If you blinked – or slept – you’d have missed it. And it was a ‘wild, wild feeling’

Mark it down in the record books. August 7, 2024, was the greatest day at the most triumphant Games in Australian Olympic history. Four victories within five hours and eight minutes pushed the gold medal tally in Paris to 18 – the most won by an Australian team at an Olympics.

As the country builds towards a home Games in 2032, it may herald an unprecedented golden era.

Every gold is a thrill. But four in one day and 18 in one Games is, as one of Wednesday’s (Paris time) quartet of champions put it, “a wild, wild feeling”.

Nina Kennedy’s pole vault gold medal was Australia’s fourth in one day – and 18th for the Paris Games.Credit: Getty Images

Three of those victories came within 130 minutes in the French dusk, when a sailor, a skateboarder and a team of cyclists raised the national flag. In an unusual twist for a Games dominated by women, those medals were all claimed by men.

And then came the extraordinary pole vaulter Nina Kennedy. When she flew over the bar at 4.90 metres, she took Australia’s sporting glory with her.

Eighteen gold eclipses the 17 won in Tokyo and Athens, the 16 won in Sydney, and the 13 collected so long ago in Melbourne. Four Australian gold medals in one day has only happened once before, and never across four different sports.

Matt Wearn goes back to back with gold in the men’s dinghy. Credit: Getty Images

Australia is third on the medal tally in Paris, five golds ahead of its French hosts and six behind China, a country of 1.4 billion people that invests about $3 billion a year in sport.

On an overall count, Sydney – where Australia won 58 medals of all hues – is still the most successful. The total medal count in Paris sits at 41.

On a hot, exhilarating day, three golds came in quick succession.

In the southern port city of Marseille, sailor Matt Wearn weathered delays and wind issues and false starts to claim victory in the men’s dinghy, becoming the event’s first back-to-back Olympic champion.

Wearn was hoisted high on his boat by teammates. They carried him along the shore like a mythic hero brandishing a boxing kangaroo. That was gold number 15.

Keegan Palmer with his skateboard gold medal.Credit: Getty

At La Concorde, once occupied by the French revolutionaries, park skateboarder Keegan Palmer, at just 21 years old, became the first back-to-back Olympic champion in that event, too, thanks to a spectacular first run that no one else could match.

Palmer was hailed by skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, and grabbed a selfie with rapper Snoop Dogg.

“It’s just a wild, wild feeling,” he said. Gold number 16.

Australia’s team pursuit riders Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien celebrate gold.Credit: Getty Images

Then at the velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Australia’s cycling team outclassed long-time rivals Great Britain to claim the men’s team pursuit.

It was Australia’s first cycling gold since chef de mission Anna Meares won in 2012, and the first team pursuit victory in 20 years.

The cyclists embraced each other, and then leaped over the barriers and into the arms of family. Gold number 17.

All eyes turned to the Stade de France, where Kennedy was battling gravity, a crossbar and the weight of a nation’s expectations. She won the world championships last year with a broken back but shared first place with American rival Katie Moon.

That was admirable sportsmanship, but this time she was determined to win outright. She thought she could. The country willed her to.

And she did.

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