SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australians bagged a national record 18 gold medals at the Olympics in Paris as the sports-crazed nation moved into third place in the medals tally behind China and America, sparking celebrations in offices, pubs and schools down under.
Local TV networks and papers have splashed out news of the wins, with Australians exhilarated by top-spot achievements in athletics, water sports, cycling and tennis, amongst others. No one is immune to the excitement, it seems.
“We are a country of 27 million people compared with the hundreds of millions in the United States and the billions in China, or the more than a billion in China and India. It is quite an extraordinary achievement,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Channel Seven on Wednesday.
When asked why the country did so well, Albanese said: “We are a sporting nation, whether it be individual sports or team sports. I think most of us, as we grow up, have a crack at swimming, at athletics and at team sports … Australians love their sport, we participate in it, and we revel in it.”
Over the last 24 hours, Australia won golds in pole vault, men’s skateboarding and sailing, topping off the day with a thrilling win over Great Britain on track cycling’s iconic Olympic team pursuit.
With four days to go for the Games, Australia have surpassed the 17 golds reached at both the 2004 Athens Olympics and in Tokyo three years ago, and are comfortably ahead of France and Great Britain, who have 13 and 12, respectively.
United States top the medals tally with 27 gold medals and China are second with 25.
“I can’t believe number three. It’s pretty wild. I mean Commonwealth we dominate, but this is next level, isn’t it? This is global. Yeah, stoked,” said Bec Vrana Dickinson, a Sydney resident.
Albanese told ABC News the Australian athletes would get “a big welcome home” when they arrive in Sydney next Wednesday.
Australia’s gold medal haul includes one from earlier this week by Arisa Trew, a 14-year-old teen prodigy who took gold in women’s skateboarding, making her Australia’s youngest-ever gold medallist.
“Really amazing to see so many sports that we didn’t expect Australia to be doing so well in actually bringing home the gold,” said Mark Dietz, a wine importer in Sydney.
Australia sent 470 athletes to Paris, its second-largest delegation since it hosted the 2000 Games in Sydney.
The achievements, however, were marred by news of an Australian hockey team player that was arrested for buying cocaine. And while excelling in new sports like skateboarding, Australia lost out in rugby despite being hot favourites.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon, Stefica Nicol Biles and Cordelia Hsu; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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