Indooroopilly emerges as gold medal hotspot after pool dominance in Paris

It’s the Brisbane suburb that won its weight in gold, with one winners medal for every 3650 of its residents, outstripping countries like India, South Africa and Brazil.

If this Brisbane suburb was represented as a country in the Olympic medal tally, it would be seventeenth, with its four gold medals outranking many countries with tens of millions of people.

Athletes, coaches and staff have touched down at Sydney Airport and welcomed homes as “heroes” following Australia’s best ever Olympic camping in Paris.

Australia won 53 medals, 18 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze, at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

But a bulk of our athletes come from Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly which has a population of 14,559.

If Indooroopilly were a country, it would rank 17th in the overall Paris Olympic medal table, placing it ahead of India, South Africa and Brazil.

Indooroopilly had a gold medal for every 3650 people.

Ariarne Titmus attends a Speedo function after competition. Pics Adam Head

This placed Indooroopilly second on the swimming table in front of France, Canada and rest of Australia, according to research by economist Colin Dwyer.

In perspective the small Brisbane suburb goes up against the USA that finished on top with eight gold medals in the pool and Indooroopilly finished second with four.

With most of our Olympic swimmers calling Queensland home. That includes people that were born interstate and moved, the overall medal count sees the Sunshine State sit on top with 11 gold medallists born here.

Queensland’s gold medallists are Ariarne Titmus, Cameron McEvoy, Mollie O’Callaghan, Kaylee McKeown, Keegan Palmer, Arisa Trew, Meg Harris, Shayna Jack and Saya Sakakibara.

Gold medallist Australia’s Cameron McEvoy. Picture: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

But on a suburban level, Indooroopilly - home to St Peter’s Lutheran College, where golden girls Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan and their coach Dean Boxall are based - boasts four of the swimming gold medals.

If we include those athletes who trained at Indooroopilly but competed for other countries it improves Indooroopilly’s global sporting status, would bring the suburbs tally to five gold medals.

Fellow alumni Jack Cartwright, Jenna Forrester, Jamie Perkins, Ella Ramsay, Kai Taylor, and Eve Thomas who competed for New Zealand and trained at St Peter’s.

Jamie Perkins won Gold in the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle relay, Jack Cartwright won silver in the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle relay, Ella Ramsay won silver in the 4x100m medley relay, Kai Taylor won one silver in the Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and one bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

The suburb is known for its world class swimming training, and could be known as a gold medal hotspot for elite swimmers and athletes.

Experts have also weighed in on the female dominance in the pool and claim Olympic performance investment could be a contributing factor.

Team Australia swimming medallists pose for a photo with their medals on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Champions Park in France. Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Griffith University manager of sports engagement and former Olympic gold medallist Naomi McCarthy said much more was to come from female athletes.

“There is actually a lot of room for improvement of performance for female athletes by doing some of this research. In actual fact, we’re not at our ceiling, we could be supporting our female athletes with their performance much more than what we are doing at the moment,” Ms McCarthy said.

“They haven’t invested in males as opposed to females, they have invested in performance. So if you’re in an Olympic sport and your female and your performance is higher than your male counterparts, that has been invested in, I think that form of equity in performance has been around for a while and it’s obviously contributing to some of the results as well.”