Perhaps the greatest pure athlete to ever attend Arizona State University relaxes on a rail near the track at Sun Angel Stadium, as Jacquelyn Johnson has a rare moment of inactivity.

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The six-time national titlist and overwhelming heptathlon favorite at this weekend’s Pac-10 Conference Track & Field Championships might not be in motion, but her plans keep moving at high speed. These are her ambitions, from Tempe to Beijing.

“People always dream, but I try to take it one meet at a time,” the senior said. “I knew the Olympic Trials are coming soon, but I’m focused on the Pac-10s right now. Then, I’ll worry about nationals. Then, the trials. …

“If I get to the Olympics, I’ll be there to get a medal. That’s what you go there for, right?”

For Johnson, an Olympic trip would be the first major international-level entry on a résumé that is filled with collegiate domination. She has three national titles each in the track and field events that define athleticism: the outdoor heptathlon and indoor pentathlon.

She has been instrumental in ASU’s winning NCAA indoor and outdoor team titles in 2007 and the ’08 indoor crown. Overshadowed by her track exploits is the fact she arrived out of Yuma High School on a basketball scholarship and would likely be a star guard had she stuck with the sport.

“When she got here, it was hard to say what her best sport was,” ASU track coach Greg Kraft said. “She was also a very good volleyball player. It was just a decision she came to that if she wanted to maximize her potential, she should go with track. She was farthest along there.”

The 5-foot-8 Johnson played one season of basketball, appearing in 17 games and averaging 4.5 minutes and 0.5 points a contest. Her hoops skills were below her athleticism, and — in the age of year-round training — participation in two sports was spreading Johnson thin.

“We spent a lot of time recruiting her,” women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “She was good at anything she tried, basically. She didn’t play basketball a lot in high school, so she wasn’t as far along as other kids in the program. But you looked at her physical talent, focus and mentality and said that she has it all there.

“She would have grown into a starter, a top player in our conference.”

On the track, Johnson was an elite talent from the start, quickly picking up instruction focusing on goals with laser-like intensity. After placing second in the pentathlon at the 2004 NCAA indoor meet, she won the outdoor heptathlon — a two-day event which consists of the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, javelin throw and 800 meters.

(The pentathlon is made up of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 meters.)

“I appreciate what it takes to win six titles, but it’s nothing that I keep in my head,” Johnson said. “That’s in the past. …

“Things have been harder since the first title. The expectations grew. I won my freshman year, so the assumption is that if I’m a freshman winning, I should be a senior winning. It’s hard to have that weight on your shoulders.”

That pressure has not stopped Johnson, nor did ankle surgery in 2006.

She set a school record — and posted the highest score in the world this year — with 6,143 points in the heptathlon at a meet in Tucson in April.

Her place in the pantheon of ASU athletics secure, Johnson aims to unleash her athleticism on a global scale.

“You have to become a little complacent after all those titles,” Kraft said. “But being an Olympic year, she knew she had to improve.

“She understands what’s at stake if she wants to progress as a track athlete at the next level.”