I got as quality training as I would have liked to and I don't think my preparation into the championships was probably as good as it should have been," she said.
"I looked at where all my best races last season were and they were all based off domestic prep, so that's why we went with that way in these championships."
Not going to Europe has meant she has not properly tested herself against high-quality competition for some time but she believes the training load was more important.
"I haven't been able to get many fast races out because it is pretty tough racing in Australia during winter when there are not that many competitors around
"I got to do a few races, I haven't been as fast as I would have liked but training is really good, I am in the best training shape I have been in my life so I think it won't take much for me to transfer that into a race."
Not having Sally Pearson in the team or the race field, she said, did not change anything for her.
"It really doesn't make any difference to me, I can only do the best that I can do, I'm not going to perform any better or any worse without her being there so it doesn't really have a huge impact on me."