FEW COUNTRIES BOAST as many successful Olympians as Australia. Throughout the nation’s storied Olympic history, Australian athletes have been amongst the best in the world, winning a total of 566 medals – a number which will likely increase within hours – and ensuring that Australia is never far from the top of the medal table. Picking which of these many Olympians is the greatest of all time, then, is a monumental task. But we’ve done it.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, records have been tumbling. Jess Fox now has more individual medals than any other Australian in history, Emma McKeon has the most total medals of all time, and Kyle Chalmers is only one medal away from equalling Ian Thorpe’s record for the most medals by a male Australian athlete. The record books are being rewritten, so there’s never been a better time to establish who our greatest of all time is, with ‘greatest’ being the operative word.
If you’re looking for a list of Australia’s best Olympians, just find which athlete has the most medals. There’s a difference between ‘best’ and ‘greatest’, however. Patty Mills, for example, is undoubtedly one of Australia’s greatest ever basketballers on the Olympic stage, yet he only has a lone bronze medal to his name and wouldn’t come remotely close to a list of Australia’s most successful Olympians. Similarly, Cathy Freeman only ever won two medals, but the importance of those medals and their place in Australian Olympic folklore surely warrants a place among our greatest.
Swimmers, with their many relays and multiple distances, also benefit heavily in medal counts. A freestyle swimmer who participates in the 50m, 100m, 200m, 4×100 relay, medley relay and mixed medley relay can win up to six medals in a single Olympics, while a basketballer would need to medal at six consecutive Games over a period of 24 years to equal that effort.
So, now that you understand our methodology, these are Australia’s greatest Olympians of all time, ranked by factors that aren’t strictly limited to total medals.
16. Andrew Hoy
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If we were ranking the longevity of Australia’s Olympians, Andrew Hoy would have to finish first. The equestrian rider is Australia’s oldest medal winner, winning silver at Tokyo 2020 at the age of 62. Hoy made his Olympic debut at Los Angeles 1984, competing at eight different Games and winning six medals along the way. Hoy isn’t a member of the Paris 2024 team, but considering that he’s returned from retirement twice before, we can’t rule out another comeback.
15. Patty Mills
Yes, Mills does only have one bronze medal under his belt, but the value of that medal and his role in raising the profile of basketball in Australia are enough to get him a spot here. Mills was the leading scorer at London 2012, second at Rio 2016 and third at Tokyo 2020. Of course, the most important of those points came in the Boomers’ decisive bronze medal match against Slovenia at Tokyo 2020, where Mills dropped 42.
14. Anna Meares
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Winning a medal at four different Olympics is a tremendous achievement, but to do it in such an arduous sport as track cycling is simply incredible. Anna Meares won her first gold at Athens 2024 in the 500-metre time trial and followed it up with a silver in the sprint in 2008. Then, a mid-race crash nearly left her paralysed, but she came back to win gold in the sprint in 2012. Even then, that wasn’t the end for Meares. She returned to Rio 2016 to win her final medal – bronze in keirin.
13. Rechelle Hawkes
It is seriously impressive when any athlete in a team sport like field hockey can rack up a number of medals. That’s because they only have one event at every Olympics. If your team has an off-day and bows out early, it’s four years before you can get another shot at a medal. Not only does former Hockeyroos captain Rechelle Hawkes have three Olympic medals, all of them are gold.
12. James Tomkins
Similar to Hawkes, James Tomkins only got one shot at a medal at every Olympics. An original member of the ‘oarsome foursome’, Tomkins won gold at Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 before switching to pairs and winning gold at Athens 2004. A bronze in the pairs at Sydney 2000 gives him the edge over Hawkes here.
11. Lauren Jackson
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It’s crazy to think that Lauren Jackson led the Opals to a silver medal all the way back at Sydney 2000, and she’s still a key part of the team at Paris 2024. Jackson has three silver and one bronze medal to her name, but despite never capturing that elusive gold, she is the all-time leading scorer at the Olympics in women’s basketball.
10. Kyle Chalmers
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Chalmers is now just one medal short of Ian Thorpe – who has the most medals of any male Australian – and he could equal or even overtake him before the Games end, with a few relays still to come. The fact that only one of Chalmers’ eight medals is gold is why he’s so far down this list, but if his competitors were a few milliseconds slower, he might’ve even topped it.
9. Shane Gould
Shane Gould would almost certainly be higher up this list if she had competed at more than one Olympics – but what an Olympics it was. At Munich 1972, Gould won a whopping five medals, three of which were gold. She medalled in every freestyle event from the 100m to the 800m in what might be the greatest single Olympics of any Australian athlete.
8. Shirley Strickland
Australia’s most successful Olympic track athlete racked up seven medals during her career. Shirley Strickland’s biggest highlights came at the 1952 and 1956 Games, where she won gold in the 80-metre hurdles to go back-to-back in the event.
7. Leisel Jones
Whereas Shane Gould got all of her medals at a lone Olympics, Leisel Jones took quite the opposite approach. She medalled at four different Games from Sydney 2000 to London 2012, with her longevity and consistency within the 4x100m medley relay team giving her one of the highest medal tallies of any Australian.
6. Cathy Freeman
Like we said in the introduction, Cathy Freeman only has two Olympic medals, both in the 400-metres – silver at Atlanta 1996 and gold at Sydney 2000 – but how could we not put her in this list? Freeman is the focal point of Australia’s greatest ever Olympic moment, and her contributions to uniting the nation behind her are more than enough to warrant a place here.
5. Betty Cuthbert
One of Australia’s first golden girls, Betty Cuthbert won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. She was the first female or male Australian athlete to win three gold medals at a single Games. What’s even more impressive is that Cuthbert won her fourth gold medal eight years later at the 1964 Tokyo Games in an entirely different event, the 400m. She remains the only athlete to win gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m. Due to the heightened specialisation of sprinters today, we doubt anyone will ever match her record.
4. Jess Fox
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Was anyone else surprised to hear that Jess Fox is now the Australian with the most individual Olympic medals? Just us? Well, it’s a testament to how much swimming relays can boost medal counts, because we thought for sure that a swimmer would have more than five individual medals. Nevertheless, Fox is an absolute star, with medals at four consecutive Olympics and a chance to add even more before her time is up.
3. Dawn Fraser
Dawn Fraser immortalised herself in Australian sporting folklore after her performance at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, which included a gold medal in the 100m freestyle. Four years later, she went back-to-back, winning the event for a second time. Then, in the twilight of her career at the Tokyo 1964 Games, Fraser did it again, becoming the first swimmer to win the same event at three successive Olympics. No other Australian has come close to matching that feat.
2. Emma McKeon
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Why isn’t Australia’s all-time leading medal winner first on this list, you ask? McKeon’s tally is heavily assisted by relays. Of her 12 medals, only four are from individual events and only two are gold, the other eight all come from relays. McKeon’s versatility as a freestyle and butterfly swimmer across multiple distances has made her an invaluable member of multiple relay teams, but for this ranking, we place more value on individual accolades.
1. Ian Thorpe
He’s no longer Australia’s all-time leading medal winner, but Ian Thorpe’s dominance in individual events and presence in some truly iconic moments gets him over the line. Thorpe has nine total medals, five of which are gold and in individual events. Before Michael Phelps came along and smashed every Olympic record there is, it was Thorpe who looked set to become the swimmer with the most Olympic medals ever. Still, Thorpe remains Australia’s greatest, with a barnstorming anchor leg to win the 4x100m freestyle relay at Sydney 2000 being the moment that ensures no Australian will forget his greatness anytime soon.
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