Kiara Reddingius' legs are pulsing, arms outstretched — she's sprinting on the ice in a final effort to realise an Olympic dream.
She takes one last push and leaps into the back of her two-woman bobsled.
"You jump in and you pretty much just fold over like a pancake and stay as low as you possibly can," she says.
If Reddingius and bobsled pilot Bree Walker perform well, they'll head to the Winter Olympic Games next month.
Reddingius is a brakewoman — she pushes the bobsled to give it momentum at the start.
But Sarah Blizzard is another brakewoman who has also been running well.
The Australian Olympic Committee will announce just one brakewoman to join Walker in Beijing.
'Mixing it with the best in the world'
Gravity is forcing the sled at 75 kilometres per hour around the winding track at Winterberg in Germany.
This last race could be make or break for the 30-year-old from the small mining town of Leonora in Western Australia's northern Goldfields — a polar opposite environment to where she now speeds through the ice.
"She's been on a very fast learning curve," Bobsleigh Skeleton Australia's Hayden Smith says.
A sharp turn forces the bobsled up the wall.
Reddingius is making good time, but with her usual partner out with COVID, she knows she'd be an unconventional choice.
Second turn. Tracking well.
Reddingius doesn't do anything lightheartedly.
A steep turn. The sled speeds up.
Reddingius knows things can turn bad quickly in this sport. In another heat, her sled crashed while she was coming third in the world circuit.
Now, her bobsled reaches 80kph.
The commentator cuts in: "This is the one who's never seen snow, right?"
He's right. The kid from outback WA has come a long way.
"There are places more remote than Leonora, but not many," her father Rene says.
Reddingius was one of six kids who grew up on a hobby farm.
"They called us the menagerie," mum Rosemary says, sitting in her backyard before feeding the camels.
"She had plenty of time to explore her physical limits out here," Mr Reddingius says.
Her sled gets to 100kph. Bobsled is known as Formula One on ice.
Her former athletics coach, Darren Clark, is also invested.
"Kiara started athletics late at 20 years of age. We usually get kids from six or seven," he says.
The sled climbs to 115kph. The sled must navigate a tricky turn perfectly.
She's quietly confident she's got a strong chance to get into the Olympics, but she knows from previous experience that nothing is guaranteed.
In 2018, the Commonwealth Games took two heptathletes and, although Reddingius came second in the trials, the athletes that placed first and third were chosen.
She had improved too quickly and didn't have the track record of the other competitors.
Reddingius's bobsled is turning into a blur.
They're doing well.
When the then-heptathlete was approached to join the bobsled campaign she was stunned.
She consulted her father after the pitch was made.
"Kiara called me up and said a person called Ashleigh wants me to join in bobsledding and give it a go. I said, 'What's that?" Mr Reddingius says.
Reddingius's bobsled speeds past the snow-capped trees.
"I've seen so much of the world in such a short time," she says.
The sled starts to slow in the final corner.
It's not the best ending but they might have done enough.
Reddingius's parents call her the "Cool Runnings kid", after the 1993 movie based on the Jamaican bobsleigh team's debut in the Winter Olympics.
"If she gets into the Olympics, Leonora will do a big screen and we'll be watching the desert kid doing the run," Ms Reddingius says.
The duo crosses the finish line finishing eighth overall. Bree Walker fist pumps.
But now it's in the hands of the Australian Olympic Committee to deliberate, consulting the pilot and high-performance director when choosing the brakewoman.
Reddingius is keeping her emotions measured. She's fought hard and run well, but there've been so many twists in her journey so far.
On Monday, the Australian Olympic Committee will announce its decision for the two-woman bobsled team and the Cool Runnings kid from Leonora will know if her Olympic dream will come true.
