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There was a green-and-gold rush in Sydney on Wednesday morning as Australia’s Olympic team proudly showed off its medals to a jubilant crowd.

Three days after the curtain fell in Paris, hundreds of athletes arrived at a rainy Sydney Airport to be greeted by friends, family, fans and the Prime Minister.

Australia won 18 gold medals, a record for a single Games, 19 silver and 16 bronze, finishing fourth on the medals table.

Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, said she was happy to be home and still couldn’t believe she’d won another three medals, taking her overall haul to 14. “We felt the support when we were over in Paris, and to come home to this is really special,” McKeon said.

BMX racer Saya Sakakibara’s triumph may have been the most heartwarming story from Paris, after she finally became Olympic champion following a near career-ending injury in Tokyo.

The country has been captivated by her relationship with brother Kai, with Sakakibara vowing to win an Olympic medal for him after he suffered a brain injury in a BMX crash in 2020.

“Through all these years of training with Kai, he has instilled in me this belief of it’s wrong to give up,” she said.

“When I thought about giving up, it just really didn’t feel like me.”

Among the swath of emotional arrivals at Sydney airport, few could compare to the shock Ariarne Titmus got when a lifelong friend she hadn’t seen for two years surprised her on stage.

Titmus was doing a TV interview with her parents when Abbey Badcock surprised her and shared a hug with the Olympic champ, who burst into tears.

“This is a very, very, very big surprise,” she said.

“Abbey lives down in Tassie so I don’t get to see her very often. I grew up with her but I did not expect this when I came home.

“This is so special.”