Ms Lawrence is the daughter of former Emmaville Central School Science teacher Laurie Lawrence, the niece of Joe and Denise Lawrence of Stonehenge and cousin of Glen Innes Public School teacher Jane Lawrence.

“A group of us were at my brother’s (Jane’s father) house in Tenterfield watching it on Friday night,” uncle Joe Lawrence said.

Jane Lawrence said although she was home sick, “it was fantastic, all of the family are very excited by it.”

“We have been able to keep updated (with her experience in Beijing) through her website Lawrencesisters.com and on (social website) facebook,” she said.

In her first appearance in an International final and an Olympic games, 26-year-old Jacqueline Lawrence overcame the odds to take silver behind Slovakian Elena Kaliska.

Ms Lawrence had begun her Olympic campaign ranked in 11th position. After her first run she sat in 10th position, then moved up to seventh, and during the semifinal, got to the fourth spot.

With three competitor runs to go in the final and Ms Lawrence sitting just outside medal contention, the competitor sitting in third placed incurred a two second penalty after hitting a gate and the competitor in second capsized. Suddenly with gold in her grasps just one run to go would decide the colour of the medal. But Kaliska had a quick clean run to claim gold.

“Once she finished the semi final in fourth position she had a chance,” Mr Lawrence said. “Her goal was to make the final, she was happy just to make it, to get a medal was more than she expected.”

The eldest of three sisters who are all national slalom kayakers, Ms Lawrence and her family lived in Emmaville for a few of her pre-school years before moving to and growing up on a beef cattle property in the town of Old Bonalbo, where her father is a teacher at the central school as well as coach of the school's canoeing team.