Kristi Harrower's Sydney Olympics started with an opening ceremony that brought a tear to her eye and concluded with her confined to a wheelchair.
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Wednesday marks the 20-year anniversary of Harrower and the Opals winning the women's basketball silver medal at the Sydney Olympics.
It was the first time an Australian basketball team had won a silver medal at the Olympics and it was the first of four Olympic medals for arguably Bendigo's greatest athlete.
"I still remember walking into the opening ceremony and it brought a tear to my eye,'' Harrower said.
"Walking through that tunnel and you see the Australian fans wearing green and gold and we had 110,000 fans screaming for us.
"I've never felt an emotion like it. We looked at each other and just couldn't believe it.
"It was an amazing experience."
In some part the tears of joy were a result of Harrower's journey just to get to the Sydney Olympics.
The point guard was shattered when she wasn't picked by the Opals for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
"I remember getting the phone call before Atlanta telling me that I'd missed selection,'' Harrower said.
"I'd just finished at the AIS and I had a call from UCLA in America asking me to go there to play college basketball.
"I decided to decline the offer because my main aim was to make the Australian team for the Atlanta Olympics.
"When I didn't make the team for Atlanta it was really disappointing. I think one of the reasons I didn't get picked...some people thought I was a spoiled brat, but I wasn't, it was just that I was so competitive that I hated losing and I'd sulk.
"I needed to mature a lot more and that was one of things I focused on over the next four years and it showed in my game.
"I improved so much in that four-year period. When I look back on it now I worked harder between Atlanta and Sydney than I did for any other Olympic campaign.
"Don't get me wrong, I always worked hard, but after missing out on Atlanta I wanted to do everything possible to make it to the next Olympics and, in a way, I probably worked too hard.
"I put my body through a lot to get into the best shape I possibly could and then I started to break down with some injuries.
"I was weighing up whether to go to the WNBA or stay at home and I was told that if I wanted to make the Sydney Olympics team I should stay at home to prepare.
"I was pretty sure I was going to be in the team, but you can't think like that, so I was very relieved when that phone call came through to say that I'd made it."
Throughout her career Harrower never left a stone unturned when it came to preparation.
That was one of the reasons she clicked with then Opals coach Tom Maher.
"It was a three-and-a-half year preparation and Tom had us clicking,'' Harrower said.
"We'd do three hour sessions twice a day and everyone brought in. During training camp there were no days off. Everyday we worked hard.
"Everyone had so much respect for Tom and we were all on the same page. No-one ever questioned the system he had.
"We had so much belief in what we were doing."
That's why the Opals entered the Sydney Olympics with expectations of more than just a medal - they wanted a crack at the USA for gold.
The Opals were in pool A for the Olympic preliminary matches and opened the tournament with a commanding 32-point win over Canada.
The second match against Brazil was built as a danger game for the Opals, but they produced another strong performance at both ends of the court to win 81-70.
The Opals cruised to a 70-47 win over Slovakia and 96-39 victory over Senegal to set up a crucial final preliminary round encounter with France.
The winner would top the group and avoid the USA in the semi-finals.
In their most pleasing performance of the tournament to that point, the Opals won 69-62.
"Every game we played we had a packed house and the crowds were amazing,'' Harrower said.
"France was the hardest game. They had some great players who'd been around European basketball for a long time.
"We'd played against each other quite a lot and both teams knew each other well.
"French basketball is a lot like Australian basketball where it's defensive orientated and very structured offences.
"It was a tough game, but we played well, particularly defensively, and got through."
The Opals handed Poland a 76-48 lesson in the quarter-finals to set up a semi-final clash with Brazil.
The semi-final result never really looked in doubt as the Opals won 64-52 to advance to the gold medal game.
"I remember my personal game against Brazil wasn't very good,'' Harrower said.
"I got into foul trouble and had four fouls and it just wasn't a good game for me.
"I was starting to worry about my form leading into the gold medal game.
"I was upset that I wasn't playing as well as I could and that I'd put so much work into my game before the Olympics.
"I decided to go back and watch the vision of a previous game we played against the USA (at Rod Laver Arena).
"I'd played well in that game and watching it over again just sharpened my focus and gave me some confidence."
The USA were hot favourites in the gold medal game, but internally the Opals gave themselves a great chance of winning gold.
"We knew it was going to be hard, but the fact we were playing on our home court and we had so much confidence in the way we were playing meant that we gave ourselves a shot at it,'' Harrower said.
The gold medal game turned out to be one to forget for Harrower.
She did return to form with a strong performance in the first half, but a foot injury in the second half forced her from the court and put an end to any hopes the Opals had of mounting a comeback.
The USA eventually won 76-54.
"I don't think the final score was a true reflection of the game,'' Harrower said.
"They had a team of superstars and were just too good for us. They could have picked three teams and they would have been great.
"We missed out on gold, but we were happy to win silver because that was the best result an Australian team had achieved."
The foot injury not only brought an abrupt end to Harrower's gold medal game, it also nearly forced her out of the closing ceremony.
"I was on the right hand side of the court and I went to push off and I sprained the top of my foot,'' she said.
"I was in a lot of pain and it forced me out for six weeks.
"The next day I had to get scans and the team physio didn't want me to go to the closing ceremony.
"In the end one of my team-mate's went to the medical centre and got a wheelchair. That was the only way the physio would let me go, so my team-mates pushed me around in a wheelchair.
"It wasn't ideal, but we still had a lot of fun."
Harrower represented Australia in four Olympics - Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London.
Sydney is the one that holds the most fondest memories.
"It was an amazing Olympic Games,'' she said.
"What Australia did to make the Olympic Games special was fantastic. It was the best Olympics I went to.
"The village, the food...even the courts. Everything was really special."
Harrower said she didn't venture out of the village to watch other sports in Sydney.
"The whole four Olympics I went to it was something that I didn't really want to do,'' she said.
"I was there to compete and do a job.
"We played every second day, so when I had downtime I wanted to rest up and get myself ready for our next game or try to catch up with family.
"I think in Beijing I went to a heat of the swimming and in Athens I watched the Boomers play the USA in a men's game and that's about it."
A gold medal is the only thing missing from Harrower's glittering Olympic career of four Olympic Games for three silver medals and one bronze.
Would it have been nice to win a gold? Certainly.
Does the fact she didn't quite grab gold keep her up at night? No way.
"A gold would have been nice to cap everything off, but I'm really happy with what I achieved,'' Harrower said.
"Not many athletes can say they went to four Olympics and won four medals.
"I'm really happy with my three silver medals and one bronze.
"In a way my bronze medal is my favourite medal. It was my last Olympics, it was probably the best game I ever played for the Opals and we actually won the bronze medal game. When you win silver it comes after losing a game.
"My bronze is my favourite medal, but Sydney is the best Olympics I went to."
Read more: Kristi Harrower's career in photos
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