For some people, talent is inherent.
Perth psychologist and rower Davinia Lefroy proof of that.
The 35-year-old had not rowed competitively since her days at university more than a decade ago, but, after a phone call one Sunday, she made the Paralympic grade in just months.
And she has already helped make Australian Paralympic rowing history en route to the Rio Games in September.
It's 6am on Perth's Swan River.
It's dark, bitingly cold, and the rowers are already an hour into training.
Among a group of four dedicated women in a boat silhouetted against the lit-up Perth city skyline is Paralympic-bound Perth psychologist Davinia Lefroy.
It is her second 5am session of the week, with another three to go.
The other women on the boat may feel at a disadvantage in the darkness, but not Lefroy.
She has a rare genetic condition called cone rod dystrophy and has been steadily losing her vision since she was 11 years old.
Lefroy has about 7 per cent of her peripheral vision left.
"Yeah, look, it would certainly be better if I could see what was going on a little more. I think sometimes it affects my sharpness and it affects my ability to anticipate timing, but you sort of just have to build that skill in other ways. So, I focus a lot on the sounds that I can hear and also the feel ... so feeling, I guess, the breeze around your body and anticipating what the movements are like in the boat from that. So, from feel and from sound."
Having a natural talent also helps.
Lefroy showed great potential as a schoolgirl rower and in her university days, and her reputation as a rower lasted in Perth for more than a decade.
So, when the Paralympic Committee needed someone else for the Legs, Trunk and Arms Mixed Coxed Four, the 35-year-old got the call.
"It was great -- a surprising phone call, actually. I got a call from Gordon Marcks, and he heads up the para rowing in Canberra. And it was just really very flattering. He called me on a Sunday afternoon and said, 'We've heard about you. Would you like to try out?' And I think I was really happy and relaxed at that stage, so I said, 'Yeah, sure, why not?' And then a couple of days later, I was doing ergo (rowing machine) tests, and I was on the water doing speed trials, so sort of jumped right back into it. But I guess I just had the attitude that I'd give it a go and do my best, and here I am a few months later."
Lefroy and her teammates -- West Australian Brock Ingram and Jeremy McGrath, Kate Murdoch and coxswain Jo Burnand from New South Wales -- have already made history.
They were the first in Australia's para-rowing history to qualify a boat in their class after winning all their races at the qualifiying regatta in Italy in April.
Lefroy's coach in Western Australia, Catriona Walker, says she has really only had to work on her fitness.
"Davinia's training really well, and I think the whole crew's coming together extremely well. So they still have a little bit of time on their side for something to tweak, but I would put them at a podium chance, the Australian crew. They performed really well in Gavirate (Italy) earlier this year, and, since then, they've been building their time together and their synchronisation and things together and their team spirit."
Lefroy will also be relying on her psychology skills when she hits the water in Rio in September.
She has to wear blackout goggles when she competes, which completely rob her of any visual clue of the world around her.
"I sort of rely on the 7 per cent of normal vision that I do have, and, to suddenly have that taken away, I get quite anxious. So I have to really concentrate on that in the boat and being really mindful to settle that down and to really ground myself as much as possible. I just have to do that really consciously, because that's what happens, quite automatically."
As well as the gruelling training sessions -- up to 12 per week, including cardio and weights -- Lefroy has had to juggle her psychology business.
She says she has some very understanding clients -- and generous colleagues who will help out while she is away.
