Sochi 2014: How Did Australia Fare at the Winter Olympics

Australia first made its debut in the Winter Olympics in Garnish Partenkirchen in 1936. At the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, the country has sent a total of 60 Australian athletes. This is the largest Olympic team that Australia has ever assembled. Australia's delegation has competed in 11 sports, namely, alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, figure-skating, freestyle skiing, luge, speed skating, skeleton, and snowboarding.

Here are the athletes who snagged medals at the recently concluded 22^nd Winter Olympics.

Let us find out more how the Aussies performed at each event:

Alpine Skiing

Australia has five athletes who competed in the qualification position, namely, Dominic Deschar, Ross, Peraudo, Emily Bamford, Lavinia Chrystal and Greta Small. Chrystal was Australia's best in the Giant Slalom event landing at the 40^th place.

Biathlon

Alexei Almoukov and Lucy Glanville, even though they did not win a medal, were satisfied with their performance at Sochi. Almoukouv currently holds Australia's best record in biathlon, finishing at 45^th place. Almoukov and Glanville are keeping their eyes on the next Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018.

Bobsleigh

The Bobsleigh team is comprised of six athletes, namely, Duncan Harvey, Lucas Mata, Gareth Nichols, Jana Pittman, Astrid Radjenovic and Heath Spence. Pittman and Radjenovic ranked 14^th bobsleigh two-woman team which is the best result by an Australian's women team at the Winter Games. Pittman was the first female athlete to ever compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. All the members of the team are looking forward to making their craft better for Pyeongchang 2018.

Cross-Country Skiing

This is the largest cross-country skiing team that Australia has put up with four athletes, namely, Phil Bellingham, Esther Bottomley, Aimee Watson and Callum Watson. Aimee and Callum were the first siblings to represent the country in the same sport.

Figure Skating

Brooklee Han, Brendan Kerry, Gregory Merriman and Danielle O'Brien comprised the figure-skating team. Kerry failed to advance in the competition, ranking 29^th for the short program. Han, on the other hand, managed to finish at the 20^th place. The duo, O'Brien and Merriman, ended their Sochi 2014 journey at the 20^th place.

Freestyle Skiing

Australia has 18 athletes who competed for the freestyle skiing event. David Morris and Lydia Lassila won silver medal and bronze medal for the men's aerials and women's aerials, respectively. Morris said that his ambition was to win a medal in Sochi. He said that he looks up to Belarusian freestyle skier Dmitri Dashinski and fellow teammate Lydia Lassila. Lassila was Australia's flag bearer during the closing ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, where she won a gold medal for aerials' event.

Luge

Alex Ferlazzo finished at the 33^rd place in men's singles. He performed well during the first games, but the Luge event became completely conquered by the Germans.

Short Track Speed Skating

Pierre Boda and Deanna Lockett represented the country, but both athletes failed to bring home a medal. Lockett finished in the ninth position making her result the best that the county has ever gotten in a short track 1000m event. Boda ended at the 30^th place overall.

Skeleton

A total of three athletes namely, John Farrow, Lucy Chaffer and Michelle Steele comprised the skeleton team. All three athletes were in the top 20 finishers. Farrow and Chaffer were ranked 17^th, while Steele finished in the 12^th place.

Snowboarding

Torah Bright was the only one out of the 12 athletes who participated in the snowboarding competition to win a medal. Bright won a silver in the women's aerials event. Bright has previously won a gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Speed Skating

The only representative of Australia for speed skating is Daniel Greig. He was the fastest athlete during training, but he suffered a blunder when his blade came into the ice during his 500m race, where he finished at the 39^th spot. He ranked 22^nd in the 1000m race.

The Australian Sochi 2014 Olympic team had more women than men. There were 31 female athletes and 29 male athletes. Even though the country weren't able to bring as many medals as they had hoped for, we still have to give praise and admiration to all Olympians from all countries who joined the competition.