SYDNEY: With amendments to the athlete replacement rules and team changes, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has added 16 athletes to its contingent, making it Australia's largest ever team for an Olympic Games on foreign soil.
Following a change in Olympic squad regulations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and some athlete replacements, the Australian team now stands at 488. Additional athletes are drawn from five sports - equestrian, football, hockey, judo, and rugby sevens.
It is the largest offshore Australian Olympic team eclipsing the 482 athletes at Athens 2004, and the second-largest domestic team behind Australia's Sydney 2000.
The team features the greatest proportion of women and the largest indigenous athlete representation (16 athletes) in Australian Olympic history, containing 261 women (53.5 percent) and 227 men (46.5 percent).
Among the additional athletes, Stuart Tinney returns for his fourth Olympic Games. The Sydney 2000 gold medallist and Rio 2016 bronze medallist join Andrew Hoy and Shane Rose in the equestrian eventing team.
Sydneysider Nathan Katz will also head to his second Games, continuing the family judo legacy, with his brother a Rio Olympian, coached by his father, and his mother a competitor at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 when women's judo was a demonstration sport.
Maddison Fitzpatrick will make her Olympic debut, joining sister Savannah Fitzpatrick already named in the Hockeyroos team for Tokyo.
"The athletes announced today, from Olympic debutants to Olympic champions like Stuart Tinney, have been given an incredible opportunity, and I am sure they will represent Australia with pride," said Ian Chesterman, Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic team. (IANS)
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