Having gone where no Australian Paralympian had gone before, table tennis star Melissa Tapper was immensely grateful for an appearance on the Olympic stage.
She had spent more than half her life eyeing off the Olympics and the prospect of representing Australia at the highest level. That long-held dream presented itself in Rio de Janeiro last month.
With a singles match booked for morning competition on the first day, Tapper didn't have the luxury of procrastinating in the athletes' village. And her opponent was a much higher ranked Brazilian. Ouch.
Tapper lost the sudden-death clash 4-2 to Caroline Kumahara, but it was an exhilarating experience. "First time at the Olympics. My first match on the first day. 9am. Against a Brazilian! Over 200 world ranks ahead of me. So considering everything together, I was happy with my performance," Tapper said.
But what made the 26-year-old's Olympic debut so special was her historical marker as Australia's first Olympian-Paralympian. Internationally, it's a small club with about a dozen athletes having managed the feat.
Originally from Hamilton in country Victoria, Tapper needed some convincing to turn her attention to Paralympics sport. The Australian Paralympic Committee made its first attempt when she was a teenager and eventually managed to change her mind in the lead-up to the 2012 London Paralympics.
Her background as an aspiring elite table tennis player shows that a physical impairment wasn't going to limit her ambitions.
Born with Erbs palsy – nerve damage in her right arm as a result of a difficult childbirth – Tapper simply never regarded herself as disabled. She didn't know any different and took on every challenge with gusto.
"My friends treated me exactly the same as anyone else. I wanted to do what everyone was doing, and if there was something I couldn't do, I was just that determined to go home and just practise, practise, practise, until I could do it," she said in an interview last year.
Surgery as a toddler where nerves in her legs were joined with ones in her torn shoulder gave her arm some strength, even though the condition limited her use to about 30 per cent. As a leftie, she is a difficult proposition for table tennis opponents.
Tapper's approach to her physical limitations goes a long way to explaining her reluctance about dabbling in Para-table tennis. But after entering a tournament about five years ago, it opened her eyes to what Para-sport is about and her path to the London Paralympics was set.
After a heartbreaking fourth-placed finish four years ago Tapper qualified for the able-bodied team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games two years ago. An Olympics berth was still on the horizon.
Her unique achievement as a Para and "able-bods" athlete is not front of mind for Tapper. At least not right now.
"It's quite exciting but at this point I haven't really thought too much about it. My mind is still on a job that I've got to do and I'm just trying to be the best that I can be and just do my own thing. It won't be until a bit later on down the track when I get to reflect on everything that I'll really begin to enjoy and appreciate what I've been able to achieve," she said.
There are several Olympic athletes who have been used as "support" athletes at the Paralympics: track cyclist Stephanie Morton, for example, made her Olympic debut this year and was the pilot for Felicity Johnson as the pair won the 1km time trial tandem event in London.
So, Melissa – or Milly as she is commonly known – what about the prospect of winning an individual gold medal in Rio this time around?
"I think everyone wants to win gold," she said. "There's no hiding from that. But the Paralympics are incredibly tough and I need to perform every match. I need to have a good day and maybe a couple of my opponents need to have a bit of a bad day as well.
"I've done a lot of hard work in the lead-up to get here so my team is confident. I'm confident. I've just got to get over there and play now and if all goes to plan, hopefully we can achieve it."
Tapper has come a long way since she was eight years old when her parents bought a table tennis table for their holiday house.
Tapper recalls: "My older sister and older brother wouldn't let me play then. I wasn't able to keep the ball on for them so I didn't exactly start there. But it was the first time I picked up a bat.
"They like to claim that their contribution then is what led me to achieve greater things."