Queen Harrison, 19, is the first woman from Virginia Tech to make a U.S. Olympic team. The star 400-meter hurdler has overcome injury and personal turmoil involving a jailed father, to get to where she is today.

"It’s a good thing to live by, that you’re unconquerable, that you hold your head high," said Harrison, one of 11 children — 23 if you count her half-brothers and sisters. "Just not letting setbacks dictate what the outcome of your life is going to be. I think that’s the biggest thing. Stuff that happens to you doesn’t show what you’re going to be or how you’re going to live your life. You have to make your own destiny."

Harrison injured her hamstring just before the qualifying finals, in which she was such an underdog that NBC announcers didn’t announce her name before the race. She finished second, and promises to “do some damage” and “break some more hearts” in Beijing. Only five women in the world who qualified for the Games have run faster times in the 400-meter hurdles than Harrison this year.

"I just don’t think anyone wants it more than me," she told The Washington Post.

But she may have had more motivation than some to run her way to Beijing.

Her father, William Harrison, received a ten-year sentence in 1998 for possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute. She speaks with him over the phone regularly; William told her last week he cried when he read a newspaper article about her qualifying for the biggest sporting event of her life.

William will be released from Fort Dix in New Jersey just before the Games begin. If Harrison finished in the top three in the finals, the first time her father — who has been in jail for her entire racing career thus far — would ever see her race would be at the Olympics. Because he can’t travel internationally, August 25, the day after the closing ceremonies when Harrison comes back to the United States, will be the first time in ten years the Olympic medal hopeful has seen her father.

"Just as soon as I get off that flight, he better be waiting for me at the airport," Harrison said. "I’m going to hug him. And jump on him."

In other Olympic news, U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy has tested positive for a banned stimulant, clenbuterol. Expedited arbitration proceedings aimed at resolving whether she will still be eligible for the Games have been launched. One out of three tests came back positive.

"Jessica denies that she has taken any prohibited substances," her lawyer said. "We’re looking into explanations for the positive [tests]."

Hardy, 21, of Los Angeles, finished first in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Olympic trials earlier this month, and second in the 50-meter freestyle. She also qualified for the 4x100-meter medley relay and 4x100-meter freestyle relay.