As a sport climber Campbell Harrison is used to tackling obstacles but the Melbourne athlete is also facing some testing financial hurdles en route to the Paris Olympics.
The 26-year-old secured qualification for next year's Games by winning the boulder and lead event at the Oceania selection trials on the weekend.
After his dreams of making the Tokyo Olympics were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was the top seed but had to cut short his qualifying competition, Harrison's relief at securing a Paris spot on Saturday was palpable.
"The first day with the speed climbing didn't go well and then it was announced the border between NSW and Victoria would close that night," Harrison told AAP of the 2020 Oceania trials.
"On top of that, my sister had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
"We were about a week out from Christmas and my whole family was going to be together before our lives were turned upside down with her chemo and everything like that.
"I had a couple of hours to make this decision, 'Do I keep pushing for the Olympics?'.
"I knew that I basically had to win boulder and win lead to be able to take the spot, and in that moment I decided I would go home and be with my family.
"It was a really, really hard decision that I took a long time to reconcile with."
Harrison's sporting journey has been mostly self-funded, juggling training around his work teaching climbing and also as a barista.
He has launched a fundraising page in a bid to take his preparation for Paris to the next level.
As well as competing on the World Cup circuit - which includes events in China, the USA, Austria and France - he's hoping to use high-performance training facilities in Europe, with options limited in Australia.
Funding will also go towards the basics of being an elite athlete - including coaching, physiotherapy and a sports psychologist, as well as accommodation and food.
"I'm fortunate to get support from my sponsors that covers most of the competition-associated costs," he said.
"But I have to pay rent, keep myself fed and there are extra costs that go into competing.
"It ends up being quite a quite a busy schedule with work and training.
"I sometimes have to piggy-back on the goodwill of some of the other national teams and my friends on the circuit.
"I'm hoping some new opportunities might appear, and some extra support can help me make it happen because it's the Olympics. It really has to be a next step up with training.
"I'm a little bit hesitant to start a crowd-funding campaign, because there are so many people in need of the money.
"But this is just one of those opportunities, I'd be kicking myself if I didn't."
Harrison will train at home until the first World Cup event in Shanghai next April and then be on the road until the Olympics get underway in late July.
He will be joined in the Australia team by Oceana Mackenzie, who qualified for her second Olympics by winning the women's boulder and lead event at Sunday's selection trials.
