The Olympian was inducted into the newly-minted Australian Sailing Hall of Fame earlier this month.
Armstrong teamed up with Belinda Stowell to win gold in the 470 class at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
They became the first women to win a sailing medal for Australia and snapped Australia's 28-year sailing gold medal drought.
But here is the rub. Stowell is Zimbabwean and Armstrong was born and bred in Dunedin.
She honed her considerable sailing skills on Otago Harbour and 17 years on from that wonderful day in Sydney, it still rips her sail that the medal counts towards Australia's total.
``Deep down, it still irks me today,'' she said.
``In an ideal world I would have won gold for New Zealand. But finding the right team-mate is such a precious thing, when you find them you just have to go for it.
``I still have mixed feelings but it was the right decision for me at the time.''
You have to wind back the clock to the mid-1990s to pinpoint the moment when Armstrong drifted across to the other side.
Armstrong had joined an Australian women's team for the Whitbread Round The World Race and that is where she meet Stowell.
The team ran out of money and ``we were stuck in Sydney wondering what to do''.
Her husband, Erik Stibbe, got a coaching job in Australia so ``Belinda and I looked at each other and decided we were a good combination and it was a good opportunity to pursuit the Olympic dream''.
Four years later, that decision was vindicated when the pair stood on the top step and had a gold medal draped around their necks.
It was a tremendous feeling but Armstrong needed a wee cheat sheet to help her get through the ceremony.
``I had the words to the Australian anthem in my pocket. I was learning them on the day.''
Winning gold was ``kind of a relief''.
``I had been on the Olympic circuit for 11 years pursuing the thing and you never really believe you can actually do it. When you finally do, it is a sense of relief.
``You weren't dreaming something that was crazy.''
The pair competed at Athens in 2004 but finish mid-fleet.
Armstrong and her husband moved to Canada in 2010 and lived there for six years before moving to Dunedin in August 2016.
For Armstrong, her career has come full circle. She got her start when her parents dragged her along to yachting. Now her children, son Zach (11) and daughter Jaime (8), are learning the sport.
Armstrong still sails and is doing some coaching at Ravensbourne Boating Club.
She has also decided to finish the commerce degree she started in 1988. Yachting and then life got in the way but she is one paper away from completing her degree.
She is back living in the neighbourhood she grew up in and loves being back in Dunedin.
And that medal she won for Australia, well, it has finally come home.
