Hip, hip heptathlon!

"It's not so serious," Kluft's father, Jonny, downplayed after the incident, nonetheless confirming that his daughter would make her debut in Helsinki's heptathlon competition on Saturday with a strapped ankle.

"[Kluft's ankle] is swollen, but it won't affect her in competition," Swedish team spokesman Fredrik Trahn said on Friday, adding that the injury did not warrant an x-ray.

If Kluft's fitness is indeed not at risk, the Swede will be the far-and-away favourite to grab heptathlon gold in Helsinki -- the 22-year-old's only feasible challenge could come from Frenchwoman Eunice Barber, runner-up to Kluft in Paris in 2003 and world champion in her own right in Seville in 1999.

Kluft is a humble champion. "I want to compete with my competitors, not against them," she has said repeatedly -- a statement that is truer than even she may know.

The Swede is the untouchable of her sport; she doesn't need to "compete against her competitors" because, barring Barber, her only true competitor is herself.

In Paris in 2003, Kluft racked up four personal bests en route to the third best performance in athletics history. Her Paris tally of 7,001 points was the first to exceed the 7,000 mark since American Jackie Joyner-Kersee repeated her Olympic title in Barcelona in 1992 with 7,044 points.

Kluft doesn't dare to consider Joyner-Kersee's heptathlon world record of 7,291 points to be within her reach ("No, no... It's too good," she said), but the Swede is never one to shirk personal improvement.

"At this level of competition, it's getting harder and harder to beat my personal record," she told Eurosport.

"But I'm still only 22 years old. I think I'll still be able to progress and beat my personal best a few more times."

Whether win or lose, Kluft is the focus of every meet she enters. Her animated, fan-frothing antics -- little yelps, bug-eyed facial freezes, scintillating smiles -- are legion, making her the bonafide darling of her sport.

"If I do my best -- and I always do my best -- I'm satisfied," Kluft told Eurosport, before adding that a win, of course, sweetens the deal.

"You can't always win, but you can always try," she said.