DENVER (KDVR) – A rower from Colorado is heading to the Paris Olympics, but not by the route most people might take.

She is hoping her story can be an inspiration to others who want to pursue their Olympic dream.

Jessica Thoennes and her family moved to Littleton, Colorado, when she was in middle school. She went to Mountain Vista High School where she played basketball and volleyball.

After she graduated high school, she visited Seattle where her friend was on the rowing team for the University of Washington.

“She goes, ‘Hey, my coach wants to meet you’,” Thoennes said. “We walk into Conibear Shellhouse at the University of Washington. And I walk down the stairs and downstairs is sitting the women’s head coach, the women’s assistant head coach, the assistants, the men’s head coach, the assistant coach.”

As she sat there in the meeting, she couldn’t help but think how silly this was.

“They sat me down and said, ‘I think you could be good at this.’ And I was like, ‘Mm, I’m going to be a volleyball-basketball star. Thank you, though,'” Thoennes said.

She eventually agreed to an official visit of the campus, but she still wasn’t convinced rowing was right for her.

After a few months of considering schools, the University of Washington popped back into her mind.

“I was like, you know what, what’s a year?” Thoennes said. “Take a chance.”

So, she packed her two bags and moved from Littleton to Washington.

“I was a walk-on,” Thoennes said. “And I sucked,” she added with a laugh. “Really, really bad. I was awful. I was not good.”

Two years went by, and it finally started to click.

“I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the process,” she said.

In 2020, she headed to Tokyo for the Olympics where she competed in rowing.

“I’ve made the dream. I’ve made the Olympic team,” Thoennes said. “I think it took a long time for it to sink in the first time.”

Now, she is at the national rowing team training site in Princeton, New Jersey, gearing up for the Paris Olympics this summer.

“This time, I just want to make sure, like, my partner who’s now a first-time Olympian, you know, I want her to have the best experience,” she said.

Something else new this time around, her loved ones will get to cheer her on from the sidelines.

“My parents and my sisters are actually coming, which is big because… nobody got to come for Tokyo. So, this will be the first international race my dad gets to see in person,” Thoennes said with a grin. “And then my partner of five years, he will be coming over as well, which I’m very excited about.”

Since Thoennes didn’t have the most conventional route to the Olympics, she hopes she can inspire others to pursue their dreams, and not settle on any one sport.

“I think everybody should try every sport that they can. Don’t specialize. Do whatever the heck you want,” Thoennes said. “Fail as many times as you can. And feel that. And let that happen. Let the hard stuff happen because you will get better. And I have failed a thousand times. And I will fail a thousand more times. And you just keep betting on yourself.”