Sport stars to spill beans at Elevate Sport panels.

Fancy getting to hear insider stories from your favourite Australian sporting great? Find out how to get your free ticket for the Elevate Sport panel.

Beach Volleyball champion Kerri Pottharst once had the key to the city – well, sort of.

“When we won the volleyball final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, we were walking around afterwards with a posse of 10,” she recalls.

“Wherever we wanted to go we just walked to the front of the line, and I held up my gold medal … then the bouncers let all of us in.”

Her golden ticket admitted her to one of the great events of the Games.

“We went and watched the women’s basketball final between USA and Australia,” she says. “We were courtside!”

These are the behind-the-scenes stories you’ll be hearing at the Elevate Sport panels.

Expect feel-good, irreverent discussions between champion athletes about their careers – the highs, the lows and the ice-baths in between. Things that took place on the pitch, court or velodrome and all the craziness that followed afterwards.

Olympian Kerri Pottharst will be speaking at the Elevate Sports panel. Picture: News Corp Australia

Pottharst will join Manly fullback and Dally M medallist Tom Trbojevic, cyclist Emily Watts, diver Melissa Wu, beach volleyballer Mariafe Artacho Del Solar, Sydney Swans forward Tom Papley, NSW Swifts netballer Maddy Proud, Paralympic swimmer Matthew Levy, Paralympic triathlete Lauren Parker and more.

Stephanie Brantz will be the host.

“There are 25 different athletes from 16 different sports,” Pottharst says.

“It’s an honour to be involved.

“It’s a fantastic event to get Sydney up and running. We’re gonna be sharing stories about our success, past and present. I’m looking forward to watching the panel with Melissa Wu, she’s a pocket rocket, it’s amazing how she can dive from that high. I was on SAS Australia this year and I’ve noticed she’s on it next year. It was a massive challenge.

Australian diver Melissa Wu gets in some practice at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre days out from the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Picture: Adam Head

“I’ll catch Matthew Levy’s panel too, he’s a great spokesperson for the Paralympics.”

Pottharst is clearly a “work hard, play hard” kind of gal.

She’ll be sharing stories during the day then dropping her inhibitions at night and letting her hair down to some live music.

“Marcia Hines is performing. She sang a song at Sydney Games called Rise, it was the official song of the Australian team for the 2000 Olympics,” she says.

“Natalie (Cook, her volleyball partner) and I would blast Rise every day and then Marcia came into the Olympic Village and sang it for all of us. It was amazing.”

Let’s hope Hines rehearses Rise at Pottharst’s behest and splices it into a set that will likely include I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, From The Inside, Fire and Rain, I Don’t Know How To Love Him and I’ve Got The Music In Me.

Marcia Hines will be performing at the Elevate Sydney festival. Picture: Supplied

Hines is doing two shows, the first being Elevate Disco on January 2 hosted by the irrepressible Courtney Act.

They’ll be joined by Leo “You Make Me Feel Like Dancin’” Sayer.

On the final night there’s the Elevate Curtain Call concert with Hines, Sayer, the eternally mischievous Todd McKenney and a performance by John Paul Young and The Encore Orchestra.

Love for music and Sydney will indeed be in the air that night.

ELEVATE ARENA, Main Stage, Jan 2-5, 2-5pm.

TO BOOK TICKETS: go to ELEVATE Sydney.