AUSTRALIA boasts some of the greatest athletes in the Commonwealth who have gone on to claim gold medals on the Gold Coast.

But behind that success is plenty of weird and wonderful facts that made them who they are.

This is a snapshot of just some of our talented athletes and how they came to the world stage:

CATE AND BRONTE CAMPBELL

Australia’s celebrated champion swimming sisters were born in landlocked Blantyre, Malawi in southeast Africa. The girls were homeschooled, lived in a house with guinea pigs and no TV and in which their pet chickens would regularly lay eggs. As such Cate described every morning of her early years “as like an Easter egg hunt”.

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The Campbells learnt to swim with their mother Jenny, who competed in synchronised swimming, in Lake Malawi and were frequently warned to beware of hippos.

It was only when the Campbells moved in Australia in 2001, that the siblings first attended school and took up competitive swimming.

DAN REPACHOLI

Ned Kelly lookalike Repacholi relied on a disciplined diet of pizza and chicken parmigianas combined with lucky stinky socks to propel him to victory in the 50m pistol shoot.

“I’ve had about four parmas in five days as well as a couple of pizzas so the diet of a shooter isn’t too bad,” he told Channel Seven after his win.

Repacholi also revealed he had been staying at a local pub, where he had been indulging in the traditional grub, during the Games instead of the Athletes Village because it was closer to the shooting venue.

He has spent four years growin ghis long ‘red fuzz’ beard to “annoy” his wife and has offered to shave it off for charity with a price tag of $10,000.

LAETISHA SCANLAN

Laetisha Scanlan not only celebrated a gold medal at the women’s trap shooting finals — she also marked her 28th birthday. The shooter from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs has a journalism degree from Monash University, and just competed in her third Commonwealth Games.

EVAN O’HANLON

Australia’s fastest Paralympian O’Hanlon played rugby union alongside Wallabies stars Kurtley Beale and Peter Betham before concussion forced him to give the game away. He has used the statement, that formerly sat atop his Twitter profile: “100m in 10.79 second. I’ve got brain damage. What’s your excuse?” to inspire him and others.

The moustached O’Hanlon, who has cerebral palsy, sported as he raced to gold in the T38 100m at Carrara Stadium has earned him cult Commonwealth Games status.

AARON WILSON

While shirtless, Aaron Wilson ran around the green after he snagged a gold medal in the lawn blowls. But there’s more intriguing facts to this guy than meets the eye. At 26, he is the youngest male in Australia’s Games bowls team. Born in Bendigo, Victoria, he now lives in Sydney. He has a pair of lucky undies, and is called ‘discotheque’. He was introduced to bowls at the age of 11 by his brother. At the athlete’s village, he has reportedly been eating “spagbol” for breakfast. After the games he will return to his full-time job as a professional coach at the Cabramatta Bowls Club.

TIA-CLAIR TOOMEY

Toomey earned the title of ‘World’s Fittest Woman’ when she won last year’s Crossfit Games.

The 24-year-old claimed gold in the 58kg women’s weightlifting event on the Gold Coast just two weeks after the death of her cousin Jade Dixson in a car accident.

Toomey can lift twice her own body weight, owns a gym with her husband Shane Orr and often says she trains from dawn to dusk.

BRANDON STARC

High jump gold medallist Starc has emerged as a social media favourite due to his name’s similarity to that of Game of Thrones character Brandon ‘Bran’ Stark.

Like his older brother, Australian cricket star Mitchell, 188cm tall Brandon dreamt of playing the sport for his country before turning to high jump in 2009 He enjoyed almost immediate success before deciding: ‘I can be pretty good at this”.

KATHRYN MITCHELL

The 35-year-old declared things were “pretty f***ing awesome” after she set an Australian and Commonwealth Games record of 68.92m in winning javelin gold on Wednesday.

She counts Roger Federer as her hero and counts ‘minimalism’ as a hobby.

Nicknamed ‘Mitch’ she calls Monte Carlo home and honed her Games preparation in India for six months before her first major event victory.

ARIARNE TITMUS

Nicknamed ‘Arnie’ or ‘The Terminator’ “because Ariarne is too posh” the Tasmania-born Titmus will return to the schoolyard when her Games duties finish.

The 17-year-old who claimed Games gold in the 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle is in her final year of school at Brisbane’s St Peter’s Lutheran College.

Australia’s latest swimming superstar counts eating dessert as a hobby away from swimming.

Titmus told The Mercury of her superstitions: “I wear my lucky socks out to every final.

“I have two lucky towels I take to every final session and when I’m on the block I like to tickle my fingers all the way until they say ‘take your marks’,” she said.

MITCH LARKIN

The five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist says he never talks about swimming with girlfriend Emily Seebohm.

The bespectled Larkin opts not to wear contact lenses in the pool, unlike fellow swimmer Mack Horton, and as a result much of his swimming is a “blur” and he is unable to read any scoreboards.

Larkin and Seebohm can’t steer clear of the water and share a passion for movies and fine wine. Their $1.375 million Brisbane house comes complete with a pool, a cinema room and a 400-bottle wine cellar.

MELISSA WU

The diminutive diver says she attempts to channel her 13-year-old self during competition.

The 25-year-old, who claimed gold in the 10m platform, made her debut at the Games as a 13-year-old and captured the hearts of a nation during the Melbourne event.

Now she tries to capture that “carefree girl” within.

And fear has something to do with that.

“There’s the actual fear you might hurt yourself but, in time, it becomes the fear of the doubts, the fear of not performing in competition which is hard to deal with. We do a lot of training with our dives, to deal with the fear of doing them,” she told Fairfax Media.

KURTIS MARSCHALL

Marshall left behind a promising AFL career to following his pole vaulting dreams.

The 188cm tall South Australian includes chilli as a mandatory part of his pre-competition ritual.

The men’s pole vault gold medallist lists Instagram as one of his hobbies and is rated a top four per cent influencer by the social media network.

DANI STEVENS

The women’s discus champion is also a keen basketballer and spends her winters playing in NSW’s semi-professional Waratah League.

The 29-year-old Sydneysider is a history buff who enjoys watching a comedy flick in the lead-up to competition.

As a young girl, Steven’s family tradition was to fill empty bowls with spare change so they would be able to fund her sporting dreams.