Basketball On The Internet.

SHANNON Seebohm is in rare air as the coach of an Australian world champion.

When the final siren sounded on Sunday in Spain and his Sapphires had won the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, it marked just the fifth time in history Australia could boast the Gold Medal.

It was the 1993 Aussie girls team which clinched the Gold at the FIBA Under-19 Worlds in Seoul to break the glass ceiling.

Michelle Brogan and Co became our first World Champions and four years later, Chris Anstey was the star as Australia claimed the FIBA 22-and-Under World Championship in Melbourne.

The break was six years then before Andrew Bogut was the MVP who led Australia to the FIBA Under-19 World Championship Gold Medal in Greece.

In 2006, after winning a rightly under-valued Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games, the Opals became our first senior team to bring home the mantle of World Champion with the Gold from the FIBA Women’s World Championship in Brazil, Penny Taylor the MVP.

Now, a decade later, the Sapphires have struck again, thrashing Italy 62-38 in the Gold Medal game and unearthing a whole crop of potential Opals.

And that means Seebohm, at a mere 28 years old, joins Ray Tomlinson (1993), Ian Stacker (1997), Rob Beveridge (2003) and Jan Stirling (2006) in Australian coaching’s Gold Medal “First Five”.

While this is not the path the Millicent schoolboy had in mind for himself when he played for Australia as a junior and signed his first pro contract with the NBL's South Dragons, his raft of successes as a coach earmark him as a huge prospect.

His WNBL debut with Sydney Uni Flames in 2014-15 netted a Coach of the Year accolade and a Preliminary Final for a team many tipped to be playoff spectators.

Now he has a Gold Medal even his father Peter, a basketball tragic from South Australia's south-east, would be blown away by. 

What lies ahead is exciting for everyone in the sport in Australia.

THE PIONEER: Ray Tomlinson coached our first Gold Medal team in 1993.

THE VISIONARY: Ian Stacker turned his boys into men to claim Gold in 1997.

THE BEGINNING: Rob Beveridge's men won in 2003 and now form the basis of our Rio bid.

GOLDEN GIRLS: Jan Stirling steered Australia to its first senior Gold in 2006.

SKY'S THE LIMIT: Shannon Seebohm is a Gold Medallist already, at 28.