There was a time Monique Suraci wondered if she belonged.
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The emerging boxer who grew up as one of six sisters at their family home in Queanbeyan suddenly found herself questioning whether she could really mix it with some of the best amateur prospects on the planet.
Then you remind her she has punched her way to the Paris Olympic Games and she takes a moment before declaring: "this is where I belong".
"I think there was a turning point for me overseas last year," Suraci said.
"I was at a tournament in Hungary and I got the best female fighter of the tournament. I remember before going to that tournament - it was one of my first international tournaments, it was my first one for the year - and I kind of questioned whether I belonged.
"I ended up winning the tournament and got female fighter of the tournament. It reassured me that I belong on the big stage, this is where I belong."
Which is why Suraci - who models herself on Olympic gold medalist and two-weight undisputed world champion Katie Taylor - will feel at home when she touches down in Paris for the Olympic Games.
The 23-year-old booked her ticket to Paris by winning gold at the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands in December.
![Queanbeyan boxer Monique Suraci has qualified for the Paris Olympic Games. Picture by Keegan Carroll Queanbeyan boxer Monique Suraci has qualified for the Paris Olympic Games. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/53022157-29fa-4d4c-9c9f-42cc2c0aaaca.jpg/r0_256_5000_3078_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A unanimous decision win over New Zealand's Tasmyn Benny - which puts Suraci in an Australian Olympic team including Tokyo bronze medallist Harry Garside - has the rising star on the cusp of realising a long-held dream.
Suraci was at school watching highlights of the Rio Games in 2016 when that ambition started to take shape.
"I remember sitting there thinking 'I'm going to go to the Olympics one day'," Suraci said.
So Suraci chased a dream across the world, from Hungary to Bulgaria, India, Poland, India, Italy, Thailand, Germany, Solomon Islands, Samoa, and Indonesia.
The alarm went off at 6am every day for the first of three training sessions. Virtually all she could find time for in-between was food and rest.
But the moment she secured her place in Paris, her family back home was none the wiser.
"The live stream actually wasn't working so they thought I was fighting a lot later on in the day. I called my mum and I was bawling my eyes out," Suraci said.
"She's like 'what's wrong?' I was like 'I qualified', and she was like 'oh my god, you fought already?' They were over the moon. I think for them too, it didn't really kick in for them either.
"They were really happy for me. They see me day in, day out go to the gym in the morning, come back home, be wrecked, and just repeat that two or three times a day every single day.
"It won't kick in, maybe until the opening ceremony that I'm actually at the Olympics. Every time someone congratulates me and says 'you're going to the Olympics', I have to sit there and say 'oh my god, I'm going to the Olympics'."