
Twenty years on, Nikki Webster is still remembered as the little girl who flew at the Sydney Olympics and later released the hit song 'Strawberry Kisses'.
Before her performance at the Opening Ceremony in 2000, few people knew anything about the 13-year-old. Not long after, everyone would know who she was.
But when it started and Webster emerged as the 'Hero Girl', it was her parents Tina and Mark who got the biggest surprise. They'd been kept in the dark about just how big their daughter's role would be due to the secrecy of the ceremony but suddenly, she was everywhere.
In 2019, Nikki Webster appeared as Alien on The Masked Singer. Post continues below video.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in August, Webster recalled how on the train ride home, people handed them a paper with her face all over it.
"I did not give them a lot of detail because I wanted them to be proud and I wanted them to witness it just like an audience member," she said.
"It definitely changed our lives, but it changed our lives for the better and we all went on the journey together wherever it took us."
Becoming the Hero Girl was an intensive process, that would have been worthy of a reality TV show in Webster's books, if such shows existed back then.
"Every young girl that you could imagine was there, every girl you had auditioned against for musicals, for TV commercials, it was a massive casting call," she said.
In July, Webster returned to our screens in Channel Seven's The Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000 Uncovered footage and interviews.
"It was so much fun to relive all the amazing moments and share behind-the-scenes insights from the Opening Ceremony, a day I will remember forever," Webster wrote on Instagram.