The 25-year-old is aiming to make the Australian team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which is just 487 days away.

The triathlete knows it will be a tough task with only three spots up for grabs and a strong calibre of Australian female athletes wanting to compete on the biggest stage.  

To give it her best chance at going to Tokyo, she is looking to get back to competing at the World Triathlon Series (WTS) this year and pushing out some good performances to be at her best. 

"Solid performances at the World Series then performance or podium at the Tokyo test event will be the automatic qualification but that may be a little beyond me," Moana-Veale said. 

Taken by Alex Bogatyrev (@gsxrak47)

"That's the aim then as close as I can get to that would be great."

Moana-Veale was born in New Zealand before she moved to Australia in 1999 with her family.

She quickly became involved in local swim clubs and did the occasional cross country or athletes carnival while at school in Tasmania. It was also during this time that she was encouraged to give triathlon a go but she wasn't too sure. 

It wasn't until she moved to New South Wales that a family friend suggested that the then 14-year-old to give the local duathlon a go. Moana-Veale would go on to win the event and get offered a position at the Sydney Junior Triathlon Academy.

Her passion and love for the sport took hold of her life from there and she would continue to do well, winning the NSW Junior Series before eventually beginning her time in the Australian Junior Series. 

But it wasn't until she had finished high-school that she thought a career in triathlon was the way to go.

"I guess I didn't really think of it as a career until I left school and when I first finished school I went to university, to begin with, and also joined my first professional squad at the same time," Moana-Veale said.

"Eventually triathlon took over because I had results and I guess it almost happened organically without having to think too much on it."

However, after a solid year of competing and winning the Australian Junior Championship plus getting Junior European Cup wins and top 10 finishes at World Cups, she battled stress fractures every year until 2017.

It became a hard cycle to break and hindered her chances at making the 2018 Commonwealth Games team.

"[I] had a bit of injury before that and hadn't had the performances I needed to be competitive at that time," Moana-Veale said.

"So I think leading into that and having a lot of injuries which hindered [it] but at that time I wasn't in the position to get selected."

Making the Australian squad is no easy feat with triathletes likes of Ash Gentle, Gillian Backhouse and Charlotte McShane also looking to make the team. 

Triathlon is still quite new to the Olympics, it's actually the quickest of any sport to be added to the Olympic program, having been accepted 1994 but only made its debut in Sydney 2000.

The level of competitiveness in triathlon from nations like Great Britain and the United States has continued to grow and has seen Australia struggle to win a medal since Erin Densham at London 2012.

For Moana-Veale, she knows the challenges she faces going into the next 12 months but as long as she has given it all, she's knows that is all she can do. 

"I'm progressing as best I can and it is possible but it will be very difficult," she said.

"I'm very aware of how difficult everything will be but things are tracking along the best as I could hope at the moment so as long as I am consistent with my racing there's always an opportunity there."