Zaneta Mascarenhas MP
Federation Chamber, Parliament House, Canberra
Statements by Members
Australia was unstoppable. A new gold standard has been set. It was the best Olympics ever, with 53 medals in total at the Paris 2024 Olympics. What a performance! What a team! To every Australian Olympian: you have made us proud. I'm going to give a special shout-out to some local Swan Olympians: in basketball, Samantha Whitcomb, a member of the Opals, who overnight won bronze—the first Olympic medal in women's basketball since 2012; in hockey, Kaitlin Hobbs, Karri Somerville and Jake Harvie on debut; in the water polo, Zoe Arancini, who won silver after a stunning run by the team to the finals; and, in the golf, Hannah Green, who fell just one short of a medal. On behalf of the electorate of Swan, congratulations to Samantha, Kaitlin, Karri, Jake, Zoe and Hannah. And, as the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Cycling, I congratulate the cycling team.
Well done, team! Thank you for the late nights, the thrills, the spills and the champion efforts from each and every one of you. I know that it takes a village to raise an athlete. To all the coaches, managers and family and friends who supported their Olympians: I'm looking forward to the 2028 Olympians. There's a saying that women hold up half of the sky, but at this Olympics 13 of the 18 gold medallists were women. Rock on!
