Australia competed at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Canada. 180 competitors, 146 men and 34 women, took part in 115 events in 20 sports. Australia performed poorly, winning one silver and four bronze medals, finishing thirty-second on the medals table. This result caused significant negative backlash within the country, and spurred

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...

to set up the Australian Institute of Sport.

Medalists

Archery

In the second Olympic archery competition that Australia contested, the nation sent two women and two men. Only one archer,

Terry Reilly Terrence Reilly (born 24 October 1947) is an Australian archer. He competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the 1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights en ...

, had Olympic experience. He dropped 11 places from his

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

finish.
Women's Individual Competition: * Carole Toy — 2305 points (→ 15th place) * Maureen Adams — 2114 points (→ 25th place)
Men's Individual Competition: * David Anear — 2407 points (→ 13th place) *

— 2331 points (→ 26th place)

Athletics

Men's 4 × 400 metres Relay * Max Binnington, Peter Grant, Don Hanly, and Rick Mitchell ** Heat — 3:05.75 (→ did not advance) Men's 5.000 metres *

David Fitzsimons David Fitzsimons (23 April 1950 – 7 September 2008) was a former Australian Olympic Games, Olympic athlete who competed in middle-distance running, middle distance events and civil engineer. A member of the Sport at the University of Adelai ...

** Heat — did not start (→ did not advance, no ranking) Men's 10.000 metres *

Chris Wardlaw Chris Wardlaw (born 3 March 1950) is an Australian long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics and the 1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1 ...

** Heat — 28:17.52 ** Final — 28:29.91 (→ 12th place) *

** Heat — 28:16.43 ** Final — 29:17.74 (→ 14th place) Men's 400m Hurdles * Don Hanly ** Heat — 51.90s (→ did not advance) * Peter Grant ** Heat — 51.07s (→ did not advance) Men's Long Jump * Chris Commons ** Heat — 7.46m (→ did not advance) Men's Marathon *

— 2:23:56 (→ 35th place) * David Chettle — did not finish (→ no ranking) * Ross Haywood — did not finish (→ no ranking) Men's 20 km Race Walk * Ross Haywood — 1:30:59 (→ 12th place) Men's Hammer Throw * Peter Farmer ** Qualifying round — 69.92m ** Final — 68.00m (→ 12th place)

Basketball

;Men's competition *Preliminary round (Group A): ** Lost to Cuba (89-111) ** Lost to Soviet Union (77-93) ** Defeated Mexico (120-117) ** Lost to Canada (69-81) ** Defeated Japan (117-79) *Classification Matches: ** 5th/8th place: Lost to Italy (72-79) ** 7th/8th place: Lost to Cuba (81-92) → 8th place *Team Roster: ** Robbie Cadee ** Ian Watson ** Andrew Campbell ** Tony Barnett ** Eddie Palubinskas ** Perry Crosswhite ** Russell Simon ** Michael Tucker ** Andris Blicavs ** Peter Walsh ** John Maddock **

Ray Tomlinson Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; It was the first system able to send mail be ...

*Head coach:

Lindsay Gaze Lindsay John Casson Gaze (born 16 August 1936) is an Australian former basketball player and coach. He played for Australia in three Summer Olympics qualification tournaments, between 1960 and 1968, and was the head coach of the senior Austr ...

Boxing

Canoeing

Cycling

Twelve cyclists represented Australia in 1976. ; Individual road race *

Clyde Sefton Kevin "Clyde" Sefton (born 20 January 1951) is a former road racing cyclist from Australia, who was a professional rider from 1972 to 1983. He represented his native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, where he won th ...

— 4:49:01 (→ 28th place) * Remo Sansonetti — 4:49:01 (→ 34th place) * Alan Goodrope — did not finish (→ no ranking) * Peter Kesting — did not finish (→ no ranking) ; Team time trial * Ian Chandler * Remo Sansonetti * Sal Sansonetti *

; Sprint * Ron Boyle — 20th place ; 1000m time trial * Stephen Goodall — 1:08.610 (→ 12th place) ;

Individual pursuit The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track. It is held at over for men and for women. The riders start at the same time and set off to complete the ...

* Gary Sutton — 6th place ;

Team pursuit The team pursuit is a track cycling event similar to the individual pursuit, except that two teams, each of up to four riders, compete, starting on opposite sides of the velodrome. Race format Both men's and women's events are competed over ...

* Stephen Goodall *

Kevin Nichols Kevin John Nichols (born 4 July 1955 in Grafton, New South Wales) is a former track cyclist and Olympic gold medallist. His daughter, Kate Nichols, is a road racing cyclist.Geoff Skaines * John Thorsen

Diving

Equestrian

Fencing

Three fencers, two men and one woman, represented Australia in 1976. ; Men's foil * Greg Benko * Ernest Simon ; Men's épée * Greg Benko ; Women's foil * Helen Smith

Gymnastics

Hockey

;Men's competition *Preliminary round (Group A) ** Defeated Malaysia (2-0) ** Defeated Canada (3-0) ** Defeated India (6-1) ** Lost to the Netherlands (1-2) ** Lost to Argentina (2-3) ** Replay: Defeated India (1-1, 5-4 after penalty strokes) *Semi-finals ** Defeated Pakistan (1-2) *Final ** Lost to New Zealand (0-1) → Silver Medal *Team Roster ** ( 1.) Robert Haigh ** ( 2.)

Ric Charlesworth Richard Ian Charlesworth AO (born 6 February 1952) is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for the Kookaburras (the Australian national team), win ...

** ( 3.) David Bell ** ( 4.) Greg Browning ** ( 5.) Ian Cooke ** ( 6.)

Barry Dancer Barry John Dancer (born 27 August 1952 in Brisbane, Queensland) is a former Australian field hockey player and coach of Australian men's national field hockey team. As a player he competed in 48 international matches for Australia between 197 ...

** ( 7.)

Douglas Golder Douglas James Golder (born 1 February 1948) is a retired field hockey player from Australia, who was a member of the national team that won the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montré ...

** ( 8.) Wayne Hammond ** ( 9.) Jim Irvine ** (10.) Stephan Marshall ** (11.) Malcolm Poole ** (12.) Robert Proctor ** (13.) Graeme Reid ** (14.)

Ronald Riley Ronald William "Ron" Riley (born 14 September 1947) is a retired field hockey striker from Australia, who twice won the silver medal with the Men's National Team, first at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and then eight years later, at ...

** (15.) Trevor Smith ** (16.) Terry Walsh *Head coach: Mervyn Adams

Judo

Modern pentathlon

Two male pentathletes represented Australia in 1976. ;Individual * Peter Ridgway * Peter Macken

Rowing

Sailing

Shooting

;Mixed

Swimming

Water polo

;Men's competition *Preliminary round (Group C) ** Lost to Hungary (6-7) ** Lost to West Germany (3-4) ** Lost to Canada (5-6) *Classification group ** Lost to Canada (3-4) ** Defeated Iran (8-2) ** Lost to Soviet Union (2-7) ** Tied with Mexico (4-4) ** Lost to Cuba (3-8) → 11th place *Team roster **

Andrew Kerr Andrew Kerr IV (October 7, 1878 – February 17, 1969) was an American football, basketball, and track and field coach. He served as the head football coach at Stanford University (1922–1923), Washington & Jefferson College (1926–1928), Col ...

** Charles Turner ** David Neesham ** David Woods ** Edmond Brooks ** Ian Mills ** Paul Williams ** Peter Montgomery ** Randall Goff ** Rodney Woods ** Ross Langdon *Head coach: Tom Hoad