Olympics Beijing To London

Olympics 2012: A battle in Beijing, but leading in London?

• Australia took home 79 medals at the Paralympic Games.
• We competed in 15 sporting categories: athletics, cycling, judo, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair basketball (men's and women's), wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.
• Our paralympians won 23 gold, 29 silver and 27 bronze. [Read more]
• Australia opened its swimming campaign in Beijing in style by collecting four medals from six events.
• Sydney's Peter Leek broke the 100m butterfly record for his S8 class twice in the one day - in the heats and final - to give the Australian swim team its first medal.
• On the final day of the Paralympics in the last event, wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley secured gold in the wheelchair marathon, mirroring his feat four years earlier in Athens. He had only had 1.5 hours' sleep and won gold less than 12 hours after pushing on after a race crash one day earlier. Kurt beat Japan's Hiroki Sasahara from Japan and South Africa's Ernst van Dyk to win in 1:23:17, a personal best time.
• Congratulations to all the medal winners. A summary of their wonderful effort is listed for you to appreciate and to show the glory of competition by these determined Australians.

• Australia won 46 medals including 14 gold, 15 silver and 17 bronze medals?
• We broke two World Records and three Olympic Records.
• Although Australia broke a handful of Olympic Records this year, they weren't enough to get us towards the top of the medal tally. With plenty of chatter in sporting circles about Australia's investment in its Olympic team, how well do you think the Aussies will perform when they head for London in 2012?
• In the athletics category Steve Hooker took home an Olympic Record in the Men's Pole Vault Final). He became the first Australian to win a gold medal in the pole vault and the first Australian field event athlete to win Olympic Gold in 60 years.
• We won Gold and a World Record in the Women's 4 x 100m Medley Final (Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper, Libby Trickett).
• We secured Olympic Records in the men's 1500m Free Qualification - Heat 5 (Grant Hackett) and in the Men's 1500m Free Qualification (Grant Hackett) but it wasn't quite enough to get us a Gold medal. The Men's 1500m Freestyle Final was won by Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli.
• In the women's 4 x 200m Free Final (Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer, Linda Mackenzie) the team took out a World Record and the Gold.