Article by Will Swanton, courtesy of The Australian.
Australia’s Olympic team has become our greatest of all time.
From the all-conquering swimmers, to the fearless skateboarders, to the unstoppable canoeing Fox sisters and the high-flying pole vault champion Nina Kennedy, the Paris Games have become our most successful Olympic campaign in history.
A new era of Olympic legends has been born.
The 1956 Melbourne Games used to be the gold standard for gold medals: Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Betty Cuthbert contributed to 13 victories.
A haul remaining the benchmark until the 2000 Sydney Games was held at home and we racked up 16 golds like we knew every blade of grass and drop of water.
Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman became household names and part of Olympic lore. Then came a couple of decades of mostly phenomenal successes.
Seventeen golds at the 2004 Athens Games. London in 2012 was a disaster but another 17 were racked up at Tokyo three years ago.
Then came this exuberant, engaging, entertaining team that started with a bang in the pool and has been winning ever since.
Even the blokes started climbing the podium on a spectacular, wondrous Wednesday in Paris that finished with Kennedy hurtling down the runway at Stade de France, clearing 4.9m and giving Australia its record 18th gold.
As if tipping its cap to the green and gold, the 80,000-capacity arena rocked to AC/ DC’s Hells Bells as the clock ticked towards 11pm.
Let’s start at the start of big Wednesday.
We’re performing so extraordinarily well on water that someone is bound to start walking on it.
Hello, sailor – Matt Wearn won the men’s dinghy title off Marseilles to defend his Tokyo crown. That was Australia’s 15th gold.
“I was probably feeling a bit more emotional before the race,” he said.
“It hasn’t really sunk in. “I thought I’d break down pretty quickly but it’s just pure excitement. “It’s something no-one’s done before, going back to back. That was a massive goal and I’ve made it happen. “ It’s pretty special.”
The day and night was but young.
All those skate parks at home packed with teenagers every weekend and school holidays – dude, who knew they were breeding grounds for Olympics champions?
Keegan Palmer defended his park title at Place de la Concorde with a blazing, flipping, swooping run worth 93.11 points.
“Dude, I can’t believe it,” he said. “I literally, like … I’m speechless. I got really lucky. I just can’t believe it, bro. Everyone’s yelling at me. I’m just happy. Come on, Australia.
Let’s do this.”
Sixteen golds for Australia. The blink of an eye later, Australia’s pursuit team of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien won gold from Great Britain at the Saint-Quentinen-Yvelines National Velodrome “It’s pretty crazy to call ourselves Olympic champions now,” Welsford said.
“We probably didn’t have these expectations when we started training together. To come together like we did is was pretty special.”
Until big Wednesday, all but two of Australia’s gold medals had been won by women.
Finally, the blokes started pulling their weight. To the track for the evening session, and one more gold would make this Australian team the GOATS.
Kennedy triumphed in front of 80,000 foot-stomping spectators and the gold was hers.
Hell’s bells.
Australia had its recordbreaking 18th win.
From the eras of Fraser, Cuthbert and Rose, to Thorpe and Freeman, no Australian
team has performed better.
From Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown, to 14-year-old Arisa Trew, to Jess and Noemie Fox to Kennedy … we’re witnessing a new era of Olympic legendom.
