BEIJING -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attended the welcome ceremony held for the Australia Olympic delegation in the Olympic Village here on Thursday.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (L) laughs while talking to the mayor of the Olympic Village, Chen Zhili, during the Australian Olympic team's flag raising ceremony at the Olympic Village in Beijing August 7, 2008. [Agencies]

 

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Chen Zhili, mayor of the Olympic Village, presented a gift to the Australian Olympic Committee and Kevin Rudd gave a gift in return.

John Coates, Chef de Mission of Australian delegation said after the ceremony, "We are warmly welcomed here. And we have been very excited. I think Beijing Olympic Games will be a very successful Games. We have sent 480 athletes here. Our aim in Beijing Olympics is to stay top five at the medal table."

Australia has hosted the Olympic Games twice, respectively in Melbourne in 1956 and in Sydney in 2000. It is one of the only six countries to have hosted the summer Games more than once.

Participating in 25 summer Games, Australia won 117 gold medals in total, with 50 of them coming from the swimming pool. Names such as Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose, Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Susie O'Neill are globally revered in swimming.

Five Olympic gold medals winner Ian Thorpe also presented in the flag-raising ceremony. Already announcing his retirement in November 2006, Thorpe is not a formal member of the delegation.

Australia brought home 17 gold, 16 silver and 16 bronze medals in the 2004 Athens Games, finishing fourth on the medal table.