To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today's memory.
On the streets of Athens in August 2004, three Australian cyclists hunted as a pack in a calculated and relentless pursuit of Olympic gold.
And on the back of a collective effort from Oenone Wood, Olivia Gollan and Sara Carrigan poured out over the course of three-and-a-half hours, gold was struck when the latter burst over the finish line in first place. Victory in the women's road race, a 118.8-kilometre contest spanning nine laps throughout the Greek city, belonged to Carrigan.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see the moment Australian cyclist Sara Carrigan won gold at the Athens 2004 Olympics!
The winning moment came when the Queenslander powered past German world champion Judith Arndt on the final stretch of road. She lurked like a tiger behind her rival's back wheel, biding her time with a killer instinct. She then shot past and won comfortably, burning her only remaining challenger with an unstoppable sprint.
Thrusting her arms above her head and punching the air, she became the first Australian woman to win Olympic cycling gold since Kathy Watt in Barcelona 12 years earlier.
"It's been a whirlwind," Carrigan said two months after her Olympic triumph.
"I'm still pinching myself with the realisation that I'm living one of my dreams at the moment."
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