That was Teddy Flack who won gold in the 1500 meter run and 800 meter run at the first Modern Games, the 1896 Olympics in Athens. Flack was born in London, England and moved to Australia as a young child. The first native born Australian to win gold was swimmer Frederick Lane who won the 200 meter freestyle and 200 meter obstacle events at the 1900 Games in Paris. Lane was from Manly, New South Wales.
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That was Dunc Gray who won bronze in the 1000 meter time trial at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. Gray is also the first Australian to win a gold medal in cycling, winning gold in the 1000 meter time trial at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.
The first Australian to win a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was swimmer Stephanie Rice. She won the women's 400 individual medley in a world record time of 4.29.45. This first medal of the 2008 Olympics was also Australia's 400th summer Olympic medal. This was Rice's Olympic debut. She went on to win gold again in the 200m individual medley with a new world record time of 2 minutes 8.34 seconds. She then won her third gold medal as part of the 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay team.
That was Cathy Freeman who won silver in the women's 400 meter run on July 29, 1996. Three days later (August 1, 1996) Nova Peris-Kneebone won a gold medal with the Australian Field Hockey team.