Gold for the record books and Australia’s Olympic future

The future suddenly looks glorious. Australia’s 18 gold medals at the Paris Olympics have eclipsed the 17 won in Tokyo and Athens, the 16 won in Sydney, and the 13 collected long ago in Melbourne. Four gold medals in one day has only happened once before, and never across four different sports.

But with eight days of competition remaining, we were loath to crow too much about Australia’s best start to a summer games last weekend after we had amassed a stunning 12 gold medals – including an unprecedented three golds on opening day – for fear of putting a hex on our Olympians. We should not have been so faint-hearted.

Certainly, we expected to do well in swimming, but gold medals suddenly seem to have come from everywhere in a brilliant few hours: in just 130 minutes Matt Wearn won the dinghy gold on the water at Marseille, reigning champion Keegan Palmer clinched his second Olympic gold at the La Concorde skate park, Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien took the men’s team pursuit at the velodrome, and then later Nina Kennedy won Australia’s first-ever women’s field gold in the pole vault.

As of Wednesday, Australia was fourth on the gold medal list tally after the US (27) and China (25), and five ahead of the host nation. In terms of the total haul, Australia, with 41 gold, silver and bronze medals, is fifth after the US (94), China (65), France (51) and Great Britain (49).

For all of us, the golden moments have lifted the Paris 2024 Olympics into the same stratosphere of joy, happiness and hope that many will remember came with the 1956 games. Those games irrevocably changed their cities for the better, spiritually, economically and athletically.

Sydney came of age as a global city and Melbourne reminded a world still emerging from the ruination of World War II that there was a happy peaceful land across the sea that loved fun and games.

Across Australia in the wake of both those games, children set up high jump paraphernalia in backyards, took swimming lessons and dared to dream of emulating Betty Cuthbert, Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe and the other gold medallists who came from their cities, towns and states.

The Olympic Games punctuate Australian lives every four years, and while we cherish the memories of what we were doing and how we felt during Tokyo, Munich, Mexico City or perhaps Rome events, Sydney and Melbourne Games injected a new sense that we could take on the world despite our small population and greater government support for athletes in other countries; Australia’s Olympians performed with honour and success at subsequent games.

Undoubtedly the achievements of our Olympians in Paris will carry us to victories at the 2028 Los Angeles games. And, as it is only a hop, step and jump to Brisbane, we should be flying even faster, higher, stronger and together in 2032.

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