She has no superstitions, no lucky charm, nothing that she's attached to except the folding frame of photographs which sits on her side table as memory and inspiration. Photographs which no teenager should have to carry. Photographs of the father she lost two years ago. Photographs that she kisses every time she leaves the room for an event.
Then the door closes and the child becomes the competitor that her father loved. Amita Berthier, 17, fencing world junior No. 3 and junior World Cup champion in Havana last year, loses her girlish smile and puts on her mask. Not the protective, steel-mesh one, but the stern, unblinking look she wears on her face.
Already she's watched videos of the kinetic Conor McGregor and listened to "high-tempo, fast music", maybe rap or Spanish stuff, and she's in the right place and in the right mood.
Foil in hand. Ready to duel.
No one knows how far Berthier will go for success cannot be read from tea leaves. You can't tell how much she might win, but what you can tell is that she wants to win. If her sensitivity is evident, then her hunger is undisguised. On the piste, she's attached to a wire yet competes as if charged with electricity.
"The idea of competition excites me," she says. "It's something to look forward to. It creates an opportunity to track my ability, to see what I have learnt, to push myself higher and better."