Tokyo 2020 Olympics recap

Highlights includes GOLD medals for an alum and club member in the Rowing, another Bronze in the Rowing from a Science alum, a current student having the honour of ushering in the Olympic Flag at the opening ceremony, and more.

View a full recap on how each athlete performed below. There's still plenty of action to come in Tokyo, with the Paralympics from 24 August to 5 September. Jaryd Clifford and Dylan Alcott have been selected so far, and we can't wait to see them in action. View our Olympic and Paralympic hub here for profiles, schedules and more.

GOLD medals

Jessica Morrison - Master of Business Administration alum

Lucy Stephan - Melbourne University Boat Club member

Jessica in the three seat and Lucy in the bow seat won GOLD in the Rowing Women’s Four, leading from start to finish in the final to narrowly defeat the Netherlands by 0.34 secs. On the first day of competition, the Women’s Four won their heat by the narrowest of margins over Ireland, putting them straight into the final. The crew went into the final as the hot favourite and didn’t disappoint as they held on for Gold. The Gold medals are the first Olympic medals for both Jessica and Lucy.
Jessica also represented Australia in the Women’s Pair alongside Annabelle McIntyre (who was also in the Women’s Four). After winning their heat, the pair had to back up after winning Gold in the Four, to race in the Pairs Semi Final where they narrowly missed out on qualification for the Final, finishing 4th and only 0.36 behind third.

BRONZE medal

Ria Thompson – Bachelor of Science alum

Sitting in the bow seat, Ria won BRONZE in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls. Ria and the crew won Bronze the long way, after finishing fourth in the Heat, the crew had to compete in the repechage which they won qualifying them for the Final. The crew fought hard in the final from lane 6, and with less than 500m of the 2000m course to go they were in fourth position. A mishap from the German crew allowed the Australian’s to pounce and move into the Bronze position, behind China and Poland.

Student results

Catriona Bisset – Architecture and Diploma of Languages student and Athletics club member

Catriona ran in Heat 5 of the Women’s 800m, with the top three qualifying automatically for the Semi Finals followed by the next six fastest across all heats. Catriona ran 2:01.65 to finish in fifth, with less than a second splitting the top five. Catriona sat in fourth of the next six fastest before the final Heat. Heat 6 was ran at a blistering pace with four athletes running faster than Catriona outside the top three, bumping her to eight fastest and knocking her out of a spot in the Semi Finals.

Elena Galiabovitch – Surgery student and Medicine alum

Elena finished 27th in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol on Day 2 and 11th in the Women’s 25m Pistol on Days 6 and 7 in her second Olympic Games. Elena finished the Precision Round in 26th, before her extraordinary comeback in the Rapid Qualification Round saw her score 296/300, the fourth best score of the competition, which moved her to 11th only two places short of a spot in the nine-woman final. Elena did well to improve on her 43rd (10m Air Pistol) and 31st (25m Pistol) place finishes in 2016. Following her work on the front line of the pandemic in 2020, Elena was selected as the Oceania representative to walk in the Olympic Flag at the Opening Ceremony, a wonderful honour.

Sarah Gigante – Science student

In her first Olympic Games, Sarah finished 40th in the Women’s Individual Road Race on Day 2 and 11th in the Women’s Road Time Trial on Day 5. Sarah finished the Road Time Trial in a time of 33:01.60, 2:48.11 behind the victor from the Netherlands. Following the Olympics, Sarah will travel to Europe to race for professional team Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank in the Ladies Tour of Norway with the World Championships in Belgium to follow in September.

Sarah Hawe – Grad Cert Veterinary Studies student and Veterinary Science alum

Also in her first Olympic Games, Sarah sat in the five seat of the Rowing Women’s Eight, where the crew finished fifth in the Final, just missing the medal placings by 2.71secs. The Eight finished third in their Heat, so progressed to the Repechage where they finished fourth to qualify for the Final.

Jemima Montag – 2022 Medicine student, Science alum and Athletics club member

Jemima finished in 6th position in the Women’s 20km Walk. Jemima's top 6 finish was second best performance by an Australian in the history of the event at the Olympic Games, behind Jane Saville’s Bronze at Athens 2004. Jemima crossed the line 1:30.39, +1.27 behind Italy’s Antonella Palmisano who won Gold.

Kyle Swan – Science student

Kyle finished in 36th position in the Men’s 20km Walk. The third year Science student in his first Olympic Games, completed the race in 1:27.55, +6.50 behind Italian Massimo Stano.

Alumni results

Josh Booth – Medicine alum and Melbourne University Boat Club member

Josh sat in the three seat as part of the Men's Eight Rowing crew. Josh sat alongside fellow Melbourne University Boat Club members Simon Keenan (four seat) , Nick Lavery (bow) and Stuart Sim (cox) in the Eight. They finished fourth in their Heat, followed by another fourth in the Repechage which scraped them into the Final. The medal race was a tough one, with the crew finishing in sixth position, 12 seconds behind New Zealand who won Gold.

Grace Brown – Arts alum

In her first Olympic Games, Grace finished 47th in the Women’s Individual Road Race on Day 2 and 4th in the Women’s Road Time Trial on Day 5. Grace finished the Road Time Trial in a time of 31:22.22, with the final rider to cross the line bumping Grace from a Bronze medal into fourth position. Grace will now compete for professional team Team BikeExchange then head to the World Championships in Belgium in September.

Ben Buckingham – Law and Arts alum

Ben ran in Heat 3 of the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase, with the top three qualifying automatically for the Final followed by the next six fastest across all heats. Ben ran a personal best 8:20.95 to finish in seventh position, just missing a spot in the final.

Kendra Hubbard – Science alum

Kendra ran the second leg of the Australian 4x400m relay team. In Heat 1, the team finished in seventh position in a time of 3:30.61, missing out on a spot in the Final. Kendra completing her leg in a time of 53.82.

David McNeill – Physiotherapy alum

David ran in Heat 1 of the Men’s 5000m, with the top five qualifying automatically for the Final followed by the next five fastest across both Heats. In a tight finish where only 1.1 seconds split the top eight runners, David finished in a time of 13:39.97 and in eighth spot. Heat 2 was run at a furious pace, with all the next five fastest coming in ahead of David’s time, costing him a spot in the final.

Mary Hanna – Arts alum

Competing in her sixth Olympic Games (1996, 2000, 2004, 2012, 2016), Mary and her horse Calanta finished sixth in her group of the Dressage Individual competition, with the combined Australian Team finishing 13th overall. During the Games, Mary became the eldest Australian Olympian at 66 years and the second oldest female Olympian of all time behind Great Britain’s Lorna Johnstone, who was 70 in the 1972 Equestrian competition.

Club results

Simon Keenan, Nick Lavery and Stuart Sim – Boat Club members

Simon Keenan (four seat), Nick Lavery (bow) and Stuart Sim (cox) were part of the Men's Eight Rowing crew, alongside fellow Melbourne University Boat Club member and Medicine alum Josh Booth. They finished fourth in their Heat, followed by another fourth in the Repechage which scraped them into the Final. The medal race was a tough one, with the crew finishing in sixth position, 12 seconds behind New Zealand who won Gold.

Lisa Weightman - Athletics Club member

Lisa finished 26th in the Women’s Marathon on the penultimate day of competition. 42-year-old Weightman was competing in her fourth Olympic Marathon and in 2018 won a Silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Intervarsity results

Charlotte Caslick and Dominique Du Toit – Aon Uni 7s representatives

Charlotte and Dominique represented Australia in the Women’s Rugby Sevens competition. After defeating Japan and China comfortably in the opening two games, the team fell to the United States in the final group game. This set up a Quarter Final matchup with Fiji, where the team lost 14-12 and were eliminated from medal contention. Following the playoff games, the team finished in fifth. Caslick finished the competition with three tries.