Rio Olympics 2016: Kim Brennan wins gold for Australia

While Australia has had to wait a few anxious days between its last gold medal at the 2016 Olympics and Brennan's, her sport has had to endure eight years of waiting.

Significantly, it was Kim's husband, Scott who won the double sculls title at the Beijing Olympics, meaning that the Brennan household is now a two-gold dwelling.

At the finish line, effort replaced exhaustion to be, in turn, overtaken by tranquility.

Oarsome Foursome legend, Nick Green, who was first to meet her, along with team mate James Tonkins on a podium in the boating area, said, "She slumped forward and then tears rolled down her face.

"The overwhelming emotion was one of relief. I said to her, 'Welcome to the club'."

Her husband, Scott, also had a message from Australia, telling journalists, "It says so much about Kim how she has bounced back from a disastrous start on that first day".

Later, after the medal ceremony, Brennan's mood had changed from relief to serenity.

"One of the things you do so much in rowing is visualisation," she said.

"You imagine that moment so many times when you cross the finish line. When I crossed it today, I couldn't work out whether this was actually it, or whether it was my imagination again."

The morning was full of mystic moments. The song being played as she approached the medal ceremony was Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk which, as she said, "It was the song played at Scott and my wedding when we did the wedding dance."

She also explained the similarity between her mindset at the start of the race and an earlier visit to Rio de Janeiro, after the city had won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"Before the start of a race is actually a very tranquil place," she said.

"You have a moment with yourself. I was reflecting on what I had to do."

Then she looked up at the statue of Christ the Redeemer and the surrounding peaks.

"It brought me back to my first visit to Rio a couple of years ago when I had a moment up there looking down on the lake, visualising what it would be like to row on the lake for an Olympic medal.

"It's uncanny how similar I felt on the two occasions."

Great athletes, particularly women, seem to be in touch of their feelings, years apart, but her race plan seemed simple enough.

She led from the start and the expected challenge from New Zealand's Emma Twigg did not eventuate, with the USA's Genevra Stone taking the silver medal and China's Jingli Duan the bronze.

"We reviewed the video of the semi final and realised I needed to keep my beat up a little bit more. I wanted to sit up and to be taller and to breathe.

"Essentially it was a plan to race my own race and that's what worked."

By the halfway point, Brennan had pulled away decisively, with a 23-metre margin on Twigg.

Her performance was a mix of grace and mechanics, boat and athlete seemingly a single unit, powerfully and fluidly propelling relentlessly forward.

Afterwards, she thanked a chorus of admirers, including her husband, a doctor specialising in emergency medicine; her coach of 11 years, Lyall McCarthy of whom she said "the overtime he's

worked can't be put in numbers".

Brennan also thanked her training partners, including the mens' quad sculls team who "have helped me so much with my technique. They've let me be part of their little group".

Of her future, the 29-year-old lawyer said, "It's hard to say. I am so content with this," rubbing the gold medal hanging from her neck.

"Sports people are held up as heroes but in reality, we are the lucky ones. We are the ones who travel to amazing places."

She explained that she has been away from her husband for three and a half months, saying, that chasing gold is "a really selfish thing to do". And it imposes its own demands."There is always the pressure there to make it all worthwhile."

Her final though, when she was still taking deep breaths half an hour after the race, was with her late team mate, Sarah Tait.

Putting everything into perspective, she said, "No race can do justice to how much she brought to the people around her.....what she has given to the people around her is so much more than any medal can be".

Australia missed winning any rowing gold in London, where Brennan won silver and bronze, but she completed the collection beating home American Stone and China's Duan.

The 31-year-old world champion arrived in Rio as the hot gold medal favourite, unbeaten since 2014. She had a shock loss in the heats, held in wind and waves, but quickly got her campaign back on track.

On Friday, she was confident she could triumph in the final contest against New Zealand's Emma Twigg.