Not since Cathy Freeman in 2000 has an Australian reached the women's 400 metre final. That's now 16 years and counting.
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Australia's best hope of bucking that trend - 21-year-old Morgan Mitchell - said she ran a "disgusting" race in the 400 metre semi-finals in Rio on Sunday night.
Mitchell, as well as fellow Australian Anneliese Rubie, were unable to become the first Aussie females to reach a 400 metre final since Freeman.
While the 52.68 second run was well off her 51.25 second personal best, Mitchell - who has been likened to Freeman - was quick to point out the performance of the Australian track legend in her maiden Olympics.
"I'm only 21, people think I'm this 30-year-old mature woman," Mitchell said.
"It's my first Olympics, and if people want to compare me to Cathy [Freeman], they need to remember that in her first Olympics (when Freeman was 19 years old) she got knocked out in the semi, too. It's a long road and athletics is the toughest sport without a doubt."
Freeman, who claimed silver in the 1996 Atlanta games and, famously, gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, still holds the Australian record of 48.63 she set as runner up in Atlanta.
Mitchell is still a work in progress, admitting she was unable to control her excitement and was guilty of going too hard to early - running out of steam in the final 50 metres.
"I felt a little bit sick," Mitchell said.
"But I've been a bit sick before and run a PB. I felt perfect in my warm up but I think I just got too excited. Oh my God, how funny. I thought I'm fit, I'm ready, I've done all the work but went out way too hard. You can just laugh really, I'm going to look back on that and just kick myself.
"It is a little bit eye-opening. I think I'm mature enough to handle that. I have no excuse for that performance, it was just disgusting. You have got to laugh at those things though. You have kids watching and you don't want them to see you down. You have to keep happy and positive. Just keep positive, it's not the end of the world. I still know I'm a 51.2 runner, it was just a poor performance on the wrong night."
Australian's Linden Hall, Zoe Buckman and Jenny Blundell were all unable to progress past the semi-finals of the women's 1500 metres.
