Australia at the 2002 Winter Olympics Australia at the 2002 Winter Olympics Australia competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, winning its first two gold medals in the Winter Games. It was the nation's best performance at the Winter Games prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Australia's first ever Winter Olympic gold, also the first such medal won by a competitor from any Southern Hemisphere country and semitropical nation was won by Steven Bradbury in the 1000 m short track speed skating. Well off the pace of the medal favourites, Bradbury was positioned at the rear in the
2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal the International Olympic Committee Members and International Sport organizations. Despite their efforts, the 1998 Games went to Nagano, Japan, in a 46-to-42 vote. Many felt the reason was that the US had recently been awarded the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Others, including Welch, believed it was because Nagano had better wined and dined the officials. A Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee member complained about competing with the Japanese bid committee for the 1998 Olympic Winter Games: "We were giving out saltwater taffy and cowboy hats, and they were giving out computers. IOC members who came to inspect Nagano