Australian Institute of Sport director Peter Conde has revealed the country’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics surpassed their most optimistic medal predictions.
Australia finished with 17 gold medals, seven silvers and 22 bronze, with the 46-medal effort placing them as the sixth-best country.
It was Australia’s best performance at an Olympic Games since Athens in 2004, with officials making a conscious effort not to publicly declare their predictions for the Games in the lead up.
Asked by SEN’s Gerard Whateley to disclose the AIS’ internal prediction now that the Olympics were concluded, Conde revealed that the team’s collective performance in Tokyo exceeded all expectations.
“We got to 46 medals in total (in Tokyo),” he said on SEN’s Whateley.
“We had a range of predictions and that is one more medal than the top of our range of predictions.
“It’s very pleasing outcome, but not entirely surprising.”
Conde explained why medal predictions weren’t made public for this Olympics, saying in the past putting a number on expected medals placed unnecessary added pressure on athletes.
He said medal predictions in general didn’t provide a “positive purpose” for the team ahead of competition commencing.
“We agreed with the AOC’ Athletes' Commission that (medal predictions) serve no useful purpose to make those things public,” he said.
“It becomes a rod for the back of the athletes and it’s additional pressure they don’t really need.
“We do have targets that we set with our sports and set overall because there’s an accountability that’s important here but making those public in advance of the games doesn’t really serve a positive purpose.
“While it may make for good press and media at times, but I think we’re better than that.”