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In short:
Australian javelin thrower Mackenzie Little has balanced being a first-year, full-time doctor at a Sydney hospital in the lead-up to this year's Olympic Games.
She says her results are improving and believes she may be in the mix for a medal if she can replicate her personal best throws.
What's next?
Women's javelin begins at the Paris Olympics in the second week of the Games.
By day, Mackenzie Little is treating patients at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. By night, she throws javelins for Australia.
Or the other way around, depending on what shifts she gets put on.
Dr Little, who will be competing at the Paris Olympics, became a first-year doctor this year after finishing her medicine degree at the University of Sydney last year.
Loading...Full-time work in a major hospital is hard work, but the draw of competing at an Olympics convinced her to juggle both.
"I've just got so much out of sport and obviously getting opportunities like getting to compete at the Olympics," Dr Little told ABC Radio Sydney.
"It would be difficult to get me to stop."
She told ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast presenter Craig Reucassel she balanced the two responsibilities by training for two hours before or after her shift, depending what time of the day she was rostered on.
Dr Little said juggling hospital work meant she was often late to training, but the thought of leaving her coach hanging kept her from skipping sessions.
"I just had to make it work," she said.
Promising trajectory
Dr Little is no stranger to balancing athletics with other life commitments, as she was studying medicine during the Tokyo Games in 2021.
The Paris Games will be her second Olympics, having competed in Japan where she finished 8th in the final of her event.
Since then she has recorded some promising results, coming second in the Commonwealth Games and third at the World Championships in August last year.
She believed she was on the right track to win a medal in Paris, having thrown a season's best of 64.74 metres at a meet in Monaco a few weeks ago.
"My personal best [PB] is 65.70 and the world record is 72, though nobody has been close to the 70s in a few years," she said.
"If I'm throwing up around my PB … then I'm certainly someone who could be in the mix for a medal."
Dr Little's main opponent was world champion Haruka Kitaguchi from Japan, who won last year's event with a throw of 66.73 metres.
"I have a few weeks now where I'm not working, so I can just really focus on training and getting my legs up," she said.
"Getting eight hours of sleep each night … I think that's going to work wonders for me."
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