Olympic bronze medallist Alec Potts had to overcome his fair share of setbacks on the path to his sporting dreams, but he kept a firm eye on his goals and never gave up.
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Potts laid his path to the Rio Olympics bare for student captains from Canadian Lead and Delacombe primary schools this week on a day to help inspire them to become better leaders today and in to the future.
Potts won a bronze medal in team archery at the 2016 Rio Olympics at just 20 years old.
The 60 pupils - who are school captains, sporting leaders and junior school councillors - also heard from the current Mount Clear College school captains, and refugee community advocate and mentor Deruka Dekuek from the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council.
Tales of resilience, persistence and knowledge of what it takes to make anyone a leader were shared among the pupils, who leven had a chance to touch and wear an Olympic medal.
It was the second year that leaders from the two school have come together to learn more about being an effective leader.
"It's really important for them to be able to see that anyone can become a leader," said organiser Courtney Trigg from Canadian Lead Primary School.
"We wanted to have a range of speakers for the day so each student had someone they could relate to and pick different messages from each of the different people and their experiences.
"They've taken a lot of points on board, particularly around never giving up and that anyone can be a leader," she said.
With most of the audience in their last year of primary school, many gravitated toward the current year 12 school captains of Mount Clear College, the youngest presenters, who explained what it takes to be a good school leader in secondary college.
"Anything our students do in school helps them become a leader in the future," Ms Trigg said. "They can aspire to anything."
For many students, hearing first-hand stories about going to the Rio Olympics from archery champion Alec Potts was a highlight.
"He spoke about his path to the Olympics and the things he had to overcome, specifically four different hurdles with coaching and equipment, self image, body image and the sort of things that inspire him."
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