For Leisel Jones, villain of the Athens Olympic Games and now a hero in Beijing, it came down to destiny.
It was destiny that she'd have media helicopters arrive at school when she was 14 and picked for her first Olympics, that she'd be tagged a sore loser after her second Games and driven into a deep emotional pit. And it was destiny that she would rise to finally claim Olympic gold at her third Games.
Somewhere in the National Aquatics Centre pool in Beijing yesterday, the former tortured soul of Australian swimming drowned the demons of her past, claiming Australia's third gold medal of these Games with an emphatic win in the 100m breaststroke final.
The victory continued the run of gold for Australian women in the pool, while the surprise of the Dolphins' campaign, Hayden Stoeckel, finished equal third in the men's 100m backstroke to share bronze.
It was a solid day all round for Australian athletes. Late last night Australia's equestrian team won silver in the eventing competition. Germany won the gold. Earlier in the day, Olympic rookies Melissa Wu and Briony Cole claimed silver in the women's synchronised 10m platform diving and whitewater canoeist Robin Bell snatched bronze in the slalom C1.
For the US, superstar Michael Phelps broke his own 200m freestyle world record to win his third gold of the Games, keeping his campaign to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at one Olympics on track.
Meanwhile, Jones, 22, touched the wall in an Olympic record time of 1min 5.17sec yesterday morning, there was no wild display of euphoria, no punching the water like Libby Trickett a day earlier, no hooting and waving her finger to signal she was No1.
Instead, she gave a smile of relief and let her life's story play through her head as the crowd in the Water Cube applauded her.
Her composure held until after the medal presentation, when she saw her mum, Rosemary, and let the tears out.
''Some people are destined to do things. I guess I was destined to have my ups and downs and learn,'' Jones said. ''This gold medal was probably for the believers and the people who've stuck by me ... they're the people who see you on the hard days, when you're throwing up in your front garden after a hard day's training.''
Such was the world record holder's dominance over her rivals going into the race, only a return of the nerves that caused her to blow her race plans four years ago could have stopped her winning gold here.
The Jones of 2008 is a very different person to the one swimming great Dawn Fraser slammed as a ''spoiled brat'' after her acceptance of silver and bronze medals in Athens. The Jones who will swim for another gold medal in the 200m breaststroke here in China says she no longer judges her worth by what colour medal hangs around her neck.
Having turned at the 50m mark in front, she surged away to win by more than 1.5sec, leaving the true battle, as predicted, to that for the minor medals.
''It's very difficult being a swimmer and having an opportunity once every four years,'' Jones said of her personal growth since Athens. ''You work so hard and put everything into it and are told before the Olympics that you are the best and you can't be beaten. When you are beaten it's devastating,'' she said.
''Before Athens I was focused on swimming, that's all I had and my whole life's worth was based on winning gold medals. That was a completely wrong outlook and now my life is so stable outside swimming that it really doesn't matter.
''I knew I had people who supported me and whether I finished first or last it really wouldn't have mattered.''
Jones's coach since her move to Melbourne to be with footballer Marty Pask, Rowan Taylor, said Jones had finally achieved to her potential.
Incredible as it might sound, Jones ranked yesterday's breakthrough individual Olympic gold as second to her world championship win in Montreal in 2005. ''I think that will still reign over this Olympic gold, because I found out so much about myself and after Athens I learned so much and that was my first individual world championship, so I think that one is still probably more important to me than this.''