Winter sport in Australia individual from the Southern Hemisphere, to win a Winter Olympic gold medal and was also part of the short track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal (a bronze in 1994). Australia first competed in the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 and has taken part in every Winter Olympics since 1952. Australia first entered an ice hockey team in the 1960 Winter Olympics. It won its first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze, in 1994, and became the only southern hemisphere country to win Winter Olympic gold in 2002. Australia has competed in every Winter Paralympic Games, and has
Ice hockey at the Olympic Games entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to allow professional athletes to compete in the Olympic Games starting in 1988. The National Hockey League (NHL) was initially reluctant to allow its players to compete because the Olympics are held in the middle of the NHL season, and the league would have to halt play if many of its players participated. Eventually, NHL players were admitted starting in