The cyclist said her two golds from Rio 2016, stolen along with a backpack from her car while she trained at the Victorian Institute of Sport in Melbourne's Albert Park, were back in her possession after being handed in to police.

Thieves broke into the front passenger window of her car and snatched the backpack, after watching 55-year-old Cooke hide it before she went to training.

"I had a backpack with some clothes because I was going to train after a ride at the gym," she told Australian radio station ABC 774.

"I left my medals at the bottom of the backpack in the foot well of the car and covered it over with a black coat. 

"They must have been watching me because within a matter of 18 minutes they just smashed the passenger window, reached in, didn’t even unlock the car and took the backpack."

Cooke claimed two gold medals in the Brazilian city this summer when she won both the women's T1-2 time trial and road race.

She also won the Paralympic mixed team time trial title at London 2012.

A man at a property in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy found the medals in a bag which also contained a gun, drugs and money before handing it in to Fawkner Police station.

Detective Senior Constable Joseph Hartig said a search warrant was later executed at a house in Glenroy, where police seized an alleged stolen car and trailer as well as drugs.

Four men were arrested following the search.

A 40-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were charged with handling stolen goods and drugs and weapons charges, while another two men aged 26 and 30 were released pending further inquiries.