The golden glow shone again for Australia on Tuesday, but in bathing himself in bronze, Owen Wright may just be the most inspiring story of this Olympics.
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The nation celebrated with the expletive-slipping 100m backstroke swimmer Kaylee McKeown, a third gold medal in the pool, to go with the 4x100m women's relay team and Ariarne Titmus's iconic 400m freestyle triumph.
Taking out the third-placed playoff and delivering the first Australian Olympics surfing medal, Wright had completed an amazing journey.
Less than six years ago, Wright's life, let alone his career, was threatened by a head injury suffered at Pipeline.
Forget riding perfect 10 barrels again, Wright feared he may never rise on a board again.
Instead he stood tall in Japan, having edged two-time Brazilian World Surf League champion Gabriel Medina in the messy mayhem of cyclone-affected conditions for bronze.
"The Olympics to me has been that beacon of light, it really has," he told broadcaster the Seven Network.
"I was going through some really tough times, I had some long-lasting symptoms and I was questioning whether or not I was going to be doing the sport again.
"And then the Olympics got announced and with that attention, then came in some extra funding and I got to the doctors I needed to get to.
"I ended up striving and striving and now I'm standing here with a medal, it really did change my life ... and now to get this medal, it's just unbelievable."
McKeown dropped the F-bomb on live television, as she expressed the emotion of becoming an Olympic champion, while family and friends probably added one while cheering at home.
Later, canoe slalom star Jessica Fox won her second bronze and third Olympics medal, the disappointment visible as gold eluded her once again.
Wright's path to a medal was a desperate scrap, reflecting the rolling swell which presented in the finals.
He'd run out of time against eventual winner Italo Ferreira in the semi, before defying Medina by just two 10ths of a point.
Medina had pumped both fists when he landed a spinning aerial move, but was only award a score of six, which left him still chasing.
The Australian surfing team had been called the Irukanjis, a jellyfish with four tentacles, perhaps one each represented by Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons, Julian Wilson and Steph Gilmore.
"I know my strengths were good enough with the conditions," Wright, who comes from Culburra Beach and was living at Thirroul, said.
"I got my waves and I just wrapped him up in the tentacles which is what we've been using all week, the Irukanji tentacles.
"I stuck to him and he got that one, it was a terrible wave but he still got a six, that's just Gabby, he's a bit of a freak like that."
Fitzgibbons was instead left to rue a missed chance, bowing out in the quarter finals to Japan's Amuro Tsuzuki, who went on to claim bronze herself.
A talented Youth Olympics middle distance runner, the Gerroa product admitted she was 'shattered'.
"It hurt so bad, this one is probably the toughest loss of my career," Fitzgibbons told Seven.
"I had the best time out there, I fought my hardest and it just wasn't my day. It's so hard and my heart's just shattered."
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Tim Barrow
When it comes to sport - at professional and community level - in the Illawarra, I'm here to provide insight, context and opinion, as well as the latest news you won't find anywhere else.
When it comes to sport - at professional and community level - in the Illawarra, I'm here to provide insight, context and opinion, as well as the latest news you won't find anywhere else.
