OPINION: Chasing that elusive gold harder than it looks

AS the Aussies are finding out at the Rio Olympics, it is bloody hard to win a gold medal.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 13: Cate Campbell of Australia prepares ahead of the Women's 50m Freestyle Final on Day 8 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 13, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images). Picture: Clive Rose

AS the Aussies are finding out at the Rio Olympics, it is bloody hard to win a gold medal.

Heading into the second week of the Games, Australia was languishing in 10th spot on the medal table.

And looking at the program ahead it's hard to see where Australia's next gold medal is going to come from.

But here's the thing. It is those unexpected, unheralded athletes in sports that never shine in between Olympics that may yet yield our best Olympic moments.

Favouritism seems to have sat like a millstone around the neck of some of our swimmers.

Heading into Rio something like 14 of our swimmers were ranked in the top three of their events after the last world titles meaning they would have been expecting a podium finish in Brazil.

Instead, there were only two individual gold medallists in Rio in Mack Horton and Kyle Chalmers, and neither of them were really burdened with the term "favourite" going into the event.

Which means they saved their best for Rio.

There was so much hype around Cate and Bronte Campbell heading into the Rio Games it is hard to believe their lacklustre performance in the finals of both the 50m and 100m freestyle.

Cate described the 100m final, in which she finished sixth, as possibly the greatest "choke" in Olympic history.

As it gets further and further away from Australia's fourth placings at the Sydney and Athens Olympics it gets harder to find excuses.