IF Samantha Kinghorn had a penny for every time she's been asked about her Paralympic Games ambitions, she could probably have flown there in a diamond-encrusted private jet.
But after all the months of build-up, the many hours spent talking about her innermost hopes and dreams, the 20-year-old wheelchair racer from Gordon in Berwickshire can finally say: I'm a Paralympian.
Over the coming fortnight Kinghorn – one of the Sunday Herald's Six To Follow to Rio – will compete in the T53 100m, 400m and 800m.
The three-time European champion and world bronze medallist has spent the past week ensconced at the ParalympicsGB holding camp in Belo Horizonte undergoing final preparations ahead of transferring the athlete's village in Rio later today.
"I feel good going into Rio," she says. "It's scary because this is the time when you start thinking about everything. It seems as if you can feel every muscle because you're so nervous and excited."
With Kinghorn's favoured 200m distance not included in the Paralympic programme, she believes the 400m could prove her strongest suit. Her goal is to reach the finals in each of her events. "If I can do that in all three, then I will be ecstatic," she says.
Kinghorn says she watched as much Olympic Games coverage as possible without "having to stay up until silly o'clock" last month.
"It was really surreal seeing that and knowing I'm going to be there competing in the same stadium," she says. "I'm looking forward to it even more now."
The timing of her events means she will be racing in the opening and penultimate days of competition. It isn't ideal, but Kinghorn has packed plenty to keep her entertained as she cools her heels between races including a Prison Break boxset and her favourite film Dirty Dancing.
The downside is missing out on the spectator side of the Games but Kinghorn is resigned to that. "I think I will be lucky if I get out to see much else," she says. "I would like to watch the marathon on the last day. Hopefully I'll get to see some other events, but it may just be watching it on the telly."
The one rite of passage she is determined not to forgo is a visit to the famed McDonald's in the Paralympic village for a celebratory junk food fix once her final race is complete.
During the Olympics, social media was awash with images of athletes tucking into groaning banquets of burgers and fries.
"I don't know the last time I had a McDonald's," she laughs. "That will be exciting. I'm not even sure if I will like it that much, but I will have one anyway."
READ MORE: Coach Ian Mirfin on Samantha Kinghorn's remarkable journey to the Rio 2016 Paralympics
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