<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>326138</docID> <postdate>2024-08-12 08:45:24</postdate> <headline>Jackson’s fifth Games medal a vivid Paris send-off</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-326145" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240811128905275107-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Lauren Jackson said was 'amazing' to watch the Opals claim bronze in Paris. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Murray Wenzel</strong> in Paris</span></p> <p><strong>Even Lauren Jackson's son was complaining she didn't get much court time.</strong></p> <p>But the Opals great - 43 and in her fifth Olympic campaign 12 years after her last - insists she loved being able to just sit back and watch.</p> <p>There were no minutes for Jackson in what was surely her last game for Australia while Ezi Magbegor played one of the great Olympic hands in a four-point defeat of Belgium to secure bronze in Paris.</p> <p>Jackson, who had retired before the 2016 Olympics with three silver and a bronze already in her pocket, was used sparingly by her old teammate and coach Sandy Brondello in Paris.</p> <p>"Lenny's always like, 'Mum why aren't you getting on the court?'," Jackson laughed, in reference to her eldest of two sons and his comments in Paris.</p> <p>"But it was amazing.</p> <p>"The last four Olympics, I've played minutes and don't have memories of what it felt like to get a medal; they're very vague.</p> <p>"It's soaked in, every single minute, and I will remember it for the rest of my life.</p> <p>"It's crazy ... when I had them (her two children) there was no thought I was ever going to set foot on the court again.</p> <p>"It's happened and it's been special."</p> <p>Knee pain forced Hall of Famer Jackson out of the game more than eight years ago.</p> <p>But she has executed a remarkable second-coming, starring to win World Cup bronze in 2022 and now adding a fifth Olympic medal, the Opals' sixth in total, and becoming the oldest person to play Olympic basketball.</p> <p>She already had two Olympic silver medals before Opals guard Isobel Borlase, 19, was born.</p> <p>"That was the knock on me when I had to retire early the first time," Jackson said of her longevity.</p> <p>"That's not why I started playing again - I just wanted to get fit - but this second part has just been a dream come true.</p> <p>"I could never have imagined it.</p> <p>"It won't sink in until I'm at home with my kids in Albury just chilling. It's crazy."</p> <p>Their bronze medal run, filled with stand-out performances from young guns like 24-year-old Magbegor, 21-yeard-old Jade Melbourne and Borlase also warmed her heart.</p> <p>Jackson said she was told not to announce her retirement after the game.</p> <p>But even if she did it would need to be taken with a grain of salt, given she had pulled the pin twice more in the past two years only to return.</p> <p>"I've been told that I have to say, 'I'm just going to celebrate today with the girls'," she said.</p> <p>She'll be able to leave knowing Australia's program is in good hands.</p> <p>"There's a runway (to Brisbane's 2032 Games) with the amount of girls playing significant roles in the WBNA, and you saw Ezi today," she said.</p> <p>"We have players that can step up and I do believe we can knock them (US) off one day."</p> </body>