The 22-year-old now owns one of the most-desired piece of jewellery in the athletic world – an Olympic gold medal.

She’s no stranger to gold – the swimmer picked up four of them at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 – but winning one at the Olympics is special. 

While McKeon stood on the blocks awaiting the starter's orders, her family and friends sat at home in the Illawarra glued to their TV screens.

While the Australians were the record-holders and hot favourites for the top spot on the dais, the race started out tight.

McKeon swam the first leg, handing over to Brittany Elmslie just a fingernail behind the Americans.

In the second leg, the US swimmer Dana Vollmer opened up a lead on Elmslie and some people in Wollongong – and elsewhere in Australia – started wondering if silver was the best the team could hope for.

But then the gold came in a rush, with Bronte Campbell getting her nose in front before handing things over to her sister Kate.

And she just burned them, making the rest of the field look as though they were standing still. Not even the yellow world-record line could keep up with her.

For McKeon the view from that top spot on the dais would have been so sweet. Nothing like an Olympic gold to make all those years of training worth it.

After years of staring at a black line at the bottom of a pool, of doing endless laps, of becoming very familiar with the smell of chlorine, the sheen of that gold medal would be a welcome reward.

For some, however, the Rio Olympics don't seem to shine as brightly as in previous years. People have spoken about how there is a lack of buzz this year – about the events, that is.

There’s been plenty of talk about Rio itself – most of it bad. From concerns about the Zika virus and sewage in the ocean, to athletes having their personal items stolen from their rooms, so much of the news coming out of the city ahead of the Games hasn’t been good.

So perhaps it’s understandable the mood for the 2016 Games might be low for many.

But for a lot of people in Wollongong watching McKeon and her team-mates turn it on in the pool, we  stopped worrying about the grey cloud of the Olympics and instead found its gold lining.