Gold, gold, gold and more gold for Australia on our greatest medal haul on a single day means the Paris Olympics will go down as our most successful of all time.
Australia are now up to 18 golds to be third on the medal table, leapfrogging host nation France, to sit behind only the United States and China after winning four events overnight on Day 12.
On one of the greatest days in Australian sporting history, we have now overtaken the Athens and Tokyo Games for the most gold medals at an Olympics.
The Aussies have 18 golds, 12 silver 11 and bronze medals for an overall tally of 41 heading into the final few days of the Games.
Pole vaulter Nina Kennedy recorded an emotional win at the Olympic stadium, young skateboarder Keegan Palmer made it back-to-back golds in the men’s park event, sailor Matt Wearn cruised to victory in the men’s dinghy final of the sailing competition and Australia’s men’s team pursuit cyclists downed Great Britain their final at the velodrome.
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Two more medals were added to Australia’s glittering haul with Matt Denny collecting the bronze in the men’s discus and Jemima Montag and Rhydian Cowley finishing third in the mixed relay walk marathon.
Kennedy upset reigning Olympic champion Katie Moon to become Australia’s first-ever women’s champion in a field event.
The 27-year-old soared above 4.9 metres with Moon second and Canada’s Alysha Newman taking bronze.
“I’m a gold medallist. That is so sick,” she told Nine.
Kennedy was open about her mental health struggles in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics and said she learned that becoming vulnerable was scary but part of the process of realising her dream.
“I really had to go places which I didn’t think I had to go,” she said.
“I had to learn a lot about myself. The way I think, my past and I really just had to focus on me as a person and focusing on Nina the human has really brought out the best in Nina the athlete.
“I was very vulnerable. I said from the start I wanted to win that gold medal. It’s scary and vulnerable but I did it and I couldn’t be prouder of myself and my team.”
Kennedy recovered from a miss at 4.7m to clear 4.8m, 4.85m and 4.9m at her first attempt each time.
She tried for 4.95m and even though she couldn’t clear that height, it was enough to beat her rivals.
The victory was the sweetest of all for Kennedy who could only manage 4.4 at the Tokyo Games three years ago after an injury-interrupted preparation.
She broke through for bronze at the 2022 World Championships before tying for gold at last year’s world titles at Budapest with Moon.
When asked if she wanted to be sharing the gold this time around, she replied: “Damn, hell no.
“The thing about pole vault is that first attempt clearances are so important. I learned from last year in Budapest and I wasn’t going to share it with Katie.
“I have so many people here. It was just like so nice. I had my team, I had my family, I had like all my friends. It was just like insane.
“I felt really calm. I came in with a job. I came in with an intention and today I just told myself to get to work. Do your job and this is the result.”
At the velodrome, Australia broke a 20-year drought in the men’s team pursuit with a 16-lap blitz of 3:42.067 just outside the world record they set in qualifying.
The blistering effort from the Aussie quartet of Sam Welsford, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien relegated their bitter rivals Great Britain to the silver with Italy rounding out the podium.
“It is pretty crazy to call ourselves Olympic champions now,” Welsford said.
“We probably did not have these expectations when we started training together. To come together like we did in the last month was pretty special.
“It has been 20 years since Australia won this, so that will sink in over the next week.”
Palmer’s skateboarding moment came just 24 hours after fellow Aussie Arisa Trew’s triumph in the women’s park final.
The 21-year-old from the Gold Coast successfully defended the title he won at Tokyo three years ago with a sublime run of 93.11 and sat back to watch his rivals bomb out.
“I just can’t believe it bro. Everyone’s yelling at me. I’m just happy,” he said.
“I got really lucky though by everyone kind of falling off on their last two runs. BI had something prepared if need be. I’m speechless though.”
His final run was little more than a lap of honour knowing that he already had the gold safely in his keeping.
He paid tribute to Trew, who also learned the tricks of the skateboarding trade at the Elanora park on the Gold Coast.
“We’re the king and queen of skateboarding park right now and we both grew up in the same town.”
Wearn headed into the final of the men’s dinghy final assured of first or second place and had to compete twice after the first race was abandoned near the finish in Marseille.
In the second final, Wearn crossed the line in first place to continue Australia’s dominance of the event.
He won the gold at Tokyo after Tom Burton did likewise at Rio in 2016 and Tom Slingsby was victorious in London 12 years ago.