Gerard Whateley names the best single Aussie achievement at the Paris Olympics

Gerard Whateley has named Jess Hull’s silver medal in the 1500M run as Australia’s best medal at the Paris Olympics.

Paris proved to be the country’s greatest Games, finishing with 18 golds and 53 total medals – fourth overall on the leaderboard.

Whateley, who helmed the coverage for the track events, believes Hull becoming the first Aussie woman to medal in the 1500M was an unbelievable achievement.

The 27-year-old ran a time of 3:52:56, finishing behind arguably the greatest runner in the event’s history in Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, who won for the third straight Olympics.

“Without diminishing anything that Australia achieved in a spectacularly successful Games, I’ll argue all day long that Jess Hull’s silver medal is the pinnacle athletic achievement at these games,” Whateley told SEN Breakfast.

“I think you can stack that up on a few fronts. You take a measure of track and field where 27 different nations won gold medals, that’s the true global contest.

“Australia had never won a women’s 1500M medal and the three men who had are icons of Australian sport and life.

“Jess Hull did it behind the greatest middle-distance runner of all-time who just equalled the achievement of Usain Bolt – the only other track athlete to win three golds at three straight games in the same event.

“Jess’ run second in that race. Globally, that stacks up. Her improvement, her arrival as an international player, you could visually see it over the last eight weeks.

“It was the culmination of everything she’s done and under maximum pressure, she delivered brilliantly.

“She ran such a composed race and got the silver that was on offer knowing the gold was pretty untouchable.

“For me, and that’s not to take anything away from anyone else, I think that’s Australia’s best medal at these Games.”

The Closing Ceremony on Monday morning marked the end of the Paris Olympics, with swimmer Kaylee McKeown and sailor Matt Wearn carrying the flag.