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Australia at the Olympics

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Template:Infobox Olympics Australia

Australia has sent athletes to almost all editions of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, and most Winter Olympic Games, the latter each time since 1952. 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. In 1908 and 1912 Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia. Australia's kit is yellow and green.

Australia hosted the Summer games twice. In 1956 in Melbourne and in 2000 in Sydney finished 3rd and 4th in the respective medal counts. In the Summer Olympics since 2000, Australia has placed 4th, 4th and 6th, respectively. Given Australia has a population of only around 20 million people (ranked 53rd in the world[1]) this fact is frequently cited as noteworthy by the mainstream Australia media due to a strong sporting culture.[2] 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.[3][4]

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 amongst 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 to 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.

Medal tables

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 (host nation) 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 (host nation) 630 16 25 17 58 4
2004 Athens 482 17 16 16 49 4
2008 Beijing 433 14 15 17 46 6
2012 London 410 7 16 11 34 9
Total to 2008 (AUS) 133 137 164 434 11
Total (ANZ) 3 4 4 11 64

Medals by Winter Games

Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank
1924 Chamonix did not participate
1928 St. Moritz
1932 Lake Placid
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
Total 5 1 3 9 21

Medals by sport (both Summer and Winter)

Swimming 56 54 58 168
Athletics 19 24 25 68
Cycling 13 16 13 42
Rowing 10 10 12 32
Sailing 7 4 8 19
Equestrian 6 3 2 11
Field hockey 4 3 4 11
Shooting 4 1 5 10
Diving 3 2 6 11
Freestyle skiing 3 1 1 5
Canoeing 2 7 11 20
Triathlon 1 2 1 4
Tennis 1 1 3 5
Weightlifting 1 1 2 4
Taekwondo 1 1 0 2
Archery 1 0 1 2
Short track speed skating 1 0 1 2
Volleyball 1 0 1 2
Water polo 1 0 1 2
Snowboarding 1 0 0 1
Basketball 0 3 1 4
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
Alpine skiing 0 0 1 1
Total 136 138 167 441

These totals do not include eleven medals won by Australians competing for the combined Australasia team in 1908 and 1912: nine by individuals, one by an exclusively Australian team, and one by a combined team.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
  2. ^ "Bahamas top medals table per population". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2004-08-31.
  3. ^ http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/hefty-price-tag-for-our-sporting-obsession-20091123-ixhq.html
  4. ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/feeds/story.html?id=2210902

References

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