Ronda Rousey was a little girl when her father gently scooped her out of bed at 3 a.m. to drive her to swim meets in the frigid North Dakota winter. She would wake up to the smell of his after-shave and the exclamation, “It’s showtime.”

Other family members would shower Ronda with concern because her two older sisters walked, talked and read earlier than she did. But her father, Ron, did not dwell on what his youngest daughter could not do. He simply deemed her “a sleeper.” And when Ronda began swimming, her father declared, “You’re going to win the Olympics.”

Showtime for Ronda, now 21, comes on Wednesday in Beijing  in judo, not swimming. She is favored to become the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport.

Although she looks forward to competing, she also carries along the past. Her father cannot be with her. He committed suicide when she was 8.