A grateful listener once called former ABC broadcaster Gerry Collins to thank him for his accurate and atmospheric calls of Olympic swimming, telling him: "You can't take a TV down a mine."

The point was, that wherever you could take a radio, you could tune in to the fortunes of Australia's athletes at the Olympics. And the assumption was that the national broadcaster would always be there when the medals were won, or perhaps lost, in dramatic and often unforgettable fashion.

The ABC has called every magical Olympic moment since 1952, including relay gold for the women's 4x100m freestyle team in Rio. Credit:Joe Armao

"So many people tell you those stories," Collins said. "Newspaper front pages are covered with the biggest news and usually the ABC is always there. Now there will be gold medals where it will be all over the front pages but the ABC won’t be there describing it."

Collins, who was the voice of ABC's swimming coverage from the 1988 Games in Seoul to the 2008 Games in Beijing, was shattered for those among his former colleagues who would have been part of the broadcast team at next year's Olympics in Tokyo.