Australia and Olympic Taekwondo

Taekwondo may have origins stemming back over 2000 years, but it was only at Sydney 2000 that it became an Olympic sport. Australian under-49 kilogram class competitor Lauren Burns had the honour of claiming the first Australian gold medal in taekwondo. Burns defeated opponents from Chinese Taipei and Denmark to reach the final against Cuba’s Urbia Melendez Rodriguez, which she won 4-2.

In 2000, Australia’s Daniel Trenton also won silver in the heavyweight class. At Athens 2004, Trenton and Carlo Massimino both reached the quarterfinals.

Fiancés Safwan Khalil and Carmen Marton represented Australia admirably at the London 2012 Games as they both finished in the top five, agonisingly close to a medal. Seeded eighth in the 58kg division. Khalil lost to the eventual gold medallist in the semifinals before losing to Russia’s Alexey Denisenko in the fight for bronze. Fighting in the 67kg division, Marton lost her semifinal against Turkey’s Nur Tatar before missing out on bronze after going down to Helena Fromm of Germany.

The duo returned to Olympic competition at the Rio 2016 Games where they lined up alongside Marton's sister Caroline and Khalil's traning partner Hayder Shkara. Khalil progressed through to the quarter-finals where he entered the final round level with Thailand's Tawin Hanprab before losing the fight 11-9. He was given another chance in the repechage but was defeated by number two ranked Kim Tae-Hun of South Korea. The Marton sisters and Shkara all lost their opening round fights. Shkara went on to get a second chance in the repechage where he went down to dual Olympic medallist Steven Lopez of the USA.Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992. The sport achieved full Olympic status, together with triathlon at Sydney 2000. Taekwondo literally means “the way of hand and foot” or, more specifically, “the way of kicking and punching”.

Sport Format

Competitors wear different coloured ‘tobok’ or uniforms – chung (blue) and hong (red) – and combat each other using punching and kicking techniques. While kicks to the body and face are permitted, only punches to the body are allowed. Vulnerable parts of the body are covered by protective equipment.

Taekwondo matches consist of three rounds, each of two minutes, with a one-minute recess between rounds. One referee and three judges manage the contest. Each scoring technique earns one point; the final score is the sum of all points won in the three rounds, after any penalties are deducted. Points and penalties are made public by electronic scoreboards.

As part of its ceaseless efforts to ensure fairer judging and refereeing, the World Taekwondo Federation will adopt an electronic protector system in the taekwondo competition at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

To progress into finals, competitors move through a single elimination tournament with a double repechage for the bronze medal contest. For an athlete to make it to the gold medal match, he or she must have progressed through the preliminary rounds undefeated; whereas the bronze medal match will be between two players who have each lost one contest.

Australia and Olympic Table Tennis

Australia has been represented at every Olympic Games since the sport began in 1988 but has never won a table tennis medal in Olympic competition.

At Sydney 2000 in front of a home crowd, Australia’s Miao Miao and Shirley Zhou combined in the women’s doubles to place fifth out of 34 teams, Australia’s best result in Olympic table tennis.

William Henzell, competing at his third Games at London, matched the best ever result by an Australian having knocked off a number of higher ranked opponents as he progressed through to the quarter-finals. 

The Rio 2016 Games saw six Australians line up in the green and gold as both Jian Fang Lay and Melissa Tapper made history. Lay became one of only three Australian women to have now competed at five Olympic Games while Tapper became the nation's first Paralympian to also compete at an Olympics. Lay was Australia's only singles player to score a win at Rio, progressing through to the third round, while both the men's and women's teams went down in the opening round of the competition against top 8 ranked sides. 

Table tennis became an Olympic sport in Seoul 1988. With more than 40 million players worldwide, table tennis has the largest player-base of any sport. The Chinese have been the most dominant players for the last 45 years and throughout Olympic competition. Since 1988, China has won 20 of the 24 gold medals awarded. At  their home Games in 2008 they made a clean sweep of all four events.

For Beijing the doubles were replaced by the team events, intended to provide more appeal to audiences around the world.

Sport Format

There are four Olympic table tennis competitions: men’s singles and teams and women’s singles and teams. The maximum number of players who can take part are 86 men and 86 women - with not more than three men and three women from each National Olympic Committee.

In singles all events follow a knockout (single elimination) format with each match consists of the best four out of seven games to at least 11 points, where the winner must win by at least two points. Players have two serves in a row, except when the points score reaches 10 all, after which the serve alternates each point at the end of each set the players will swap sides.

A team match at the Olympic competition is called a “contest”. Each contest consists of four singles matches and one doubles match. All singles matches and doubles match in a contest are the best of five, with no other differences from men’s and women’s singles event.

The teams competition is held in 2 stages. The first stage is group round robin; the second stage is knock-out. In the first stage, the 16 participating teams will be divided into four groups. The group round robin system will be used to decide the places in each group. In the second stage, the winning teams of each group shall play-off, in a knockout semi-final format for the gold and silver medals. The second placed teams of each group and the semi-final contest losers shall play-off for the bronze medal.

Australia and Olympic Synchronised Swimming

Donella Burridge represented Australia when synchronised swimming debuted at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 and placed 12th in the solo event. At the Sydney 2000 Games, Australia qualified a team as host nation and placed eighth. In Beijing 2008, Australia qualified a team for the first time (other than Sydney 2000), finishing seventh. The duet of Erika Leal-Ramirez and Myriam Glez also competed, finishing 21st.

Australia was again represented in London with both a duet and team competing at the 2012 Games. Australia’s team finished eighth with Eloise Amberger and Sarah Bombell also claiming 23rd in the duet competition. The team equaled their London placing when they returned at Rio 2016. The Australian duet pair of Rose Stackpole and Nikita Pablo achieved their best score to date at the Games, finishing the completion in 24th place.

At the turn of the 20th century, Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer, toured the United States performing water acrobatics. Her shows proved very popular and a sport was born.

Synchronised swimming became an Olympic sport in Los Angeles 1984 and it is now one of two sports on today’s Olympic program to be contested only by women. The other is Rhythmic Gymnastics.

The sport debuted with solo and duet events and remained like this for three Olympics (Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992) until they were replaced by an eight-woman team event in Atlanta 1996. Sydney 2000 saw the duet return to the Olympic program to join the team event.

Sport Format

Swimmers perform routines in the water and are marked for both their technical merit and artistic impression.

Swimmers require incredible strength, flexibility, grace, artistry and long underwater endurance. To stay longer underwater athletes use nose clips to prevent an intake of water through the nostrils. Underwater speakers transmit the music into the pool, helping the swimmers keep their synchronisation and choreography while underwater.

Australia and Olympic Softball

After being omitted from the Olympic program for the last eight years, softball will make its return to the Games in 2020, where the Aussies will hope to bring home their fifth consecutive Olympic medal.

Australia competed and won medals at every edition of Olympic softball. The sport made its debut in Atlanta in 1996 and the Aussie Spirit won bronze. The team played China in the preliminary final, going down 4-2.

Four years later at their home Olympics in Sydney, the Aussies again won bronze, losing their preliminary final to the USA 1-0. Athens 2004 saw the Australian team improve in the medal rankings winning silver. Australia defeated Japan 3-0 in the preliminary final to progress to the gold medal match where they faced the US, eventually going down 5-1.

Beijing 2008 was a bittersweet Games for the Australian softball team. With softball removed from the Olympic program following Beijing, this was the last opportunity for Olympic glory. The team progressed through the preliminary rounds with five wins and two losses, forcing them to face the tough Japanese side in the bronze medal final. The match that took places was a marathon effort for both sides, lasting three and a half hours as both sides fought in the do-or-die match for a shot at gold. The game remained in a deadlock until the conclusion of the 12th inning. Japan’s Mishina Masumi, who had been in the third base, dashed out and reached the home plate before her Australian counterparts could deliver the ball back. The winner sent the Japanese into the final while the Australian team settled for the bronze medal.

Olympic History

Softball was granted Olympic status in Atlanta in 1996, without ever being a demonstration sport.

The United States won gold in 1996, 2000 and 2004 but were pipped for the top of the podium by Japan at Beijing in 2008.

At the IOC meeting in July 7, 2005, baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, becoming the first sports voted out of the Olympics since polo was eliminated from the 1936 Olympics.

In late 2013, the International Olympic Committee voted to reinstate wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 Games, defeating the combined baseball-softball bid.

Over a year later in Monaco, the IOC voted and agreed that the Tokyo 2020 organising committee could resurrect baseball and softball onto the Olympic program.

In September 2015, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee announced that along with four other sports, the reintroduction of Softball/Baseball would be recommended to the IOC.

Finally, on August 3, 2016, the International Olympic Committee approved the return of baseball and softball to the Olympic program for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo

Sport Format

Each team has a maximum of 15 players and 9 players take the field in each game, except when a designated hitter is used, in which case there are 10.

The aim of the game is to advance batters from base to base around the diamond, after hitting the ball. A run is scored each time a batter makes to back to the home plate.
The fielding team tries to get a batter or runner out and this can happen when a third strike ball is caught by the catcher; when a batter hits a ball that is caught on the full by any of the fielders; or when a batter or runner is beaten by the ball to one of the bases, or is tagged off base.

Games last seven innings. If scores are level at the end of nine innings, the tiebreak rule is enforced whereby the player scheduled to bat ninth starts the innings on second base. A mercy rule exists whereby if a team trails by more than 10 runs in the fifth inning or thereafter the game is stopped. All of the teams compete in a single pool and play each other once. The top four teams advance to the semi-final stage, where the first-place team and the third-place team plays against the fourth-place team.

The winner of the game between the first and second-placed teams gets an immediate place in the grand final. The loser gets a second chance, playing the winner of the other semi-final in a preliminary final. The winner of the preliminary final advances to the grand final, with the loser receiving the bronze medal.

Australia and Skateboarding

The sport was created by surfers in California in 1950. When the waves were too flat, surfers started to attach wheels to the underside of their surfboards to ‘surf on land’; and skateboarding was born. Eventually skateboarding made its way to Australia as part of pop culture, and has gradually evolved into a competitive sport.

Skateboarders such as Renton Miller and Shane O’Neill helped put Australia on the international skateboarding map. Miller has been skateboarding for almost 30 years and is a former World Cup and National Champion. Shane O’Neill has been a regular fixture on the global skate scene since 2010. The Melbourne-born rider was crowned the Skate League World Champion in 2016.

Miller and O'Neill have help set the platform for a number of young skaters to thrive both in Australia and abroad. One of Australia’s youngest riders Keegan Palmer was the Under 18 Australian Champion when he was nine years old, and now at the ripe age of 13 is a regular on the World Circuit.

In 2010, 13-year-old Poppy Olson was voted as one of the Top 12 Most Influential Girl Skaters in the World. Leading the charge for Australian female skaters, she claimed her first world title in 2014 and was crowned the overall 2014 point-score winner of the 14 & Under Female World Cup series. The current National Women’s Bowl Riding Champion has joined the elite group of pro skaters around the world that are frequently competing on a world stage.

Elite and amateur skateboarding competitions are regularly held across the globe while top national competitions include the Australian Bowl-Riding Championships, Wolves of Street and Bowl-a-Rama.

Olympic History

Tokyo 2020 is the first time Skateboarding will be included in the Olympic programme.

Sport Format

Skateboarders are judged mainly on the degree of difficulty of tricks, consistency in completing tricks and the overall routine. Speed and scale can make a significant difference in scores of the same trick. In the skateboarding competition at Tokyo 2020, there will be two disciplines: park and street.

For the park competition, a course called a "combination pool," which contains bowls and pools in a complex combination with ramps and course bends, will be used.  For the street competition, a street-like course with stairs, curbs, slopes and rails will be used. 

Australia and Olympic Shooting

It was thought that Donald MacKintosh won the first Australian gold medal in shooting at Paris 1900. There was confusion at the time about what events were included in the Olympic program, which competitors were competing, and for years the event was considered an archery event. Eventually it was acknowledged that MacKintosh won the game shooting event and finished third in the live pigeon shooting. However after many years of deliberation the IOC ruled that the event that he won was actually not part of the Olympic Games.

That means that 52-year-old Patti Dench won Australia’s first shooting medal when she became the oldest medallist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games by winning bronze in the inaugural women’s sport pistol event.

At Atlanta 1996 Australia’s golden shooting age began. Michael Diamond won the trap and Russell Mark won the double trap. At the Sydney Olympic Games, Diamond became a dual Olympic Champion in the trap. Mark finished second in the double trap after a shoot-off with the eventual winner. At Athens 2004, Suzy Balogh became the first Australian woman to win a gold medal in Olympic shooting when she won the women’s trap event.

Between 1996 and 2008 Australia collected bronze medals at every Olympics. In Atlanta 1996 Deserie Huddleston won a bronze medal in the women’s double trap. Annemarie Forder finished third in the air pistol at Sydney 2000. Adam Vella won a bronze medal in the men’s trap at Athens 2004. In 2008, Warren Potent claimed Australia’s only shooting medal, a bronze in the 50 metres small-bore rifle (prone position). His medal was the first by an Australian in any Olympic rifle-shooting event.

Michael Diamond and Russell Mark returned for their sixth Olympic Games at London 2012 while David and Hayley Chapman became the first father-daughter combination to compete in any sport at the same Olympic Games for Australia.

Diamond put himself in a strong position in the men's trap as he equalled the world record and set a new Olympic record in the qualifying rounds, hitting 125 of 125 targets to lead by one shot heading into the final. He shot 20 of 25 targets in the final before going down in a bronze medal shoot off to finish just out of the medals in fourth. Athens gold medallist Suzy Balogh also put herself in contention for the medals in the women's trap as she made the final as the third ranked shooter before going on to finish sixth.

Australia returned to the medal list for the first time since Beijing, and topped the podium for the first time since Suzy Balogh’s 2004 trap win, at Rio 2016 when Catherine Skinner claimed a heart-stopping trap gold medal. After needing to defeat Canadian Cynthia Meyer in a sudden death shoot-off just to make the semi-final, Skinner faced New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney in the final; where the 26-year-old won gold on her final shot. Fellow Australian Laetisha Scanlan placed fifth after topping the qualifying round.

Pierre de Coubertin was a champion shooter as a young man and it is no surprise that shooting was included in the first Olympic program at Athens 1896.

Shooting has appeared on every Olympic program except St Louis 1904 and Amsterdam 1928. The number and variety of events have changed many times over the Olympiads - shooting began with three events in 1986 and now boasts fifteen.

From Mexico City 1968, women started competing alongside men in a number of Olympic shooting events. The first woman medallist was Margaret Murdock from the United States in the small-bore rifle (three positions) at Montreal 1976. Murdock finished second to countryman Lenny Bassham after a count-back. A limited number of women’s events were first included at Los Angeles 1984. Until Barcelona 1992, women were still permitted to compete in those events that were not included in their program. From Atlanta 1996, the Olympic shooting program has been split into men’s and women’s events.

Sport Format

Olympic shooting now consists of 15 events across the three disciplines of rifle, pistol and shotgun.

Trap (125 targets) men
Shooters fire from five adjacent shooting stations. At each station, the targets are thrown one at a time from an underground bunker. The men’s match consists of 150 targets, shot over two days, 75 on the first day and 50 the second day. Then the top six contest a final series of 25 shots.

Trap (75 targets) women
Same as the men’s competition, except the women shoot three rounds of 25 targets for a total of 75. Then the top six contest a final series of 25 shots.

Double trap (120 targets) men
Competitors fire from five adjacent shooting stations. At each station, the targets are thrown two at a time from an underground bunker. Men shoot three rounds of 50 on one day at 150 targets. Then the top six contest a final series of 50 shots.

Skeet (125 targets) men
Targets are released from separate towers (high and low). The high tower is 3.05 metres above ground and the low target is 1.05 metres above ground. Each one is on either side of the range. Sometimes one skeet is thrown up whilst other times two.

Shooters move through a semi-circular range featuring eight shooting stations. The men’s match consists of 125 targets, shot in five rounds of 25 over two days. Three rounds are fired on day one, two rounds plus the final are shot on day two.

Skeet (75 targets) women
Like the men’s competition, but the women’s match consists of 75 targets, shot in three rounds on one day plus final.

50m rifle 3 positions (3x40 shots) men
Shooters fires 40 shots each in prone (time limit 45 minutes), standing (time limit 75 minutes) and kneeling position (time limit 60 minutes) at target 50 metres away. Prior to the first competition shot, any number of sighting shots may be fired.

50m rifle 3 positions (3x20 shots) women
Aiming at a target 50 metres away, 20 shots are fired each in the prone, standing and kneeling position. Time limit is 135 minutes.

50m rifle prone (60 shots) men
Sixty shots are fired in the prone position in 75 minutes at a target 50 metres away. Prior to the first competition shot, any number of sighting shots may be fired.

10m air rifle (60 shots) men
Shots fired in the standing position at a distance of 10m. Men shoot 60 shots in 105 mins.

10m air rifle (40 shots) women
Shots are fired in the standing position at a distance of 10m. Women complete 40 shots in a maximum 75mins.

10m air pistol (60 shots) men
Shooters fire from the standing position at targets 10m away. Men fire 60 competition shots in 105mins.

10m air pistol (40 shots) women
Shooters fire from the standing position at targets 10m away. 40 shots must be fired within 75mins at electronic targets.

25m rapid fire pistol (60 shot) men
There are two rounds of 30 shots each: one round consists of two series of five shots fired in 8 seconds; two series of five shots fired in six seconds and two series of five shots fired in four seconds at a distance of 25 metres.

25m pistol (30+30 shot) women
At a 25m distance six series of five precision shots must be completed in five minutes each and six series of five rapid shots must be completed in 3 seconds each.

50m pistol (60 shots) men
Within 120 minutes, any number of sighting shots plus 60 competition shots are fired at a target 50 metres away.

Australia and Olympic Sailing

Australia has an illustrious history in Olympic sailing. The first Australian Olympic sailors were Alexander “Jock” Sturrock, Len Fenton and Robert French in London 1948. Australia first medalled in sailing two Olympiads later in Melbourne in 1956. Sturrock combined with Dev Mytton and Doug Buxton to win a bronze medal (5.5-metre class) while Rolly Tasker and John Scott claimed silver after a count-back (Sharpies class). Sturrock competed in a fourth Olympics at Rome 1960 where he was the Australian flagbearer.

The oldest Australian Olympic gold medallist was Bill Northam who, aged almost 60, skippered his crew of Peter O’Donnell and James Sargeant to victory in the 5.5-metre class at Tokyo 1964. In Munich 1972, John Cuneo with Tom Anderson and John Shaw won the Dragon class, and David Forbes with John Anderson were victorious in the Star class. Shaw and Cuneo later sailed on Southern Cross in the 1974 America's Cup Challenge.

At Montreal 1976, John Bertrand (Finn class) and Ian Ruff with Ian Brown (470) won bronze medals. Bertrand was to gain even greater fame as a yachtsman when he skippered the wing-keeled Australia II in its successful challenge for the America’s Cup in 1983. Australia won more bronze at Los Angeles 1984 through Chris Cairns and Scott Anderson (Tornado class) and another two bronze medals at Barcelona 1992 with Mitch Booth and John Forbes (Tornado class), and on the sailboard (Mistral) with Lars Kleppich. Booth then won silver at Atlanta 1996 with Andrew Landenberger (Tornado class), while Colin Beashel and David Giles (Star class) won a bronze medal.

Australia returned to golden form on Sydney Harbour in 2000 with victories to Tom King and Mark Turnbull (470) and Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell (470). Darren Bundock and John Forbes also claimed a silver medal (Tornado class) and Michael Blackburn won bronze (Laser class).

Athens 2004 was the first time since Seoul 1988 that Australian sailors failed to reach the podium at the Games. Four years later at the Beijing Games, the young pair of Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi overcame a difficult lead-up to the Games to win a spectacular race in the women's 470. On the same day, Malcolm Page and Nathan Wilmot won the gold medal in the men’s 470 class. In the men's Tornado, Darren Bundock added another silver medal to his collection placing second in the race with partner Glenn Ashby.

Australia continued to show its strength in the sport at the 2012 Games as the Aussies became the most successful team on the waters of Weymouth with three gold medals and one silver medal. Malcolm Page was the only Australian to defend an Olympic title in London when he won gold alongside teammate Mathew Belcher in the 470 class. Page went on to carry the Australian flag at the 2012 Closing Ceremony.

Tom Slingsby made up for a disappointing Beijing campaign to win gold in the laser class while best friends Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen dominated the 49er class to assure themselves of the gold medal before the medal race. The young women’s match racing team of Olivia Price (20) Lucinda Whitty (21) and Nina Curtis (24) took silver on their Olympic debut after an undefeated run through the round robin stage of competition.

Australia continued its sailing success at Rio 2016, medalling in four of the seven events, and with seven of the 11 Australia sailors brining home Olympic medals. Olympic debutant Tom Burton sailed the race of his life in the men’s laser to claim Australia’s sole sailing gold at Rio. However a flurry of silver was to follow Burton’s success with Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen adding silver to their gold from 2012. Fellow London gold medallist Mat Belcher paired up with debutant Will Ryan in the 470 class, bringing home the silver medal; while Sydney cousins Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin also won silver in the Nacra 17 class.

The first Olympic sailing (or yachting, as it was known up to and including 1996) events were conducted at Paris 1900. After a break from Olympic competition in 1904 due to problems transporting boats and equipment from Europe to inland USA, sailing commenced its unbroken run as an Olympic sport at London 1908. Since then, the classes of competing boats and scoring systems have seen many changes. Women have always been permitted to sail in the Olympic regatta but events exclusively for women sailors were introduced in Barcelona 1992.

Sport Format

Sailing competition is run in different classes, or types of boats. In any race, only boats of the same class compete against each other. The classes used in the Olympic Games are known as ‘one-design’, meaning they are built the same to strict rules, so no competitor has a design advantage over another with their boat.

The classes of boats used in the Olympic Games are women’s, men’s or mixed disciplines. World Sailing selects the classes for each Olympic Games and the classes do, and have changed over the years.

Points are awarded equating to the position where the boats finish (i.e. 1st receives one point, 2nd receives two points etc), with the lowest total scores deciding the placings. Classes sail 11 or 13 races in an Olympic regatta, depending on the class. The last race at an Olympic regatta is the Medal Race, where the top ten boats race and double points are applied to finishing positions. Classes will sail up to three races on a day dependent on the weather.

Australia and Olympic Rugby 7s

Australia achieved early success in rugby union at the Olympic Games in London 1908. The Wallabies defeated Great Britain 32-3 in the Olympic final, claiming Australia’s only gold medal at the 1908 Games.

After a 92 year absence from Olympic competition, rugby returned for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with the Sevens format making its debut. It was there that Australia made history by winning the women's tournament in spectacular fashion. 

The Aussie women began the tournament with big wins over Colombia (53-0) and Fiji (36-0) before finishing level with USA (12-12) to top the group and move through to the quarter-finals. Victories over Spain (24-0) and Canada (17-5) followed to set up a mouth-watering gold medal clash with New Zealand. Green scored her third try of the tournament as the Aussies ran out 24-17 winners to claim the first Olympic rugby sevens gold medal.

The men's side finished the Rio 2016 tournament in 8th after going down in the quarter-finals to South Africa. 

Pierre de Coubertin admired the spirit and values of rugby union and introduced rugby in its traditional 15-man format for the Paris 1900 Games. It also appeared in the Games of London 1908, Antwerp 1920 and Paris 1924.

Even though rugby union sold more tickets than athletics in 1924, the IOC cancelled rugby as an Olympic sport and turned down the request to stage rugby at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. Three factors were believed to be behind this: the IOC wanted more emphasis on individual sports; women's athletics had increased the number of competitors; and the sport did not receive the backing that it should have from the British entries.

At the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, rugby sevens was elected to join the 2016 program by a vote of 81 members to 8 after nearly a century off the Olympic program. The sevens concept was an attractive option for Olympic competition due to its speed, excitement and the number of countries competing around the world.

The readmission of rugby to the Olympic program was led by Australian women’s rugby sevens captain, Cheryl Soon and New Zealand’s Jonah Lomu. These athletes achieved a remarkable result for rugby- guaranteeing the growth of women’s rugby, giving nations such as Fiji, Samoa, Kenya, and Argentina the chance to win an Olympic medal, and involve passionate young supporters in the Olympic movement.

The Australian women climbed to the top of the podium winning the first ever rugby sevens gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In the men's tournament the Fijian side made history in Rio, not only winning the gold but in doing so won their nation's first ever Olympic medal. 

Sport Format

Rugby sevens is contested over two seven-minute halves. Each side has seven players and the variations on regular rugby rules include drop-kick conversions and three-person scrums. Drawn matches go into extra time in five-minute periods, and the final competition match is normally contested over two ten-minute halves.