BEACH volleyball player Melissa-Mae Ruru has a slightly different schedule to most Olympic hopefuls.
On top of her busy training regime, she is also working full-time as a police officer in Rotorua, studying towards becoming a detective and also manages the Sykes Boxing Gym. Despite her "full-on" schedule she said it was well worth it to try and represent her country at the Olympics.
"It would mean everything. It is every athlete's dream to get there and I'm going to try and get there, and come as close as I can."
To get to Rio in August, Ruru and beach volleyball partner Shannen Bagge (Tauranga) need to go through some tough qualifying events in Thailand in May and Australia in June. They need to finish top three at the first qualifier then win the next event in Australia.
"It is tough but it is realistic, we wouldn't be going if we didn't think we could get there. So we are pretty excited, we are just getting better and better," she said. "We are really happy with how we are going and have a good understanding of what we have to do."