Maria McCambridge has been included in the Irish Olympic team to travel to Athens after making a personal appeal to the Olympic Council of Ireland president (OCI), Pat Hickey.
The 5,000 metre runner had achieved the A standard required for qualification in Belgium last Saturday, but did so after the July 20th deadline, set by the OCI.
McCambridge's appeal centred around an argument that she was unable to find an event suitable enough to achieve such a goal.
Speaking to Newstalk 106, Pat Hickey said: "Maria made an appeal to me, to meet her and talk to her, so I did that because we always believe in giving the athletes a fair crack of the whip.
"It transpired that she had not received any great assistance from her athletics federation, Athletics Ireland, in finding suitable events to get this standard, that's after we had extended the deadline.
"And in fact, during the period we extended the deadline, she had no event whatsoever, to participate in. So that was new information for us."
McCambridge's inclusion brings the number of track and field athletes on the team to 15.