Australia at the Olympics

<!-- Deleted image removed: -->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 of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 1908 and 1912 Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia.

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 However, other observers have suggested this may be a result of the disproportionate amounts of funding the Australian Government has injected into elite sports with the specific intention of increasing the gold medal count at the Olympic...
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