Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Pedestrian.tv
Pedestrian.tv
Sport
Lachlan Hodson

As America Overtakes Australia On The Medal Tally, Aussies Find A New Olympic Rival — France

As the United States tops the medal tally at Paris 2024, Australia’s rivalry with the Western superpower has faded, with Aussies now targeting their Olympic fury toward another country… France.

Australia’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics has truly gone above and beyond the world’s expectations of our small island nation. By Day 11 our incredible athletes have secured a whopping 14 gold medals, and landed us placed number three on the overall medal tally.

Unfortunately for our one-sided rivalry, the US is now convincingly ahead of us with 10 more gold medals than Australia at the time of writing. No matter which way American outlets tally the leaderboard, they are on top. Heartbreaking, I know.

However, this apparent defeat has not dampened the spirits of many Australians, who have now focused the energy and passion they had for defeating America on a different country — and that country is France.

In a video that has been viewed more than 1.8 million times, Aussie TikToker @msloan98 (Sloan) pointed out how now that the US has more medals than Australia, our country’s new goal is to just beat France.

“The Australian priorities have shifted at the Olympics,” Sloan’s video was captioned.

@msloan98

♬ Dunkirk (Rendition) – Paul van Nimwegen

Garnering more than 200K likes, the sketch riffs on the ‘friendly’ competition that Australia has had with the US in the swimming events.

But now the pool-portion of the Games is over, Sloan jokes that Team Australia is now putting its energy into getting as many gold medals as possible to ensure that we remain ahead of the hosting country.

The comment section of the TikTok was filled with other Aussies and Americans finally coming together to unite against the common rival.

“USA supports AUS in this final battle,” one American wrote.

“We don’t always go for who we want to win, sometimes we just support the team that defeats the team we hate,” mused another comment.

Others shared sentiments along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and wished Australia the best in our upcoming battle.

“But why do we need to beat France?” you ask.

Simple — they’re French.

And if there’s one thing the US, UK, and Australia seem to agree on, it’s the running gag that we despise France.

Though there is no real reason for this many nations to have any animosity towards France, the unity with the US through a shared rival does provide another level of playful entertainment to events.

Meanwhile, I’m sure the French people have very good reason to want to beat Australia.

Namely the fact that they are the host country of these Games — and also the fact that we totally snubbed them in the AUKUS deal.

As of Day 11, Australia is currently ranked number three on the official medal tally with 14 gold, while France trails behind at only 13.

Come on Australia, let’s keep that lead.

[Image: Getty]

The post As America Overtakes Australia On The Medal Tally, Aussies Find A New Olympic Rival — France appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.