Border Olympians celebrate success 20 years on from Sydney Games

Nine athletes represented the region on the world's biggest stage, six won medals.

A 12-year-old Lauren Jackson was perched in front of the television at home in Albury as International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch declared to the world "the winner is Sydney" on September 24, 1993.

She turned to her parents, both national basketball representatives, and said "I'll be there" and it was from that moment an Australian basketballing star was born.

Two years later, Jackson captained NSW to the national title and made Australian selectors stand up and notice.

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She joined the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra at 15 and was soon a regular member of the Opals.

Jackson was the only AIS product to make the Sydney Olympic team, finishing with a silver medal behind powerhouses USA.

"As a youngster I was very driven and when they announced Sydney, I made it a goal and that was my path," she said.

"I think the timing was kind of perfect for me to really step into basketball and it was the beginning of a massive adventure for me."

Despite going down 76-54 in the gold medal game, Jackson was full of pride with what the team had achieved.

"My grandmother flew up from Albury to Sydney to watch me play in the grand final. Playing in front of my family and friends was amazing," she said.

"The Americans are just powerhouses in the sport. I've often said this but they could take three teams to an Olympic Games and probably get gold, silver and bronze.

"Our legacy and what we were able to do in the sport during that period, particularly when we had some of the best ever players coming through and departing the game. It was a very special time for the Opals."

Jackson, now boss of the WNBL, came full circle when she returned to coach the Albury-Wodonga Bandits women's side last year and is enjoying raising her two sons, Harry and Lenny, back on the Border.

"I can safely say I've never been happier to get home and share all of this with them,"' she said.

Sydney 2000 was also a special Games for Culcairn's Andrew Hoy.

It was the fifth time at an Olympics for the equestrian great and his most successful.

Hoy captured a third consecutive gold medal in the open team eventing and won silver in the individual discipline.

"I'd only been out of Australia for about seven years and living in the United Kingdom when Sydney took place," he said.

"For me it was very, very special to be flying back to Sydney for an Olympic Games.

"Many of the volunteers involved with the equestrian event were people I knew and had grown up with, so it was great to see them.

"But it wasn't a time for socialising, it was making sure I was ready for what I was there to do."

Hoy was arguably in career best form, having relocated to England in 1993 to test himself against the sport's elite.

The now 61-year-old is still competing at the highest level and is eyeing an eighth Olympic Games at Tokyo in 2021 after COVID-19 postponed the event this year.

If he makes the national team for another campaign and is victorious, Hoy would become Australia's oldest Olympic champion, surpassing yachtsman Bill Northam, who ironically won gold the last time the Japanese capital hosted the Games in 1964, at 59 years of age.

"It's not about sitting back and admiring the coals, it's about keeping the fire burning. That's something I've done throughout my entire life," he said.

Walwa-born cyclist Scott McGrory won an emotion-charged gold in the madison.

McGrory took home bronze in his first Olympics at Seoul in 1988 and had to wait 12 years for another opportunity, but he almost didn't get on the track.

Less than three months before, McGrory and wife Donna had lost their first-born son, Alexander, at 11 weeks because of a heart condition.

How McGrory picked himself up to combine with teammate Brett Aitken to win Olympic gold on home soil is nothing short of spectacular.

"All these years later, I have a much better understanding of that process I went through, at the time though I wasn't really aware of what I was doing," he said.

"It wasn't until a couple of years later that I looked back on what I went through during that period and especially on race day, I had an incredible amount of self-doubt.

"The power of the mind that elite athletes have and I don't think it's just elite athletes, everybody's capable of it, but I guess it stands out with elite athletes because there is a result at the end that we can talk about.

"I think the ability we have to draw on energy from somewhere or something is quite incredible."

McGrory moved from Wodonga to the Gold Coast at the age of 10 and also lived in Bendigo and German city Cologne, and was soon the centre of attention for all of them.

"Around the time of the games, The Border Mail, Gold Coast Bulletin and Bendigo Advertiser all had feature stories claiming 'local boy wins'. In Cologne I got the key to the city, because I was living in Cologne at the time, so I was confused where I was from," he laughed.

Albury softballer Peta Edebone set a then Olympic record when she hit four home runs at the Sydney Games to help Australia win bronze.

The performance helped raise the profile of the sport, which remains one of Australia's most successful team events with medals coming in every Games it has been on the program (1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008).

"We had to come through qualifying for the (Sydney) Olympics as well and I had a good qualifying tournament and was hitting the ball really well.

"I was just so thankful I was able to follow that up at the Olympics and, you know, take the team as far as we could.

"It's a team game and whilst that might have been my best Olympics, it takes a team to get us there."

Edebone was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to softball as a player and coach, having also been inducted into the International Softball Hall of Fame and the Softball Australia Hall of Fame.

Jacinta van Lint was also on the podium at Sydney, forming part of the silver-medal winning 4x200m freestyle relay team.

After swimming the heats, van Lint was left out for the final as the star-studded line up of Susie O'Neill, Giaan Rooney, Kirsten Thomson and Petria Thomas were pipped by the USA for gold.

"I was disappointed that I didn't win a place in the final team but I'm proud that I was part of the Olympic team,

"I helped the team through to the final and I was part of the Australian team for years leading up to the Games.

"When I think of my swimming career it's not only the Games, but all of the Australian teams and squads I was part of, the trips overseas from a young age for competition, my age group swimming experiences and all the knowledge that I gained through the years of training and dedication to the sport."

Cobram diver Dean Pullar thought he wasn't destined to be an Olympian after not qualifying for the 1992 and 1996 Games, 40 years after his mother and first coach, Wendy, who was representing South Africa, missed out on the 1960 Rome Games.

"By 2000 I was thinking, is this a jinx on the family or the way it's meant to be? Just to get the qualifying spot to be on the team and be an Olympian was a great hurdle to overcome," Pullar said.

But he put the demons to rest to combine with Robert Newberry for bronze in the syncronised 3m springboard.

"I also came fifth in the individual 3m event and I was over the moon with that result. There were 50 divers in the event and my results against those guys previously hadn't been that good," he added.

"What better place to do it than a home Olympic Games."