Miller (26) has been given a reprieve by the Athletics New Zealand selectors and will be added to the team if she breaks the qualifying standard of 12.96sec for the 100m hurdles before the International Amateur Athletics Federation cut-off date of July 23.
She will have a series of races in Australia and Europe in a bid to reach the qualifying standard and lower her New Zealand record again.
"I want to improve my international ranking and get a tick beside my name for the Olympics,'' Miller told the Otago Daily Times from Motueka yesterday. She is on a physiotherapy placement in the city.
Miller will take leave from her studies at the University of Otago School of Physiotherapy in a bid to qualify for Beijing.
Her first race will be on the Gold Coast against Australian Sally McLellan, who is ranked top in the world with a time of 12.72sec that she ran at Canberra at the end of January.
Miller will then base herself in Belgium for a series of races. Her last race is a big meeting in Belgium on July 26. The final race is outside the qualifying period, but Miller is keen to get more international experience.
The Athletics New Zealand qualifying period officially ends on June 30 but special consideration will be given to Miller if she beats the qualifying standard after that.
"I've been told that if I run the time the selectors will look at it,'' Miller said. "But there are no guarantees.''
Miller's position is similar to that of Otago 3km steeple-chaser Euan Robertson who beat the qualifying standard in Europe before being added to the New Zealand team for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He finished sixth in the final.
"At the end of the day I have to run the time,'' Miller said.
"I feel I can do it. But it will help having someone else out there pushing me."
Miller lowered her New Zealand record twice in the past 12 months.She ran 13.29sec and broke the New Zealand record when finishing seventh at the World Student Games in Bangkok, where she began the competition ranked 16th.
At the IAAF Grand Prix meeting at Sydney last January Miller finished second behind McLellan in 13.13sec. McLellan clocked 12.81sec.
"It was very close. I was just half a metre short of the qualifying mark,'' Miller said.
McLellan leads the 2008 world ranking list with her time of 12.72sec. Miller is ranked 17th. A country can enter three athletes in the Olympics if they have all reached the qualifying standard.
The United States has 11 hurdlers in the top 17 and only three can compete at Beijing. If eight American athletes were deleted Miller would be ranked ninth.
But the European athletics season has not yet started and some northern hemisphere athletes are expected to come into the mix.
During the past two years, Miller has become the most consistent record breaker in New Zealand athletics. In the 2006-07 season she broke the 100m hurdles record three times and last season reduced it twice more to 13.13sec.
Miller also retained her New Zealand senior women's title in Auckland in 13.85sec and was third in the 100m.
Just for good measure she raced in Australia and won the Australian women's title in Brisbane in 13.56sec.
Miller had only one head-to-head race against McLellan last season because the Australian was injured at the end of January and did not race again.
There was no-one else in Australia or New Zealand capable of challenging Miller and she had to battle big head winds in most of her races.
"The winds did not give me a fair go and made it difficult to get fast times,'' she said. "I hope I get more settled weather in Europe.''
