Silver medalist Australia's Torah Bright celebrates during the medal ceremony of the women's snowboard halfpipe finals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
Silver medalist Australia's Torah Bright celebrates during the medal ceremony of the women's snowboard halfpipe finals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Reuters

Was Australia’s three-medal haul at the recent Sochi Olympics 2014 a failure or a success?

Basing on recent Winter Games history for the Aussies, it appears to be a "failure" since previous Olympics produced better results for Australians in terms of first-place finishes.

Australia’s Medal Haul (Last 10 Winter Olympics):

2014 (Sochi, Russia) – 3 medals (2 silver and 1 bronze)
2010 (Vancouver, Canada) - 3 medals (2 gold and 1 silver)
2006 (Turin, Italy) – 2 Medals (1 Gold and 1 Bronze)
2002 (Salt Lake City, USA) - 2 medals (2 gold)
1998 (Nagano, Japan) – 1 medal (1 bronze)
1994 (Lillehammer, Norway) – 1 medal (1 bronze)
1992 (Albertville, France) – None
1988 (Calgary, Canada) – None
1984 (Sarajevo, Yugoslavia) – None
1980 (Lake Placid, USA) – None

Both in 2014 and 2010, Australia had a total of three medals won but has zero gold medals this year compared to two gold four years ago in Canada. Even the 2006 campaign produced a gold for Australia although only two medals were brought home at that time.

2014 Medal Breakdown:
Torah Bright (Snowboarding – women’s halfpipe) – silver
David Morris (Freestyle skiing – men’s aerials) – silver
Lydia Lassila (Freestyle skiing – women’s aerials) – bronze

2010 Medal Breakdown:
Torah Bright - Snowboarding (women's halfpipe) – gold
Lydia Lassila - Freestyle skiing (women's aerials) - gold
Dale Begg-Smith - Freestyle skiing (men's moguls) – silver

2006 Medal Breakdown:
Dale Begg-Smith – Freestyle skiing (men’s moguls) – gold
Alisa Camplin – Freestyle skiing (women’s aerials) – bronze

The most consistent performers—and achievers-- in recent times are Torah Bright (women’s halfpipe) who has had won a silver and gold and Lydia Lassila (women’s aerials) who has had two medals in the past two Winter Games. Both came up short this year however as they couldn’t defend their gold medals they’ve won in Canada four years ago.

Still the total medal haul of three is considered a respectable performance for the 60-team member Australian squad, whom overall has 15 top 10 finishes in Sochi. Also of note is that roughly a third of the delegation are first-timers in the Olympics.

The veterans delivered the medals in 2014 in Russia but the young guns gained invaluable experience they can use four years from now—in PyeongChang, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics.