Australia's participation in the Winter Olympics began with the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Since then, Australia has participated in every Winter Olympics, with the exception of the 1948 Games in St. Moritz. Australia achieved its first medal, a bronze, in 1994 in the men's 5,000 metres short track relay event. Zali Steggall gained Australia's first individual medal in 1998 when she won bronze in the slalom event. In 2002, Steven Bradbury won gold in the 1,000 metres short track speed skating and Alisa Camplin won gold in the aerials event, making Australia the only southern hemisphere country to have ever accomplished gold at a Winter Olympics. Australia sent 40 competitors to compete in 10 sports at the 2006 Games in Turin, a record number of athletes and events for the nation. For the first time, there was a stated aim of winning a medal, and this goal was achieved when Dale Begg-Smith won the gold medal in men's moguls freestyle skiing. Camplin attained her second medal, a bronze in the aerials event.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_at_the_Winter_Olympics

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

476: Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Augustus)

1260: Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: The Siena Ghibellines defeated the Florence Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti outside of Siena in Italy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montaperti)

1886: After over 25 years of fighting against the United States Army and the armed forces of Mexico, Geronimo of the Chiricahua Apache surrendered at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo)

1888: American Inventor George Eastman registered the trademark "Kodak" after receiving a patent for his roll film camera. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eastman)

1957: Defying the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African American students from attending Little Rock's Central High School. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

caesura: A a pause or interruption in a poem, music, building or other work of art. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caesura)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant. -- François-René de Chateaubriand (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Ren%C3%A9_de_Chateaubriand)