Paris: Australia’s Olympic team in Paris is forecast to be the most productive to leave our shores, with authoritative pre-Games modelling calculating a final haul of 54 medals, including 15 gold. According to a virtual medal tally compiled by Gracenote, a global data and technology company that analyses the major competition form of all athletes and teams heading into the Olympics, Australia are likely to better their record tally from Athens 20 years ago, when in the afterglow of a home Olympics they won 50 medals. Kaylee McKeown and Ariarne Titmus are forecast to win six gold medals between them.
Credit: Getty If the predictions prove accurate, Australia will finish sixth for gold medals won and fifth for total medals. Australia’s largest ever tally was in Sydney, when they automatically qualified for all sports and won 58 medals. The Paris bolter is tipped to be the host nation, with Gracenote predicting the French will finish third on the gold-medal tally with a staggering 27 gold, and 60 overall.
France won 10 gold medals in Tokyo. The US are forecast to top the medal table for a fourth consecutive Olympics. In Paris, as in Tokyo, neither the Australian Olympic Committee nor the Australian government have set hard medal targets.
Where previously the AOC made clear its expectation of a top-five finish on the final tally of Olympic nations, current team management believes the additional pressure this heaped on athletes was counterproductive. Australian chef de missio.