Australia has a rich sporting history. But we haven't done so well at the Winter Olympics. Australia first competed in the Winter Olympics in 1936, and with the exception of 1948 have participated in every winter games since.
Our athletes mainly finished in the bottom 25%. Admittedly not very stellar results. That changed in the 90's. In 1998 the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia was formed by the Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Institute of Sport. The OWIA provides training in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, short track speed skating, and figure skating.
Australia's Medal Tally (6)
1994 Lillehammer
- Bronze, Men's 5000m short track relay speed skating
1998 Nagano
- Bronze - Zali Steggall, Alpine Skiing (slalom)
2000 Salt Lake City
- Gold - Steven Bradbury, 1000m short track speed skating
- Gold - Alisa Camplin, Aerials
2006 Turin
- Gold - Dale Begg-Smith, Moguls
- Bronze - Alisa Camplin, Aerials
The Australian team for 2010 is still being selected, team should be finalised by February 2nd. Leaving it a bit to the last minute? I call it giving everyone as much chance as possible to qualify. The first Australian athletes will start arriving in Vancouver on February 4th.
The team is expected to represent Australia in short track speed skating, skeleton, snowboard halfpipe, long track speed skating, alpine skiing, luge, cross country skiing, bobsleigh, aerials, moguls, snowboard, snowboard cross and ski cross. The team so far:
Alpine Skiing - Craig Branch, Jono Brauer
Biathlon - Alex Almoukov
Bobsleigh - Duncan Harvey, Duncan Pugh, Jeremy Rolleston, Anthony Ryan, Chris Spring
Cross Country Skiing - Esther Bottomley, Paul Murray, Ben Sim
Freestyle Moguls - Dale Begg-Smith, Britteny Cox
Freestyle Aerials - Jacqui Cooper, Liz Gardner, Lydia Lassila, Dave Morris, Bree Munro
Freestyle Ski Cross - Katya Crema, Scott Kneller
Luge - Hannah Campbell-Pegg
Short Track - Tatiana Borodulina, Lachlan Hay
Skeleton - Anthony Deane, Melissa Hoar, Emma Lincoln-Smith
Snowboard Halfpipe - Torah Bright, Holly Crawford, Scotty James, Ben Mates
Snowboard Cross - Damon Hayler, Stephanie Hickey, Alex Pullin
Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom - Johanna Shaw
Speed Skating - Sophie Muir
It could be Australia's largest team and we have a couple of solid medal prospects. Australia is the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to win a gold medal at the winter Olympics.
By comparison Canada has completed in every Summer Olympics since 1924 and won 449 medals.
We are also the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to have hosted any Olympics, summer or winter. Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000. (That's changed now that Rio has been awarded the 2016 Summer Games.
Sydney earned the title "Best Olympics Ever" from Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Did you know Australia is one of few nations to have participated in every Summer Olympics of the modern era? Others are variably listed at Greece, Great Britain, France and Switzerland, depending on what you are reading.