In winning four gold medals in London, Cole sat alongside Australia's swimming stalwarts Matthew Cowdrey and Jacqueline Freney in doing the heavy lifting for the nation's medal count.

Four years later Cole arrived in Rio without Cowdrey and Freney, who were missing from the Australian swimming team.

Cole is now suddenly one of the leaders among the green and gold contingent at only 24 years old.

That pressure can have an impact. Cole admitted as much after winning her first individual gold medal at these Games on Friday, topping the podium in her women's 100m backstroke category.

"It's day nine of competition, that can be hard for any athlete," she said.

"I knew I was the world record holder going into that race.

“I was still questioning if I was worthy to be there heading in, and I knew that I was, but it is amazing that even after the amount of psychological sports training I have had, those thoughts still come in and take you down.

"As you get older it can be hard to have the same enthusiasm going into a race. Once you start getting beaten a couple of times, that thought of you being invincible disappears, and you do start questioning yourself."

Cole collected six medals at the Rio Paralympics.

She won her third silver on Friday after she teamed up with Lakeisha Patterson, Maddison Elliott and Madeleine Scott in her women's 4x100m medley relay.

The former Victorian, who now trains in New South Wales, said the past four years had been challenging after surgery on both her shoulders in 2013 and a change of coach.

"I had to change my training program quite drastically," Cole said.

"I guess it is really made me find that passion for sport again, because I personally have invested so much these last few years, as well as him.

"I feel like I had the responsibility on myself to bring home a gold medal for both of us today."

Cole will return to Sydney on Friday with a small welcome party planned.