Shelley Pearson’s rocky road to the Rio Olympics is a true tale of triumph over adversity.

Pearson will become the first Bermudian woman to compete in Olympic rowing when she takes to the water at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in the heart of Rio this summer.

It will be the realisation of a long-held dream and one Pearson feared had been snatched from her after undergoing nine surgeries over the course of just two years to combat an aneurysmal bone cyst.

For the 25-year-old it has been a journey full of pitfalls and painful obstacles although she never lost hope of fulfilling her Olympic ambitions.

“I’ve had a long road in regards to issues,” said Pearson, whose health issues first surfaced in the autumn of 2012 when she was a junior at Harvard College.

“I had a genetic disorder, an aneurysmal bone cyst in my left pelvic bone. It’s a cyst inside the bone that eats away from the inside out.

“My body didn’t know it was there so it was kind of acting as a cancer it that way.”

Rather than fix the problem, Pearson’s first surgery only served to mask the issue. She continued to train while her bones, unbeknown to her, became increasingly weak and led to her fracturing her pelvic bone and more surgeries.

She resumed as soon as the fracture had healed but it was not long before she suffered a relapse when her cyst returned.

“Things then got pretty messy,” Pearson recalls. “When I relapsed in 2014 it was scary. The doctor told me, ‘you’re a smart girl, there are a lot of other things you can contribute to this world’.

“That was really hard but I refused to let that be the case. Once rowing had been taken away from me I realised how much I loved it and how much I wanted to do it.

“I’m now one of those crazy people who smiles during those tough periods in training.”

Pearson arrived at Oxford University in the autumn of 2014 on crutches, still determined to make the university’s Blue Boat team.

She had just five months to regain her fitness and battled back to become the first Bermudian to row in the Newton Women’s Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities in April last year. Pearson’s Oxford, the overwhelming favourites, humiliated Cambridge with a 6½-lengths victory.

“Since then I’ve been OK,” she said. “I flew up to Boston this month to have an MRI scan and follow-up appointment with my doctor. I’m at the point where they have never had anyone relapse from the stage I’m at now.”

Pearson became the fourth Bermudian athlete to reach the Rio Games after winning the Latin Olympic Continental Qualification Regatta in Curauma, Chile, last month.

She will return to competitive action at the World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland, in June, where she expects to face many of her Olympic rivals for the first time.

“The World Cup III is the perfect regatta for me to see what I can do,” she said. “I know that a lot of the top athletes will be there.

“The United States are always very fast, Great Britain are always very fast, and New Zealand and Australia are also very quick. Then there are a group of differing European nations that can be quite fast.”

Pearson has already enjoyed plenty of success in rowing despite her extensive health issues.

She won the gold medal in the United States eight at the Junior World Championships in 2009 and claimed bronze at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta with Harvard in 2010.

It was her father Kevin Pearson, the former Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby winner, who first suggested rowing to Pearson when she was aged 15.

He believed her height and powerful frame would be ideally suited to the sport. By her own admission, Pearson had been far from a natural in any sport involving a ball and was more than willing to take up the oars.

“I was always horrific at anything that required me to catch, kick or do anything with a ball,” said Pearson, who is studying for a master’s degree in business administration.

“When I went away to boarding school [the Peddie School in Mercer County, New Jersey] my dad suggested I try rowing.

“When you first feel the rush of the water beneath you it’s beautiful, you’re just hooked.”

Pearson, who is sponsored by the Horseshoe Group — a local insurance company — will not be the first Bermudian to row at the Olympics. Jim Butterfield competed at the Munich Games in 1972 and has been an inspirational figure for her.

“Jimmy is a close family friend and he’s definitely someone who has inspired me to continue to do it,” said Pearson, who will compete in the singles sculls in Rio.

“He has done so much for rowing for Bermuda and I certainly hope to be that person going forward.”

Pearson hopes to still be competing when the Toyko Olympics rolls around in 2020 but insists she is not looking any further than Rio at the moment.

“I definitely want to start a career so we will see if I can manage both and whether my body holds up. It’s still a long way away.

“[Qualifying for Rio] hasn’t really sunk in yet and I don’t know whether it will until the opening ceremony. I think that’s when it will really hit me.”

Perhaps it will be that moment at the Maracanã Stadium for the Athletes’ Parade when all the bumps in Pearson’s four-year journey finally make some semblance of sense.