BLACKSBURG -- She met Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Shawn Johnson and Yao Ming.

She hurdled in a 91,000-seat stadium.

And as she participated in the closing ceremonies, Queen Harrison thought about the future.

Harrison had so much fun in China that she hopes that her first time competing in the Olympics won't be her last.

"It's just like, 'Hmm. London's going to be really fun. I've got to make sure I go there, too,' " Harrison said Thursday, a day after returning to Virginia Tech.

"London [in 2012] is definitely a possibility, and hopefully ... 2016.

"I still feel like I've only scraped the top of my ability."

It's an understandable feeling. Harrison was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic track and field team. She doesn't even hit "the big 2-0," as she calls it, until next month.

The junior hurdler was the first female Tech athlete to ever compete in the Olympics.

She moved into the Olympic Village in Beijing on Aug. 12, after spending more than a week at the track and field team's training center in Dalian, a city in northeast China.

"The beds [in the village] were small," said Harrison, who roomed in the village with relay runner Mechelle Lewis. "They were supposed to be twin size, but they seemed smaller."

She had no complaints about the dining hall in the village.

"All those different foods -- and 24-hour McDonald's!" she said.

"The dining hall was open 24 hours a day, so ... you get in there and meet lots of people from different countries."

It was in the dining hall where she met Bolt, the expressive Jamaican sprinter who won three gold medals.

"Getting his food, he's dancing around," Harrison said. "I'm like, 'Wow, you really do dance all the time.'"

Harrison took a lot of photos at the Summer Games, but she fought the urge to take one when she met Phelps in an elevator at the village building in which they both stayed.

"That was pretty cool," she said. "I was like, [telling myself], 'Don't act crazy.' "

Harrison's mother and two of her sisters attended the Olympics to cheer her on.

They even got a day pass to visit her in the village -- and gawk at her famous peers.

"They were acting crazy, seeing everyone," Harrison said with a laugh. "I was like, 'Hey, hey, don't take pictures. That's embarrassing.'"

Harrison made her debut at the Bird's Nest on Aug. 17, when she competed in the prelims of the 400-meter hurdles.

"My eyes got wide because there was so many people [in the stands] yelling and screaming," she said.

"It's just mind-blowing. I'm glad I was able to bounce back and get prepared for my race."

Harrison had earned an Olympic berth by finishing a surprising second at the U.S. Olympic trials in June. She had a school-record time of 54.60 seconds.

But Harrison wasn't that fast in Beijing.

Her time in the prelims was 55.96, good enough to earn her one of 16 spots in the semifinals. She was 13th overall out of 27 competitors.

"I don't think I prepared myself to run that hard in the preliminaries," she said. "I'm used to collegiate sports, where it's kind of like, just get through the round. I underestimated the level of competition.

"I just really wasn't race-sharp because ... I didn't go to any track meets after the trials, whereas a lot of these people were on the [pro] circuit."

The semifinals were the following night. She finished seventh in her heat with a time of 55.88; only the top four hurdlers in each heat made the final.

"My steps were all off," she said of that race. "My body wasn't used to going that fast in between the hurdles, so my legs were all off. ... The wrong leg was coming up."

Harrison spent time with her mother and sisters in the days after the semifinals.

She did some shopping in the Silk Market in Beijing, ate roast duck, and attended basketball and volleyball games.

Harrison had watched the opening ceremonies on a big screen with her teammates at the training center in Dalian.

But she did take part in the closing ceremonies Sunday, hanging out with volleyball players and rowers as she watched acrobats and singers perform.

"That was amazing," she said.

Harrison experienced another amazing moment when she returned from the Olympics. She was picked up at the airport by her father, who had been released from prison while she was in China.

"I ran and jumped on him," she said.