But barring something extraordinary, expect Twigg to pack her bags for a second Olympic campaign.
She has been highly successful and a prominent figure in New Zealand's high-calibre elite squad. If anything, however, she has sat just below several others during one of the country's best rowing periods.
Mahe Drysdale is a five-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist; Eric Murray and Hamish Bond are raging-hot Olympic coxless pair favourites, being unbeaten in the last three years; Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown have won the last two world titles in the women's equivalent; ditto Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan in the double scull.
"Having those kinds of people around you is very inspirational," Twigg said.
"When I was younger, obviously I looked up to the twins [Caroline Meyer and Georgina Earl]. They paved the way more than anyone.
"Even now I consider myself to be relatively young and you aspire to having those kinds of results. It's a really great environment to be part of and makes you want to be up there with them."
And Twigg has solid reasons for believing she can go to the top of her game in London. There have been encouraging signs.
She won the World Cup regatta at Lucerne last year and remembers the worlds at Karapiro in 2010 with considerable satisfaction.
"It was after I'd had a bit of time off for illness. To come back and win bronze in front of my home crowd was a real boost," she said.
"The win in Lucerne showed me I could foot it with the best."
At the worlds in Bled, Slovenia, last year, she pressed hard from the start, led at the 1500m before finishing third behind Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic.
It was while she was at Napier Girls' High School, Twigg first stepped into a boat. Her father Peter was involved in coaching.
"I thought, 'I'll give this a go', but in the first few weeks I was useless.
"Rowing's a really funny sport like that. You look at it and think it's easy.
"Then you hop in a boat and get an appreciation for how hard it is. That was the case for me."
Still, she persevered and the rewards have been plenty.
Junior world champion in 2005, world under-23 gold medallist two years later, the same year she qualified for the Beijing Olympics.
She finished third in the B final in China. A fourth at the Poznan worlds the following year heralded a solid rise with a nice collection of medals.
The solitude of the single seat might not be to everyone's taste. But Twigg had a pragmatic reason for going into it.
The twins had a lock on the double scull; Haigh and Nicky Coles had been world champions in the coxless pair and she doubted a women's eight would make it to Beijing.
"I saw it as my way to being at the Olympics. I enjoyed it, and I'd had success in the juniors.
"At the [recent] nationals I hopped in a four and had a lot of fun rowing with the others.
"But every time I go from a crew boat back to the single I do have a moment when I think 'yeah this is good'."
One name has dominated the discipline for the last few years - Belarusian Ekaterina Karsten, two-time Olympic champion, multi-world champion. But there are clear signs Karsten, 40 this year, is catchable.
The last two world champions have been Swede Frida Svensson and Knapkova. Twigg is pressing and the clock is ticking for Karsten.
"People will pull things out of the bag that they've never achieved before. That's what the Olympics are all about."
Twigg believes she rows best, and at her most focused, when the pressure is on.
That's a fair description of an Olympic campaign.
* The New Zealand squad will head for Europe, contest two World Cup regattas, in Lucerne from May 25 to 27 and Munich from June 15 to 17, then settle into training camps before the Games regatta starts on July 28.
