Article by Claire Sadler, courtesy of The West Australian.
After proudly flying the flag for the nation over the past couple of weeks our Aussie Olympic champions flew home on Tuesday night.
Australia won a total of 18 gold medals in Paris, the most the country has ever won at a single Games, and it’s clear the shine is yet to fade as dozens of the Olympians arrived in Perth to a crowd.
It was an especially warm welcome for the WA athletes, who delivered almost a quarter of Australia’s gold medals at the Games, including Nina Kennedy’s pole vaulting victory, Matt Wearn’s dinghy sailing first place and Matt Ebden’s tennis doubles win.
WA Premier Roger Cook, Sports Minister David Templeman, and WA Institute of Sport chief executive Matt Fulton were at the airport to welcome the athletes.
As the 120 athletes walked into the airport Minister Templeman got the crowd chanting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, Oi”.
Nina Kennedy came out of the airport gates proudly wearing her gold medal alongside boxing champion Charlie Senior, who won bronze.
Kennedy posed with young fans before saying the win fully set in when she got to stand on the podium and hold the medal.
“It is really damn heavy,” she said.
“There was one thing on my list of things that I always wanted to do and that was to become an Olympic champion, no one can ever take that away from me.”
Charlie Senior’s family were there to greet him at the airport including his extremely proud parents Carla and Daniel.
“For him to get the reward for all the effort he has put in and the sacrifice, and the things he has missed out on over the years for his dedication. He deserves this,” his dad Daniel Senior said.
