IF MARY ANTOINETTE RIVERO FIGHTS like she’s been doing it all her life, it’s because she has.

The 20-year-old Rivero, one of the country’s very few bright spots in the coming Beijing Olympics, started as a four-year-old jin. She would tag along and watch her father compete before eventually allowing fate to set her off on the path she has taken almost all her life.

With flourish, at that.

The multiple Southeast Asian Games gold winner and Asian Games silver medalist is now in a training camp Seoul, South Korea harnessing her weapons along with another Beijing bet Tshomlee Go.

“It’s been a big part of our family’s life,” said Rivero, whose sibling JR is her fellow national team member. Her older brother Mark is a former RP jin.

When she competed in her first Olympics in Athens four years ago, her entire family was there at the sidelines rooting for her. They also provided support when Rivero snagged a place in the Beijing Games during the qualifying held in Vietnam last year.

In the mat, the five-foot-seven Rivero is known for her undaunting offense, which she put to good use in the -67kg or the Olympic third weight class.

“She has matured a lot as a taekwondo-jin since the Athens Olympics and her game has improved even more,” observed her coach Rocky Samson.

But the question almost everyone measures Olympians up against in the last few days leading to the Olympics is: Just how close is Rivero to the elusive gold medal in Beijing?

In Athens, the hometown bet who defeated her in the controversy-marred quarterfinal match, Elisavet Mystakidou, ended up taking the silver medal.

During the 2007 World Qualifying in Manchester, she lost the bronze medal and outright qualification to a Croatian via the playoff, where both fighters hit at the same time but the corner referees ruled against her.

“I want to surpass what I reached in Athens and to do this, it’s important to be positive, determined, focused and patient,” said Rivero who is now college freshman at Ateneo.

“One of the best attitudes instilled in us by our coaches is we should always put up a good fight. When I go up there I will be giving it my best shot.”

Very clearly, Rivero is not only physically, but also mentally up to the Olympic challenge.