Colony that conquered: How Australia outdid Britain at the Olympics | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

IIt is one of the most intense and multifaceted rivalries in world sport: the English, or sometimes the British, against their former colony Australia. From cricket to rugby to track cycling to bowls, duels between British and Australian teams and athletes have been a defining feature of many international sporting events for more than a century.

But at the Paris Olympics, the Australians suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly have the upper hand. With one day to go, the Australian Olympic team is in third place, with four more gold medals than the British. That is a significant change from previous Games.

Despite Britain having a population about two and a half times that of Australia, the sporting rivalry has traditionally been well balanced. Except at the Olympics, where the Australians once dominated. In Atlanta 1996, the British finished with a single gold medal – Australia had nine. In Sydney 2000, the Australians finished fourth, six places and five gold medals ahead of the British. The Australians were ahead again in Athens.

More recently, the story has changed. The awarding of the 2012 Games has sparked British interest and lottery funding for Olympic sports. At the 2008 Olympics, the British came out on top. On home soil, the British team won a whopping 29 gold medals – 21 more than the Australians, who finished in eighth place. The British did even better in ranking terms at Rio, where they finished second, their most successful Games in more than a century. Australia, meanwhile, came in at a mere 10th place.^and.

The tide has turned in the last two Olympics. Only five gold medals and two placings separated the British and Australians in Tokyo. And after their gold medal bonanza in Paris, the country’s best Games ever, the Australians now lead the British.

If that order holds, with just one day of action remaining, it will be the first time in two decades that Australia has outpaced Great Britain at the Olympics. A generation of British sporting dominance is waning and the Australians are set to dominate the rivalry once again.

In some ways this is not surprising. Olympic success is cyclical and a boost for the home Games is commonplace; the surge in interest and funding that follows cannot last forever. Perhaps this is the medal recession that the British have had to endure – a controlled decline even. And unfortunately for the British, it has coincided with a resurgent Australian team.

Australia had its best ever performance in Tokyo and have now surpassed it in Paris. With a funding boost of a few hundred million dollars on the way, and all eyes on Australia’s home games in Brisbane in eight years’ time, it looks like the old order has returned.

In Paris, nowhere was that changing situation more apparent than in the men’s team pursuit. Great Britain won gold in the discipline at Beijing 2008. They defended their title at home in 2012, holding off Australia in the gold medal race, before winning a third successive gold medal, again against Australia, in a record-breaking performance in Rio. After a disputed relegation denied Britain the chance to defend gold in Tokyo, they arrived in Paris with ambitions to continue their dominance – only to be eclipsed.

The Australian team had been a low-profile event, following a lean period for Australian track cycling. But on the track, the green-gold quartet shocked the world – qualifying first, two-tenths of a second faster than the Brits, and then breaking the world record in the first round.

It made for a tasty clash in the gold-medal stage. The kings of the team pursuit, for so long, against the nation that had won silver so often. The teams were neck and neck, separated by barely a thousandth of a second, before the Australians pushed Britain to the breaking point. It was a victory steeped in symbolism; after a decade and a half of Britain’s marginal gains (or even “one huge big gain”, as a British Cycling source once told The Guardian), the Australians had caught up.

It was the same in the pool, where Britain won just one gold medal. Breaststroke king Adam Peaty was dethroned, perhaps undermined by a Covid infection. Of course, Britain has never been a swimming powerhouse. But the nation won a historic four golds, three silvers and one bronze in Tokyo. A return to the mean, to be sure, but a disappointing performance nonetheless – while the Australian Dolphins won seven golds.

On the penultimate day in Paris, legendary track cyclist Anna Meares – Australia’s chef de mission at the Games – was asked about the rivalry. Meares knows all about it, having long battled with British track queen Victoria Pendleton. That rivalry reached its peak at the London Olympics, when Meares defeated Pendleton in the sprint race for the gold medal.

“Britain is a formidable opponent,” Meares said, acknowledging her British counterpart, Mark England, who is retiring after Paris. Meares, a first-time chef de mission, said England had supported her professionally and recently congratulated her on Australia’s success.

“We all come here as comrades,” Meares said. “But we love the fierce competition. We love the rivalry that comes with it. They make us better, because we have that rivalry.”