The Canadian-born track star hauled in countless medals during her career, highlighted by a bronze in the 4x400m relay at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in front of an adoring home crowd.

But her story of success was far from typical.

"I'm one of six kids and my brothers and sisters did a little running in high school, but not too much. Mum and dad didn't pay for sport, so it was just school where I competed and I always loved it," she said.

"I never joined a track club until I was in university, so I was a really late bloomer."

It was during her time on the University of Manitoba track and field team that she really started to turn heads.

She competed in the 300, 600, 4x200 and 4x400 metre events and collected nine medals during three CIAU championships. She would add another 11 medals at the Canada West conference championships before she was named 1992 CIAU Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

"I was offered to go to university in the USA, but the best thing I ever did was stay in Canada," she said.

"It's an individual sport but a real team atmosphere when you're in university."

After university was when her career really took off.

"I was at the National Indoor Championships where I ended up getting a silver medal. The head of Athletics Canada approached me saying they were going to be competing against Belgium and said I was selected to be on the team. It was really, really exciting," she said.

"My first national team wasn't until I was 24 years old, which is considered a little bit late for athletics. I had a different pathway.

"You get all the gear and it's so exciting. You dreamed as a kid of representing your country, but in the big picture, that was a relatively small team."

From there, Mrs Hinrichsen would be selected to represent Canada at the Francophone Games in Morocco.

Being her first overseas competition, she had high hopes. Unfortunately for her, things didn't live up to expectations.

"Eighty per cent of the team got dysentery and we were sicker than everything. It was just hell," she said.

Things would get better from there however, as she would eventually compete at the Pan-America Games, the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games in 1994 which was hosted by Canada. It was the latter where she would experience what it was truly like to be a star.

"From the opening ceremonies, or when you're competing, you're introduced and the crowd goes wild just because you're Canadian," she said.

"The average person in there wouldn't know you, but when the crowd cheers like that, it's just goosebumps. You'd get asked for autographs like crazy and you couldn't walk anywhere without being asked for one.

"It was also the first time my parents ever saw me compete for Canada. That was extra special."

But all good things must come to an end.

A torn Achilles tendon in 1995 began the downfall of her career on the track, but also kickstart her new life off of it.

She got a call from Sport Manitoba and was asked to be a sports consultant. From that, she would have the opportunity to work at the 1999 Pan-American Games, which was hosted by Canada.

It was there that she caught the eye of the person that would soon become her boss. Mrs Hinrichsen had been recruited to work at the Sydney Olympic Games.

"I've been very fortunate that things have come my way," she said.

"It does come with being an athlete. The qualities you have as an elite athlete translate to the workforce really well.

"After an injury, the best thing that could happen is you transfer to working in elite sport because it didn't suddenly disappear. I was never one of those athletes that went back to running because I didn't know what to do."

And it was during those Games where she would meet her would-be husband, Grant Hinrichsen, an assistant housemaster at Kinross Wolaroi School.

He would move to Canada, where they would have two children - Luke and Kaitlyn - and live for the next 16 years.

Then came a decision which would lead her to the latest phase in her life, a decision to move to Orange in 2017 where she now works as a project manager for Western NSW Health. She enrolled her kids at Orange High School and hasn't looked back since.

"Kaitlyn was offered a place at Kinross, but decided that the Astley Cup was one of the reasons she decided to stay at Orange High, because it is such a great school spirit experience," Mrs Hinrichsen added.

"Orange itself is a lot smaller than Winnipeg, which has about 800,000 people, so to come here from there is an adjustment. But both kids have had amazing experiences."

Among the many medals, autographs and national team appearances, it was her induction into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 that stood out as her crowning achievement.

"That's because my kids got to be there," she said.

"They do massive videos with the presentation and just to have my kids there with my whole family was amazing."

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