For Normie Stevens, the 20,000 Soviet citizens in the arena for his Olympic boxing debut at the 1980 Moscow Games seemed more supportive than the public in his home country.

The Kuku Yalanji, Mbabaram, Yidinji and Guugu Yimithirr fighter participated in the summer games the USA - and many allies - boycotted.

In 1979, the Red Army had invaded Afghanistan to support that nation's government against a growing insurgency.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser pressured the country's Olympians to not travel to Moscow, but most competitors that had qualified including Stevens, the lightweight pugilist from Innisfail in North Queensland, refused to give up their opportunity.

"All I said to myself was 'when are we going?'" Stevens recalls.

"I just thought that the worst that could happen is that we may not come back. So, I thought I'm just going to give it a go – I mean, I made the team.

"It obviously in the end was dampened by what sort of Games it was, you know?"

But before and after arriving from the Olympics, the reception in Australia was decidedly chillier than a stereotypical Moscow day.

After much public debate – following orders from the government to withdraw – the Australian Olympic Federation voted 6-5 in favour of continuing a tradition of attending every Games since the first modern Olympiad held in 1896 at its Greek ancient birthplace of Athens.

Mr Fraser was outraged at what he called a betrayal from meetings between the AOF and his Liberal-National Country government.

"A majority of the (AOF) executive says that it is too late for them to change their minds about attendance at Moscow, but in the same breath they urge individual sporting bodies and individual athletes to consider my remarks carefully, implying that it is not too late for those sporting bodies and individuals to change their minds," Mr Fraser said at the time.

Most Australian Olympians defied the government's call, and each of the participants' own sports backed their stance.

Some of the athletes likened the experience to being shunned like Vietnam war veterans – except it started before they left.

The lack of government support, whereby the Olympians flew out with no fanfare whatsoever, had the Australians forced to walk out in the opening ceremony under the Olympic flag instead of the national Blue Ensign.

"The build-up was sort of hard," Stevens says.

"I personally had a few little write-ups in the local paper and what have you because my trainer tried to boost it and publicise it, and I got a bit of support in my area, but there was a lot of negative comments.

"My mother and father were hearing some bad comments, and I only just started going out with my girlfriend at the time, who is my wife now, and her mum and dad were getting a lot of abuse on the phone and (negative) things put in their letterbox."

Stevens did not know for sure whether the motivation was primarily the Olympic controversy or racism.

"All I'm here thinking is I want to be able to stand up and say 'yes, we can' (go to the Olympic Games) and that it doesn't matter what colour or race you are," he said.

The 66-year-old was the sixth Aboriginal man to compete in a Summer Olympics.

The pressure was on to prove the doubters of wrong and represent the Kuku Yalanji, Mbabaram, Yidinji and Guugu Yimithirr people with pride.

"I always thought we had to be twice as good," Stevens said.

Years before Moscow, Stevens was told by an Australian boxing figure that he could not conceive winning trophies for the best Australian and Queenslander boxers respectively at the national amateur titles.

Stevens, at his first titles, inquired about the trophies sitting on the table with the officials when he got a blunt reply.

"They said you won't win them – you have two things against you, and I said what are they, and he said, one, you come from Queensland (to win the Arthur Tunstall Trophy), and I then said what about the other one, which he said, it's obvious: you're Indigenous," he recalls.

"I said, 'It's '75 now, and that's two good reasons to win it'."

By 1979, ahead of the next Olympic trials, Stevens ended up winning the very same silverware on the same night.

"I managed to get Arthur on my side," Stevens says about the late controversial administrator.

He had just the one bout under the Olympics' knockout format, losing to Yugoslavian Geza Tumbas by a four judges-to-one decision on his debut.

The son of a cane cutter still shakes his head over that contest's result.

He was not alone either that day.

Stevens collected and still has the clippings from newspapers that wrote about how the proud North Queenslander was hard done by.

"You could feel the atmosphere and when they announced the decision, the papers said, 'There was 20,000 Russians jeering the decision that weren't agreeable with it'," he says.

The Australian camp, including the 1980 Olympic light-heavyweight and later commentator of Olympic boxing campaigns, Benny Pike, who has remained close friends with Stevens, was left stunned, while Tunstall insisted on putting in a protest to no avail.

The reception on the return of the Olympians to Australia was mixed. The public slowly came around somewhat, but the Prime Minister never officially acknowledged or even recognised their arrival.

The Australians were never officially welcomed home by federal Parliament House – that is, until last week.

The new 2025 Federal parliament and current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, invited the 121 Australian Olympians from Moscow to converge on Canberra after a long wait.

"When you were chosen to wear the green and gold, you should have drawn strength from knowing the whole nation is with you," Mr Albanese said. "And on your return, you should be welcomed home and celebrated for the inspiration that you have brought to the next generation of Australian athletes."

Stevens stood in the parliamentary gallery of the House of Representatives and found closure from the Prime Minister's calming words.

"Over the years, it has been pretty hard to keep the chin up and try and stay positive," he says.

"I've been pretty up and down, but I have always tried to keep in a good headspace."

Stevens got caught up in the moment, even cajoling former sprinter Patrick Johnson in his AOC Indigenous chair role into asking the PM for a photo that will sit proudly in his Woodford house, north of Brisbane.

The champ is starting a new job this week working with Indigenous teenagers in the boxing ring at a Police Citizens Youth Club gym on the Sunshine Coast.

"To inspire the younger generation is what I feel like I need," he says.

"It would be good to leave a bit of a legacy to give the kids that from when I was growing up.

"I had to look to some people to get that support – I had trainers, friends, mum and dad, of course, and I also met a lot of other people who was just very supportive through my life – I have been very lucky."