Four years ago, Charity Williams was named City-TV's athlete of the week as a rugby player to watch.
"I'm hoping to go in the Olympics," said the Central Tech student, then 15. "In 2016 rugby sevens is opening up in the Olympics and I hope I'm there."
The Toronto native, now 19, has achieved that goal.
"I'm beyond excited," she said in an interview. "There's no words to explain how I feel."
But while her road to Rio has been short compared to others, it has not been without obstacles.
Williams' rugby journey started with a bang after catching women's sevens coach John Tait's eye as he scouted the Rugby Canada National Championship Festival. That earned her a closer look.
"Her metrics were really high," he recalled. "She's fast and she's one of the only athletes we've got that can do a standing backflip and land it."
The five-foot-four 150-pounder, who has strength in addition to speed, had just turned 17 when she played for the Maple Leafs, a developmental national team squad, at the Tobago International Rugby Sevens Tournament.
In 2014, she was a member of the Canadian team that finished runner-up at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Williams made her debut on the Women's Sevens World Series in Sao Paulo during the 2014-15 season.
But the demands of the program proved difficult.
"Reporting daily, just giving a max effort on the field every day in training and being focused on the task. She struggled with it a little bit," said Tait. "To the point where we didn't re-card her at the start of this season, in September."
Tait met with Williams to explain the move. "The next step is up to you, Charity," he told her.
"It was very hard to process that," said Williams.
Relying too much on her natural athletic gifts, she admits she had perhaps "relaxed a little bit. And I didn't fight as hard as I should have."
Williams, who has six siblings, went home for a month and pondered her position.
"I decided it wasn't over for me," she said. "I knew that I wanted to go to the Olympics one day. I didn't know whether it was going to be 2016 or 2020 but I knew I needed to get back on the team."
She came back to Victoria where Tait allowed her to come to training sessions and scrimmages. Williams stuck it out, taking a part-time job in a clothing store to pay the bills.
"I was there but I wasn't really there," she said of training. "I was kind of the outside looking in."
She also worked out on her own, under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning coach Dana Agar-Newman.
"He's kind of the reason why I'm still in the program," she said. "He really believed in me in a player and he knew that I can go far. So he stuck with me and helped me. He didn't have to train with me. He wasn't getting anything out of it from being my coach. But he saw something in me. And I'll appreciate that forever.
Williams began to make an impression in scrimmages.
"She actually was a standout in those games, scored tries against our top lineup ... to the point she warranted another look for selection," Tait said.
Williams got her carded status back in January and played the final three World Series tournaments this season. Injuries to some veteran members further opened the way for Williams.
On Tuesday, she and her teammates will attend a sendoff at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square with Mayor John Tory before departing for Rio.
"She did a really good job of earning and keeping her place on the team," said Tait.
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