As part of the Australia Post Letter Link program, children have been able to write directly to their heroes including athletes John Steffenson, Grant Hackett, Michael Diamond and Lauren Jackson.

Ross Hill Public School students have been busy adding to their finishing touches to their letters.

Year 4 teacher Kate van den Heuvel said the students had taken part in Letter Link as part of their letter writing unit.

“They have really enjoyed being able to write letters to the athletes,” Miss van den Heuvel said.

“Some of the questions they asked included how long they had been training for the Olympics, what made them decide to become a professional athlete, what they like to do in their spare time and who their role models are.

“They also introduced themselves and told them about Inverell.

“A range of athletes will be given the letters from swimming to athletics.”

As part of the program, schools have a chance to win a prize for the most entertaining and well-written letters, including a visit from an Olympic athlete.

The program began in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics as a Victorian project, following its success it became Australia wide for the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Since then Australia Post has delivered more than 850,000 letters to Aussie heroes through the program.

It is anticipated that the one-millionth letter will be delivered during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

For more information visit www.auspost.com.au/letterlink.