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Australia at the Olympics

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Australia at the
Olympics
IOC codeAUS
NOCAustralian Olympic Committee
Websitewww.olympics.com.au
Medals
Gold
152
Silver
166
Bronze
191
Total
509
Summer appearances
Winter appearances
Other related appearances
1906 Intercalated Games

––––

 Australasia (1908–1912)
Australian Olympic Team Uniforms unveiled for Rio 2016
Australian Olympic athletes in 1932 wearing the traditional uniform of a dark green blazer trimmed with yellow, still in use at the London 2012 opening ceremony.

Australia has sent athletes to almost all editions of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, as well as every Winter Olympics except 192432 and 1948. In 1908 and 1912 Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia.

The Australian Olympic Committee was founded and recognised in 1895. Edwin Flack was the first athlete to represent Australia at the Olympics. He won gold in both the 800 metres and the 1500 metres, competed in the marathon and won a bronze medal in tennis doubles at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Australia's kit is green and gold.

Australia has hosted the Summer Olympic games twice: in 1956 in Melbourne and in 2000 in Sydney. Australia finished 3rd and 4th in the respective medal counts. In the Summer Olympics since 2000, Australia has placed 4th, 4th, 6th, 8th* and 10th respectively. (*Australia initially finished in 10th position in 2012, but 8th position after the redistributed gold medal to Jared Tallent). Given Australia has a population of only around 23 million people (ranked 53rd in the world), this fact is frequently cited as noteworthy, and is ostensibly due to a strong sporting culture. Other observers have suggested this may also be a result of the generous funding the Australian Government has invested into elite sports development with the specific intention of improving performance at the Olympic games. Prior to Montreal, there was no government funding, however.

Many of Australia's gold medals have come in swimming, a sport which is popular in Australia, with swimmers from Dawn Fraser to Ian Thorpe ranking among the sport's all-time greats. Other sports where Australia has historically been strong include:

  • field hockey, with the women's team winning three gold medals between 1988 and 2000 and the men's team winning in 2004;
  • cycling, particularly track cycling;
  • rowing;
  • equestrian events and specifically the three-day teams eventing;
  • and sailing.

Australia takes international sporting competition, particularly the Olympics, very seriously, and provides much government funding and coaching support to elite athletes, partly through the Australian Institute of Sport. Australia has been more modestly successful in the track events at the games, particularly in modern times. Historically, Betty Cuthbert is Australia's most successful track athlete with four gold medals (three in 1956 and one in 1964).

Australia did not win a medal at the Winter Olympics until 1994, but has moved higher on the medal tallies since then (ranking 13th at Vancouver 2010). This is a reflection on increased funding of Australia's Olympic Winter Games team.

Hosted Games

Australia have hosted the Games on two occasions:

Games Host city Dates Nations Participants Events
1956 Summer Olympics Melbourne, Victoria 22 November–8 December 72 3,314 151
2000 Summer Olympics Sydney, New South Wales 15 September–1 October 199 10,651 300

Unsuccessful bids

Australia has unsuccessfully bidded for the Games on three other occasions:

Games Proposed host city Awarded to
1988 Summer Olympics Melbourne, Victoria Seoul, South Korea
1992 Summer Olympics Brisbane, Queensland Barcelona, Spain
1996 Summer Olympics Melbourne, Victoria Atlanta, United States

Medal tables

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal count
*Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Medals by Summer Games

Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank
1896 Athens 1 2 0 0 2 8
1900 Paris 3 2 0 3 5 9
1904 St. Louis 2 0 0 0 0
1908 London as part of  Australasia (ANZ)
1912 Stockholm
1920 Antwerp 13 0 2 1 3 16
1924 Paris 37 3 1 2 6 11
1928 Amsterdam 18 1 2 1 4 19
1932 Los Angeles 12 3 1 1 5 10
1936 Berlin 33 0 0 1 1 30
1948 London 77 2 6 5 13 14
1952 Helsinki 85 6 2 3 11 9
1956 Melbourne 314 13 8 14 35 3
1960 Rome 188 8 8 6 22 5
1964 Tokyo 234 6 2 10 18 8
1968 Mexico City 175 5 7 5 17 9
1972 Munich 173 8 7 2 17 6
1976 Montreal 184 0 1 4 5 32
1980 Moscow 123 2 2 5 9 15
1984 Los Angeles 240 4 8 12 24 14
1988 Seoul 270 3 6 5 14 15
1992 Barcelona 290 7 9 11 27 10
1996 Atlanta 424 9 9 23 41 7
2000 Sydney 630 16 25 17 58 4
2004 Athens 482 17 16 17 50 4
2008 Beijing 433 14 15 17 46 6
2012 London 410 8 15 12 35 8
2016 Rio de Janeiro 422 8 11 10 29 10
2020 Tokyo
Total 147 163 187 497 9

Medals by Winter Games

Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1 0 0 0 0
1948 St. Moritz did not participate
1952 Oslo 9 0 0 0 0
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 10 0 0 0 0
1960 Squaw Valley 31 0 0 0 0
1964 Innsbruck 6 0 0 0 0
1968 Grenoble 3 0 0 0 0
1972 Sapporo 4 0 0 0 0
1976 Innsbruck 8 0 0 0 0
1980 Lake Placid 10 0 0 0 0
1984 Sarajevo 10 0 0 0 0
1988 Calgary 18 0 0 0 0
1992 Albertville 23 0 0 0 0
1994 Lillehammer 25 0 0 1 1 22
1998 Nagano 24 0 0 1 1 22
2002 Salt Lake City 27 2 0 0 2 15
2006 Turin 40 1 0 1 2 17
2010 Vancouver 40 2 1 0 3 13
2014 Sochi 60 0 2 1 3 24
2018 Pyeongchang
Total 5 3 4 12 21

Medals by summer sport

  Leading in that sport
 Swimming 60 64 64 188
 Athletics 21 26 26 73
 Cycling 14 19 18 51
 Rowing 11 15 14 40
 Sailing 11 8 8 27
 Equestrian 6 3 3 12
 Shooting 5 1 5 11
 Field hockey 4 3 5 12
 Canoeing 3 8 13 24
 Diving 3 3 7 13
 Triathlon 1 2 2 5
 Tennis 1 1 3 5
 Weightlifting 1 1 2 4
 Taekwondo 1 1 0 2
 Water polo 1 0 2 3
 Archery 1 0 2 3
 Beach volleyball 1 0 1 2
 Modern pentathlon 1 0 0 1
 Rugby sevens 1 0 0 1
 Basketball 0 3 2 5
 Boxing 0 1 3 4
 Softball 0 1 3 4
 Wrestling 0 1 2 3
 Gymnastics 0 1 0 1
 Baseball 0 1 0 1
 Judo 0 0 2 2
Total 147 163 187 497

Medals by winter sport

 Freestyle skiing 3 2 2 7
 Snowboarding 1 1 0 2
 Short track speed skating 1 0 1 2
 Alpine skiing 0 0 1 1
Total 5 3 4 12

These totals do not include 15 medals recognised by the Australian Olympic Committee: 10 medals (3 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze) won by Australians competing for the combined Australasia team in 1908 and 1912 (8 by individuals, 1 by an exclusively Australian team, and 1 by a combined team); 1 bronze medal won in tennis by Edwin Flack in 1896; and 4 medals (3 silver and 1 bronze) won in swimming by Francis Gailey, an Australian until recently incorrectly classed as American, in 1904. The AOC therefore recognises Australia as having won 512 medals at the Summer Olympics (150 gold, 170 silver and 192 bronze).

Most successful Olympians

Name Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total
1. Ian Thorpe Swimming 5 3 1 9
2. Dawn Fraser Swimming 4 4 0 8
3. Libby Trickett Swimming 4 1 2 7
4. Murray Rose Swimming 4 1 1 6
5. Betty Cuthbert Athletics 4 0 0 4
6. Liesel Jones Swimming 3 5 1 9
7. Petria Thomas Swimming 3 4 1 8
8. Grant Hackett Swimming 3 3 1 7
9. Shirley Strickland Athletics 3 1 3 7
10. Shane Gould Swimming 3 1 1 5
11. Drew Ginn Rowing 3 1 0 4
11. Andrew Hoy Equestrian 3 1 0 4
13. James Tomkins Rowing 3 0 1 4
14. Matthew Ryan Equestrian 3 0 0 3
14. Rechelle Hawkes Field hockey 3 0 0 3
14. Jodie Henry Swimming 3 0 0 3
14. Stephanie Rice Swimming 3 0 0 3
18. Susie O'Neill Swimming 2 4 2 8
19. Michael Klim Swimming 2 3 1 6
20. Brittany Elmslie Swimming 2 3 0 5
20. Emily Seebohm Swimming 2 3 0 5

See also

Notes

  1. 2012 Australian uniform
  2. Australian National Colours: green and gold Retrieved 23 August 2012
  3. Golden Wattle Retrieved 23 August 2012
  4. Our national symbols Retrieved 23 August 2012
  5. CIA – The World Factbook
  6. O, Noel (8 August 2012). "By population, Australia is on top of the medal tally". The Roar. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  7. Olympic Games | Crawford Report | Sports Funding | Richard Evans
  8. http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/feeds/story.html?id=2210902. Retrieved January 8, 2010. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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