Australia has sent athletes to all editions of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, as well as every Winter Olympics except 1924–32 and 1948. In 1908 and 1912 Australia competed with New Zealand under the name Australasia. 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. Australia's kit is green and gold. Australia has hosted the Summer Olympic games twice: in 1956 in Melbourne and in 2000 in Sydney. Australia finished 3rd and 4th in the respective medal counts. In the Summer Olympics since 2000, Australia has placed 4th, 4th, 6th, 8th* and 10th respectively.. Given Australia has a population of only around 23 million people, this fact is frequently cited as noteworthy, and is ostensibly due to a strong sporting culture. Other observers have suggested this may also be a result of the generous funding the Australian Government has invested into elite sports development with the specific intention of improving performance at the Olympic games. Prior to Montreal, there was no government funding, however. Many of Australia's gold medals have come in swimming, a sport which is popular in Australia, with swimmers from Dawn Fraser to Ian Thorpe ranking among the sport's all-time greats. Other sports where Australia has historically been strong include:
field hockey, with the women's team winning three gold medals between 1988 and 2000 and the men's team winning in 2004;
Australia takes international sporting competition, particularly the Olympics, very seriously, and provides much government funding and coaching support to elite athletes, partly through the Australian Institute of Sport. Australia has been more modestly successful in the track events at the games, particularly in modern times. Historically, Betty Cuthbert is Australia's most successful track athlete with four gold medals. Australia did not win a medal at the Winter Olympics until 1994, but has moved higher on the medal tallies since then. This is a reflection on increased funding of Australia's Olympic Winter Games team.
These totals do not include 15 medals recognised by the Australian Olympic Committee: 10 medals won by Australians competing for the combined Australasia team in 1908 and 1912 ; 1 bronze medal won in tennis by Edwin Flack in 1896; and 4 medals won in swimming by Francis Gailey, an Australian immigrant to America, in 1904. The AOC therefore recognises Australia as having won 512 medals at the Summer Olympics.
