Australia and the Olympic Games: The example of how to rise from the underworld to Olympus

Around 27 million Australians have seen their athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics break the country's gold medal record. In total, the delegation climbed to the top of the podium 18 times. Adding these to the 14 silver and 14 bronze medals they won, they return home with 46 total medals. Only the United States, China, France and Great Britain totaled more than Australia.

Behind the Australians in the medal standings are countries twice their size in population, like South Korea and Italy, or that have an even larger population, such as Japan, Brazil and Germany.

Australia, an exponential Olympic growth

Since the modern era of the Olympic Games began with Athens 1896, Australia went almost unnoticed in each edition that was held, except on rare occasions such as, for example, in Melbourne 1956 (35 medals), where it served as host, Los Angeles 1982 (24) and Barcelona 1992 (27), the Australians typically won no more than 15 medals.

The turning point came in Atlanta 1996. The Australian Olympic Committee significantly increased its delegation from 295 athletes at Barcelona 1992 to a team of 424 athletes in the Georgian capital. This increase meant that the chances of winning a medal increased, although the events are the same for everyone and reward the effort applied and the work behind it.

In Atlanta 1996, the Australians managed to improve their performance considerably and returned home with 9 golds, 9 silvers and 23 bronzes, 41 medals in total. This was 14 more than those obtained in the previous edition. From then on, the country managed to maintain the trend, barring a couple minor setbacks.

If Atlanta 1996 was where its history changed, four years later was the peak for the Australian delegation. And on top of that, it came at home. The 2000 Sydney Olympics arrived, the second time that Australia acted as host (the first time being the aforementioned 1956 Melbourne Olympics) and the excitement was visible. The Australians performed as demanded, and achieved what, to this day, is their best ever haul: 58 medals, divided into 16 golds, 25 silvers and 17 bronzes.

In Athens 2004, they stood on the podium 50 times, and in Beijing 2008, 46. A dip came at London 2012 (35) and Rio 2016 (29). At Tokyo 2020, the Australian delegation medaled 46 times.

Excluding those at Paris 2024, Australia has 543 total medals: 164 golds, 170 silvers and 209 bronzes.

Water sports key for Australians at Paris 2024

As usual, a large part of the medals won by Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympics have been in water events, mainly in swimming. Of the 46 medals, 19 have come in the pool, including seven golds. Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O'Callaghan stood out, winning multiple medals each.

In other aquatic events, Australia won medals in sailing, slalom canoeing, canoeing, surfing and rowing. The other times the Australian team made it to the podium were in track and field, BMX, road cycling, skateboarding, tennis, equestrian and shooting competitions.