Seeing as there's a thread concering Canada's Medal Count, I think it's only fair to keep track of how us Aussies are doing in Torino and surrounds.

As of now, the count stands at
0 Golds
0 Silvers
0 Bronzes

Here's hoping we get something this time round, Salt Lake City was the first time we actually won a gold medal at the Cold Games - one of the most hilarious moments in Australian sporting history.

Our speed-skater, Stephen Bradbury was trailing badly, in last position of the 5 competitors, in the final of the 500m short-track speed skating final, but fortuitously for Steve, the other 4 skaters - including Apolo Ohno the favourite, all crashed into each other suffering various cuts and gashes and Bradders was able to cruise across the line - having been so far off the pace he completely avoided the crash, and claim our first Winter Gold Medal! Quite bizarre, and surely the luckiest ever gold medal awarded to anyone - because even more luckily for Bradbury, he had been last in his semi-final only for the same thing to happen and provide him with qualification to the final in the first place!

Having said that, we did win a gold medal in the Women's Aerials as well, Alisa Camplin, and we do again have (I think), the World No.1 in Women's Aerials this time round, Lydia Ieradiaconou, who went to school with my sis, so hopefully she gets up and we can all go to a big party to celebrate!

Anyhow, good luck Aussies, and I will be sure to post to this thread again if we actually manage to bag any medals!

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

As promised, a post to here to celebrate Australia's first medal at the Winter Olympics!

Of course, a GOLDEN one!

Congratulations to 21yr old Dale Begg-Smith, a native of Vancouver, Canada - who fled the Canadian ski scene as a 15yr old to come down under and 6 years later ends up as the best male moguls skier in the World!

Just one question, why did the Canadian Ski Federation think this guy wasn't good enough?

Anyway, congratulations Dale!

Australia's Medal Tally
1 GOLD
0 silvers
0 bronzes

Next up, our Aerial skiers. Alisa Camplin, Lydia Ieradiaconou et al. They won the Gold in Salt Lake City, can they do it again? We have 3 World Champions
in the Freestyle Aerials, so you'd have to give them a shot.....

Oh, and good luck to Mongolia & Costa Rica in matching this achivement with their fine athletes!

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

Just one question, why did the Canadian Ski Federation think this guy wasn't good enough?

According to the commentators on the CBC during the event, it was differences over time management. This guy also started a web based business at age 13 (it's worth something like $40 - 60m now) and they could not come to an agreement over time off for running his business.

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

Yes, he hasn't done too badly for himself has he... That is also what I'd heard, but rules are made to be broken - and if you have a guy who's obviously extremely talented, don't you sometimes find ways to accomodate them to create a win-win situation? Being completely rigid on selection policies can lead to strange results, like this one. There are countless examples out there if this sort of pig-headedness.

Interesting to see how he'll be received in 4 years time in Vancouver............

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

Yep, the Canadian ski trainers were not going to accomodate the time he needed for his business into the training schedule so he looked elsewhere. Canadians generally don't mind 'defections' like this as it is common for Canadians to go elsewhere for work etc. (heck, I did). Other Canadians have left Canada to represent other countries in Olympic sports - I've heard that half of the Italian mens hockey team is Italian-Canadians.

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The Begg-Smith story.

Another example would be the Duchesnay's who came to odds with the Cdn Ice Skating Federation and end up competing for France (back in the 80's-90's).

Even with these games there were a number of citizenships awarded to participants from a number of nations, so they could compete in these games.

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

This cross-pollination of athletes in various sports is not of course a new one, we in Australia have benefited greatly in the past from numerours Eastern European weightlifters, and have had our own problems with athletes particularly triathletes. Kate Allen, who'd lived all her life in Geelong (nr Melbourne), lifted the Gold Medal for Woman's Triathlon at the Athens Olympics representing Austria! (Of All places - at least she was still an Aussie I guess)

Other reason I bump this thread is because we may well add to our medal count in the next couple of days, well, actually, its our last chance to add to our medal count - so I'm on the lookout. We've got the equal highest number of competitors (4 - alongside China) in this event, Women's Aerials, so we have to be some chance - 3 World Champions out of those 4, but in all honesty the Chinese are the favourites so they will be hard to dislodge. But good luck girls!

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

Ok, Another medal to Australia!

Well done Alisa Camplin for coming through a crash landing on her first jump to rise up to a bronze medal! An amazing performance from the defending Olympic Champion considering she's very recently undergone a knee reconstruction with some tendons from a cadaver inserted into her knee and only returned to competition a few weeks ago.

Very well done.

Commiserations to Jacqui Cooper who managed a World-Record score in qualifying only to butcher her first landing attempt in the final and crash from 1st down to 8th. Still, consdering the horrendous knee injury Jacqui suffered in Salt Lake City qualifying 4 years ago its a tremendous effort to see her setting World Aerials World Records 4 years later.

And also commiserations to Lydia Ierodiaconou who unfortunately crashed horribly in Torino and has know suffered a recurrence of a knee injury - rupturing her medial ligaments in her knee and consigning her to the remainder of the season on the sideline. Come on Lyida, the example of Jacqui can get you through this recurrence and you'll come back better than ever in Vancouver.

Australia's Revised Medal Count

1 Gold

0 Silvers

1 Bronze

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

I've said it before and I'll say it again,

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!

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I was watching the women's aerials and the commentators had mentioned Ierodiaconou's return to competion early (7 months after reconstructive surgery). Just hearing her screams upon landing and continuing while she was sliding down the slope, sent a chill down my back (I've torn ligaments on the slopes). It kind of served as a weird bookend to Canada's Jeff Bean, having both his skis go flying off during his aerials practice.

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

Mickal, did you say that she had ligaments from a cadaver inserted in her knee...?

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I didn't say anything... :s

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