SYDNEY (Olympics) - When it comes to putting points on the board at Olympic Games, Janeth Arcain is among the all-time greats.

A 1.82m guard out of São Paulo, she ranked number one in scoring average at the 2000 Olympics, pouring in 20.5 points per game.

In her three other tournaments, Janeth ranked in the top five.

In addition to the gold medal won at the 1994 FIBA World Championship, Janeth celebrated silver at the 1996 Olympics and bronze four years later at the Sydney Games.

Before travelling to Greece for the 2004 Olympics, coach Antonio Carlos Barbosa said of his scoring machine: "Janeth is an irreplaceable player.”

She was 35 at the time, but Barbosa was right.

Janeth remained a force on the hardwood and averaged 18 points per contest in Athens to become her country's all-time leading Olympic scorer.

In Greece, Janeth had believed Brazil could win the gold medal but they ended up in fourth place.

She maintained a positive outlook.

"We got fourth place in the Olympic Games and that's not bad,” she said.

"Now we are looking ahead all the way to Beijing."

Janeth stopped playing international basketball before the 2008 Olympics, though.

She decided the best way to sign off from the international game was to do so in her own country.

“After my last participation at the Olympics (2004), I had already thought about quitting,” Janeth said.

“Then came the World Championship in Brazil (2006) and the Pan American Games (2007).

“The two competitions were in Brazil and it gave me the opportunity to play in front of the Brazilian public.

“As things had always played out, most people barely remembered having seen me play in the country and I came to the conclusion that it would be the best time to stop.

“I was playing in my country, with the fans on my side, cheering for me.”

There was something else that Janeth had begun to accept.

“The routine (of her career) was making me too stressed and I had other plans,” she said.

“Age also was coming and then I had set up the Janeth Arcain Institute in 2003 and was planning other things.

“And that was another incentive because I thought to myself, I'll stop playing, start to train teams at my institute now in order to prepare myself to be a coach.

“It was the right decision and regardless of the outcome, I wanted the crowd to have a last glimpse of Janeth playing in her country, and walking off the court alongside my countrymen.”

Janeth, since her retirement, has served as a coach with Brazil’s youth teams.

FIBA