Dual sports legend Erin Phillips has opened up on her Olympics heartbreak in a powerful interview with Hamish McLachlan on Unfiltered.

Phillips, who was a superstar basketballer before joining the AFLW, felt like she let the entire country down at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Unfiltered, featuring Erin Phillips 9.30pm Wednesday straight after The Front Bar on Seven and 7plus.

After starting her basketball career for the Adelaide Lightning in the WNBL, Phillips was drafted to the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA in 2005.

She enjoyed a decorated career in America, winning two championships with the Indiana Fever (2012) and Phoenix Mercury (2014) and playing for five teams across nine years.

Phillips also solidified her spot in the national team and was a member of the Opals team that won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After being controversially overlooked for the 2012 Games in London, Phillips was back in favour four years later and was co-captain of the team in Rio.

But after sweeping their round robin group, the Opals suffered a shock loss to Serbia in the quarter-finals that ended their streak of five consecutive Olympics with a medal.

“Any time someone mentions Rio (it still affects me),” she says.

“I couldn’t talk about Rio for a year because you’re playing in the Olympics, you have a whole country behind you, you’re playing for the Opals who are so successful, you’re one of the leaders of the team.

“And yes every team can have a bad day, you don’t always get your fairytale but consequences of losing that was just for me was just so severe.

“I felt like I had let so many people down, an entire country down, that had hoped the Opals would at least medal, that was the standard and we should have.

“That was a failure for Australia and you were a part of that.

“They were really hard times after that, I couldn’t even stay after the Olympics, I left. I couldn’t do the closing ceremony, I just felt so much shame on myself personally.”

Phillips said she used the disappointment of Rio to fuel her stunning AFLW career, but added that she’ll never get over it.

“I’m in a place where I’ve accepted it, but I won’t get over it,” she said.

Phillips joined Adelaide for the inaugural season of the AFLW and went on to win three premierships, two league best and fairests and two AFLW grand final best on ground medals, among a host of other individual accolades.

She was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame this year.

Unfiltered, featuring Erin Phillips 9.30pm Wednesday straight after The Front Bar on Seven and 7plus.