Australia at the Olympics

Australia at the Olympic Games
Flag of Australia IOC code  AUS NOC Australian Olympic Committee
Olympic history
Summer Games
1896 1900 1904 1908* 1912* 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 * with New Zealand as Australasia
Winter Games
1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Intercalated Games
1906

Australian Olympic Team Uniforms unveiled for Rio 2016

Australia has sent athletes to almost all editions of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, and every Winter Olympic Games except for the 1948 edition. 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 green and gold.^[1][2][3]

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 and 10th respectively. Given Australia has a population of only around 20 million people (ranked 53rd in the world^[4]) this fact is frequently cited as noteworthy by the mainstream Australia media due to a strong sporting culture.^[5] 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.^[6][7] 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 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

*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 7 16 12 35 10 2016 Rio de Janeiro 2020 Tokyo Total 138 153 177 468 11

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 Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total Swimming 57 60 61 178 Athletics 20 26 25 71 Cycling 14 18 17 49 Rowing 10 13 14 37 Sailing 10 5 8 23 Equestrian 6 3 2 11 Field hockey 4 3 5 12 Shooting 4 1 5 10 Canoeing 3 8 11 22 Diving 3 3 6 12 Triathlon 1 2 2 5 Tennis 1 1 3 5 Weightlifting 1 1 2 4 Taekwondo 1 1 0 2 Archery 1 0 1 2 Water polo 1 0 2 3 Beach volleyball 1 0 1 2 Basketball 0 3 2 5 Boxing 0 2 3 5 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 138 153 177 468

Medals by winter sport Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total 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 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.

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

See also

• Australia at the Winter Olympics
• Australia at the Commonwealth Games
• Australia at the Summer Universiade
• Australia at the World Championships in Athletics
• Category:Olympic competitors for Australia

Notes

1. Australian National Colours: green and gold Retrieved 23 August 2012
2. Golden Wattle Retrieved 23 August 2012
3. Our national symbols Retrieved 23 August 2012
4. CIA - The World Factbook
5. O, Noel (8 August 2012). "By population, Australia is on top of the medal tally". The Roar. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
6. Olympic Games | Crawford Report | Sports Funding | Richard Evans
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20110614011444/http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/feeds/story.html?id=2210902. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• "Australia". International Olympic Committee.
• "Results and Medalists". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee.
• "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee.
• "Australia". Sports-Reference.com.
• Australia NOC