The Tokyo Olympics was Australia’s equal most successful with our largest team of athletes ever bringing home a total of 46 medals - 17 of them gold.
Aussies had only ever stood on the top of the podium this many times at the Athens Games in 2004. The success brought with it countless memorable moments - here’s six of the best.
6. AUSSIES TAKE OUT DEBUT SPORT GOLD
One thing the Tokyo Games will be remembered for is bringing surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and more to the Olympics for the first time. And two Aussies will go down in history as the first ever gold medallists in their respective sports.
Queensland’s Logan Martin won the inaugural men’s BMX freestyle competition, only needing his monster first run score to have everyone else beaten. The Aussie had built a $70,000 replica BMX park at home to train for Tokyo and it absolutely paid off.
18-year-old Aussie Keegan Palmer’s name will also be etched in the history books, claiming gold in the men’s park skateboarding by dominating the competition with two of his three runs scoring enough to win.
Skateboarding’s debut in the Olympics had traditionalists unsure, but the displays of sportsmanship, joy and talent were the stand out aspects of the entire Games.
5. BOOMERS WIN AUSTRALIA’S FIRST EVER BASKETBALL MEDAL
Perhaps not the colour they had hoped for after a disappointing loss to eventual gold medallists the USA in the semi-finals, but the Boomers’ bronze gave Australia a breakthrough Olympic basketball medal after finishing fourth on four other occasions. And there were nothing but tears of joy to celebrate it.
Four-time Olympian and one of this year’s flag bearers, Patty Mills, starred as the Boomers beat Slovenia, scoring a whopping 42 points and providing nine assists.
The post-game emotion from Mills and other members of the team, led by Joe Ingles, emphasised their achievement and that is what will be remembered as the next generation of Aussie basketballers work towards winning our first gold.
4. PETER BOL AND PATRICK TIERNAN PROVE YOU DON’T NEED A MEDAL TO INSPIRE
It wasn’t all about the medals in Tokyo, with plenty of our athletes on the track showing a top-three finish wasn’t needed to have all of Australia behind them.
Peter Bol became the first Australian in 53 years to make the 800m final, setting two Australian records on his way. His fourth-place finish in the final didn’t matter to everyone around Australia cheering him home as he had already achieved his goal of inspiring the nation.
It was a tough watch seeing Patrick Tiernan collapsing on the home stretch of the men’s 10,000m after an impressive run that had him in genuine contention for the majority of the race. But his determination to keep getting back up and cross the finish line embodied the Aussie spirit and will continue to inspire long after the Games end.
3. JESS FOX FINALLY WINS ELUSIVE GOLD MEDAL
After winning silver at London 2012 as an 18-year-old on debut, then bronze in Rio four years later, the elusive Olympic gold medal was hard to capture for Australia’s canoe slalom star Jess Fox. At first, it seemed Tokyo was going to keep the Olympic curse going for the multi-time world champion, when two mistakes on her final K1 run left her with another bronze despite easily being the fastest qualifier.
But in Tokyo, she had a second chance with the women’s C1 event making its debut. And it was fourth time lucky for Fox, who paddled her heart out to win by more than three seconds and finally be able to stand (and jump) on the top step of the Olympic podium.
2. ARIARNE TITMUS BEATS KATIE LEDECKY, TWICE
It was THE showdown of the games: Australia’s world champion Ariarne Titmus taking on America’s defending Olympic champion Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle. Ledecky was off the blocks strong but Titmus executed the perfect race plan, bearing down on the American in the back end of the swim before pulling away to win by 0.67 of a second. Coach Dean Boxall celebrated for the nation and his reaction will likely be one of the most replayed videos from the Games for years to come.
Titmus backing up from that win to beat Ledecky in the 200m freestyle only added to the 20-year-old’s growing legend at the start of her Olympic swimming career.
1. EMMA MCKEON BECOMES AUSTRALIA’S MOST SUCCESSFUL OLYMPIAN
The top honour has to go to swimmer Emma McKeon who became Australia’s most successful Olympian ever, winning seven medals in Tokyo. Four of these were gold - the 50 and 100 metre freestyle, and both the women’s 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays.
It brings her career Olympic medal haul to 11 (five gold), overtaking fellow swimmer Ian Thorpe who has nine medals to his name, also five gold.
Australia finished sixth on the Tokyo medal tally (17 gold, 7 silver, 22 bronze, while McKeon and her seven medals would have finished in 22nd.
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