Rodriguez, who will turn 30 in December, announced her talent as a 19-year-old when she earned a silver medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez in the under-67 kilograms class. The following year she earned bronze in the same category at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara.

A silver medal at the 2012 Pan American Championships at Sucre followed, this time in the over-67kg category, and she repeated that effort at the 2014 version of the Championships.

For Rodriguez, 2016 was a big year as she won the Pan America Olympic Games qualification tournament in Aguascalientes.

Her Rio 2016 preparations went very well. She won silver at the German Open followed by gold at the Pan American Championships in Queretano, and bronze in the Pan Am Open at the same venue.

She had high hopes in Rio as she entered the over-67kg heavyweight competition as the eighth seed - but was beaten 5-1 in the preliminary round by Morocco's ninth seed Wiam Dislam.

In 2018 she upgraded her Pan Am Open bronze to silver in Spokane, before returning to Rio with more success as she took bronze in the Military World Championships.

The following season was relatively muted for her as she was beaten in the second round at the World Championships in Manchester, but 2020 has been a story of success - albeit truncated by the coronavirus pandemic.

After opening by winning the Mexican Open title, Rodriguez followed up with a bronze medal at the German Open in Hamburg before moving on to the Pan America Olympic qualifier in Heredia.

Victory there has set her up for an Olympic challenge that she will be hoping expunges some of the disappointment of her showing in Rio four years ago.