Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics

Australia at the
2004 Summer Paralympics
IPC codeAUS
NPCAustralian Paralympic Committee
Websitewww.paralympic.org.au
in Athens
Competitors151
Flag bearerLouise Sauvage (Opening) Matthew Cowdrey (Closing)
Medals
Ranked 5th
Gold
26
Silver
39
Bronze
36
Total
101
Summer Paralympics appearances (overview)

Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes (91 men and 60 women).[1] Australian competitors won 101 medals (26 gold, 39 silver and 36 bronze) to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table.[2] Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird.[3] The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal[4] and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities.[5] The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.

  1. ^ "Participation Numbers Athens 2004 Paralympic Games". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Medal Standings Athens 2004 Paralympic Games". International Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference media was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Paralympic Games History - Summer". Australian Paralympic Committee website. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  5. ^ "7.30 Report - 30/1/2001: IPC suspends intellectually disabled athletes from competition". www.abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2015-10-28.