Let's Head to the Pool: Rio Olympic Games 2016
Australia at the Summer Olympics
418 athletes across 26 sports are representing Australia at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The Team comprises 271 rookies (64.83%) and the youngest athlete is footballer Ellie Carpenter at 16. Mary Hanna at 61 is the eldest and competing in her 5th Games.
The Australian Olympic Committee was founded and recognised in 1895. Edwin Flack was the first athlete to represent Australia at the Olympics. He won gold in both the 800 metres and the 1500 metres, competed in the marathon and won a bronze medal in tennis doubles at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Australian athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympics of the modern era, alongside Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland.
Let's Head to the Pool
The Rio Olympics are underway,
The Aussie team are there to play.
We won't win the medal tally, that I know,
But we'll do our best and give it a go.
Sixteen gold medals is our goal,
Thirteen more than 1988 in Seoul.
Can we achieve it? Time will tell,
But in the pool, we should excel.
Australia's males will do us proud,
But our female athletes will shout loud.
The Campbell sisters, Bronte and Kate
Should bring us gold. I cannot wait.
Young Mack Horton swam so bold,
Winning 400 metre Freestyle gold.
Our first gold medal at these games,
And his initial show at fame.
Even before this verse was through
We achieved gold medal number two.
The Women's 4x100 metre Relay
Did our country proud and won the day.
It's just a hint of what's in store,
In the pool there will be more.
Confident of a good showing,
Each year our medal tally's growing.
There're medal chances in other sport,
In hockey, rugby, and the volleyball court,
In basketball and cycling, at least at first glance.
But silver or bronze appear our best chance.
Now Kyle Chalmers has won gold
He is our youngest, just 17 years old.
He conquered the men's 200 freestyle,
Though at the start he was behind by a mile.
So, swimming is where our success lies,
It's where we expect to get most of the prize.
Winning the Olympics would be so cool,
But all I can say is "Let's head to the pool."
Australian Rio Olympic Medal Tally: as of 6th Aug 2016
Medal
| Name
| Sport
| Event
|
|---|---|---|---|
Gold
| Mack Horton
| Swimming
| Men's 400 metre Freestyle
|
Gold
| Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmsley, Emma McKeon, Madison Wilson
| Swimming
| Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay
|
Gold
| Kyle Chalmers
| Swimming
| Men's 100 metre Freestyle
|
Bronze
| Alec Potts, Ryan Tyack, Taylor Worth
| Archery
| Men's Team
|
After day one of competition at Rio, Australia was surprisingly heading the medal tally with two gold and one bronze medal. How long can we keep that up I wonder?
Australia's highest ever medal haul came in the (hometown) 2000 Sydney Olympics
16 Gold
25 Silver
17 Bronze
58 Medal Total
Our highest gold medal tally was at the 2004 Athens Olympics where our athletes won 17 gold.
© 2016 John Hansen
