Queensland Hits Olympic High

Queensland’s elite athletes have eclipsed their Rio Olympics heroics bringing home 28 medals from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

At the conclusion of the rescheduled Games, the Queensland Academy of Sport supported 52 medallists across 11 sport disciplines amassing 13 gold, four silver and 11 bronze medals.

Representing 64% of the Australian Swimming Team, Queensland’s female swimmers led the way with Emma McKeon’s seven-medal haul kicking off Australia’s strong Olympic campaign.

Debutants Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and Zac Stubblety-Cook stunned the world picking up gold medals in freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke respectively as the swimmers racked up the medals in the opening week.

Outside of the pool, more debutants were getting in on the action with BMX World Champion Logan Martin riding a gold-medal winning 93.30 in his first finals run at Ariake Sport Park.

Martin became the first-ever gold medallist at the Olympics for freestyle BMX and thanked AusCycling, the Queensland Academy of Sport and the City of Gold Coast for their support in building a replica Tokyo BMX course for his training.

“Thank you to all you guys behind scenes, building the course,” Martin said after receiving his gold medal.

“It honestly played a massive part in securing this gold medal, I’m super grateful for all the support we’ve had.”

The firsts kept coming for Queensland and Australia with more fresh faces standing atop the dais wearing the green and gold as the competition continued.

Canoe Sprint pair Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen registered Australia’s first-ever gold medal in the Men’s K2 1000m while 18-year-old Keegan Palmer picked up gold in Skateboarding’s debut at the Olympics in the Men’s Park competition.

On the open water, Queenslanders picked up a bronze in the 10km Marathon Swim and then a gold in Sailing shortly after as Queensland’s medal tally passed 20 for the Games.

Kareena Lee swam the race to a tee according to her coach John Rodgers finishing the race just two seconds shy of the gold medallist.

A commanding performance from Mat Belcher and Will Ryan in the Men’s 470 Class Sailing secured their gold heading into the medal race - which they also won - making them most successful pairing in Australian Olympic Sailing history.

In the Beach Volleyball, Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar came away with the silver after powering their way through a brilliant campaign across the entire two weeks.

In the team sports, three Queenslanders were part of the Kookaburras silver medal win in the Men’s Hockey with another three taking part in the Boomers bronze medal performance in the Men’s Basketball.

Queensland’s Tokyo medal count now stands as its greatest total since Beijing’s 25 medals in 2008.

The Queensland Academy of Sport thanks all of its athletes, coaches and Performance Support Teams for all of their efforts leading to such a successful Games and now looks forward to the Paralympics starting on 24 August.