As the Tokyo Olympics come to a close, Team Australia walks away with its collective head held as high as can be.
After a weekend of yet more track and field success, our national team can be proud to claim one of our most successful Olympic hauls of all time—Australia earned sixth place in the overall medal tally with 17 gold, seven silver and 22 bronze.
Of course, we’re all familiar with the golden windfall we saw in the swimming pool, with our team of femme-fatales scoring a record breaking gold medal total. Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown led the pack, taking home a blinding six golds for Australia between them.
Canoeing icon Jessica Fox also did the team proud by bringing home a gold and bronze medal in the C1 and K1, respectively.
In the rowing realm, we watched as the women’s four earned a top-of-the-podium spot alongside the mens four.
And then, there were those on the soccer field, the Matildas were so close to winning a medal, but regardless of a spot on the podium, their performance, passion and team effort was far more inspiring than any medal.
There was the brilliant Ash Moloney who won Australia its first ever medal in the decathlon—a bronze.
And of course, 18-year-old skateboarder Keegan Palmer took home a gold, a look of shock on his face as it happened.
Star Volleyballers Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy also earned themselves a silver, while breaststroke legend Izaac Stubblety-Cook secured another gold alongside Logan Martin who won the BMX freestyle final. Matt Wearn also won the mens laser sailing.
Over the final weekend on the track and field, we saw more awe-inspiring success from our athletes.
Alongside Ash Maloney’s decathlon bronze, our female athletes did us proud. Nicola McDermott won a silver in high jump, while 1500m runners Linden Hall and Jessica Hull made it to the finals. Javelin queen Kelsey-Lee Barber also took home a bronze.
Speaking after her win (and rightful walk of triumph with Australia’s flag billowing behind her), Barber was sure of one thing: “I am so proud of the Aussie girls – the way we represented our country tonight out on the field and on the track, it’s incredible.
“I hope that we’ve inspired some other young girls to throw or be on track. This is a beautiful sport – and we’ve done ourselves proud.”
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