Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

sent a delegation to compete at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

from 6 to 16 February 1936 in

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

, Germany. This was the nation's first appearance at an Winter Olympic Games since the competition began in 1924. Australia delegation consisted of one competitor. That was speed skater, Kenneth Kennedy who competed in three events in the speed skating competitions. He finished in 29th overall in the

500 meters The 500 metres is a rarely run middle-distance running event in track and field competitions. All-time top 25 *i = indoor performance *OT = oversized track (exceeding 200m in circumference) *A = affected by altitude *h = hand timing Men *C ...

and 33rd overall in the

1500 meters The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

and the

5000 meters The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stand ...

Background

The Australian Olympic Committee was formed on 1 January 1895 with the nation making their debut at the first Olympics in Athens with

Teddy Flack Edwin Harold Flack (5 November 1873 – 10 January 1935) was an Australian athlete and tennis player. Also known as "Teddy", he was Australia's first Olympian, being its only representative in 1896, and the first Olympic champion in the ...

being the first representative of the nation. This was the nation's first appearance at a Winter Olympics and the ninth overall Olympics that Australia had sent a delegation in. The 1936 Winter Olympics was held at

in Germany and took place from the 6 to 16 February: a total of 646 athletes competed from 28 nations. The Australian delegation consist of a speed skater, Ken Kennedy who before the games had won the 880 yards and a mile national titles in speed skating over in Britain before competing for Australia at the 1936 Games.

Speed skating

In what was his only Olympics, 22 year old Ken Kennedy competed in four speed skating events throughout the 1936 Games. His first event was in the men's 500 metres which took place on 11 February. He was a part of the 36 competitors that competed in the distance with Kennedy finishing 29th overall with a time of 47.4 seconds. His next event was the men's 1500 metres which took place the following day. From the 37 skaters that he entered, he finished in 33rd with a time of two minutes and 31 seconds, a full twelve seconds behind the eventual champion in Charles Mathiesen. On 13 February, he competed in his last event of the Games as he didn't start the

10000 metres 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

event. From 39 entrants, Kennedy finished in 33rd place overall with a time of nine minutes and 48 seconds. He was almost one and a half minutes behind gold medallist,

Ivar Ballangrud Ivar Eugen Ballangrud (né ''Eriksen'', 7 March 1904 – 1 June 1969) was a Norwegian speed skater, a four-time Olympic champion in speed skating. As the only triple gold medalist at the 1936 Winter Olympics, Ballangrud was the most successful at ...

from Norway.

References

External links

Australia NOCOlympic Winter Institute of Australia
{{Nations at the 1936 Winter Olympics Nations at the 1936 Winter Olympics

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Olympics, Winter Winter sports in Australia