Colin Coates participated in six Winter Olympics, from 1968 to 1988, and came sixth in the 10,000 m event in 1976, Australia's best result before Lillehammer. His four top-11 finishes in 1976 made him only the third Australian to place in the top half of a Winter Olympic event. Before the 1988 Olympics, three other athletes had represented Australia in long track racing, and all had placed near the bottom. In 1988, Danny Kah and Michael Richmond both broke into the top 15 and the top half in two events each, and in 1994, the former recorded Australia's best long track result, finishing fifth in the 5,000 m event. However, Australia did not compete in long track again until 2010, when sole representative Sophie Muir became the first woman to compete for the country in the discipline; she came in the bottom fifth of entrants in both her races.