Pashley - who was born in Bendigo - is a member of one of Colbinabbin's most well-known families, the Morgans.

Her grandmother, Judy Phelan, uncles Phil, Chris and Jim Morgan and aunty Sadie Vale all live in the town, whose sporting ground carries the name of Pashley's late grandfather, Mick Morgan, while another aunty, Mary Ann Morgan, runs the Colbinabbin Hotel.

Pashley, a 32-year-old physiotherapist, lives in Aireys Inlet, while parents Pauline, who grew up in Colbinabbin, and Brendan O'Kane are now based in Brisbane.

Although Pashley hasn't lived in Colbinabbin herself, the proud town of about 300 is a buzz to have an Olympian with a strong family connection to it.

"Colbinabbin is a community that has always loved its sport, so I'm sure there's plenty of excitement around the town," Pauline said this week.

"Ellie had many holidays in Colbinabbin growing up and was born in Bendigo before we moved over to Shepparton for a short time, then Melbourne and then Albury, which is where she would say she grew up.

"She started Little Athletics in Melbourne at Box Hill when she was about six and when we moved up to Albury she really took off with a lot of her sport because she was one of those kids who played a lot of sport and was good at it.

"She was always naturally good at cross country running and the longer distance running from Little Athletics.

"She ran at the national cross country when she was in high school and I remember her also representing Australia in a mountain run in Slovenia, but it probably wasn't until she qualified for the Australian University team for Poland during her last year at uni that she decided to get a bit more serious about her running."

Pashley - who is coached by Julian Spence - ran her first marathon in 2016 in Melbourne in a time of 2:46:11 and booked her Olympic berth in 2019 when she ran an Olympic qualifying time, and personal best, of 2:26.21 in Nagoya, Japan.

Later in 2019 she finished 8^th in the New York Marathon (2:27.07) and in October last year ran 12^th in the London Marathon (2:31.31).

Just five years after running her first marathon, Pashley will be one of three Australians - along with Sinead Diver and Lisa Weightman - contesting the Olympic women's marathon from 8am (AEST) Saturday morning.

"I can't describe how proud we are of Ellie. She's a very humble person and someone who everyone loves with an infectious smile," Paulie said.

"She has no expectations on herself, but is a quiet little achiever.

"We don't have any unrealistic expectations on Saturday in terms of medaling given it's very hard to match the Africans, but we think she'll do very well. I'm hoping she can get a personal best.

"It's hard to know where she will place in terms of whether it's top 20... I'd to think she could, but if she could run a personal best, that would be fantastic.

"We went up to Cairns last week to say goodbye to her and she looked fantastic. We were on the bike while she did a couple of training runs and she was in really good shape."

The field for the women's marathon includes world record-holder Brigid Kosgei of Kenya.

Kosgei set her world record time of 2:14.04 in Chicago in October of 2019.

Pashley had also qualified for the Olympic 10,000m, but it will also be run on Saturday. Pashley finished 13^th in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Doha in 2019.

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