Olympic Games

Australia at the Olympics

Australia is only one of three nations to have participated in all modern Summer Olympic Games.
In the 1908 and 1912 Games, athletes from Australia and New Zealand competed together as a single team, which was designated Australasia (ANZ).
Australia has hosted the Games twice - in Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000.
The first women's swimming gold medal was won by the Australian Sarah 'Fanny' Durack, who won the 100m freestyle in 1912.
The Olympic torchbearer for the 1956 Olympics was a virtually unknown 19 year old at the time he carried the torch into the stadium at Melbourne. Ron Clarke went on to become the world's finest distance runner in the 1960s.

Bob Windle is relatively unknown, but has a prominent place in Australia's fine 1500m swimming record. He won the event in 1964, in an Olympic record time of 17min 1.7seconds.
In Sydney, 2000, Aboriginal Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron at the start of the Games, and went on to win the 400m race.
In 2000, 17-year-old Ian Thorpe won four medals (three gold) in swimming, breaking his own world record in the 400m freestyle.