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The Davis Cup is an international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described as the World Cup of Tennis, and the winners are referred to as the World Champion team. Australia won this 8 times between 1950-1960 (1950,1951,1952,1953,1955,1956,1957,1959).
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The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne,Victoria, Australia, in 1956. The 1956 Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America. Melbourne is the southernmost city to host the games.
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At the age of 17, Rose participated in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He won the 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle races and was a member of the winning team in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay. Winning three gold medals in his home country immediately made him a national hero. He was the youngest Olympian to be awarded three gold medals in one Olympic Games.
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Australia first entered an ice hockey team in the 1960 Winter Olympics. They didn't win a medal but still had some close games.
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In 1962 Rod Laver became only the second Men's Tennis player to complete the Grand Slam and repeated the feat in 1969 (the only player to do so), winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in a single calendar year. The 1969 Australian Open was the first held under the name Australian Open.
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Australia hosted the second Netball World Championships in Perth, a quadrennial international netball competition. The 1967 tournament was held in Perth, Australia, and featured eight teams.
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The Australian team qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the first successful qualification to the FIFA World Cup in the country's history after failing to qualify to the 1966 and 1970 tournaments. The Australian squad included Harry Williams, the first Australian Aboriginal to play for the national soccer team.
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The 1979 NBL season was the inaugural season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 24 February 1979 and 2 June 1979, and was followed by Grand final on 10 June 1979.
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The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in Canberra (the capital city of Australia). The 66-hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce. The AIS is a division of the Australian Sports Commission.
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Going into the race, the Australian media was not that interested in the race as they expected a similar result which was America always winning. This lack of interest continued throughout the early races. Near the end millions of Australians turned on their television to watch the Australia II win the competition.
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In 1989, the Victorian Football League decided to re brand themselves as a national league and renamed the league the Australian Football League. This followed the relocation of the South Melbourne Football Club to Sydney in 1982, and expansion in 1987 with the West Coast Eagles in Perth.
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In 1995, rugby union became professional in Australia following an agreement between SANZAR (south Africa, new Zealand and Australian rugby) countries.
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In 1998, the National Basketball League announced that it was switched from winter to summer season for 1998–99 season
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In 2000, Sydney hosted the Summer Olympic Games at a cost of $6.6 billion. Australia finished fourth on the medal tally with 58 medals, 26 of them gold.
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Cathy Freeman won the 400-metre final at the games. Freeman won the Olympic title in a time of 49.11 seconds, becoming only the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion. After the race, Freeman took a victory lap, carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. This was despite the fact that unofficial flags are banned at the Olympic Games and the Aboriginal flag, while recognised as official in Australia is not a national flag. Freeman also made the final of the 200 m, coming sixth.
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The Australian team competed in the 2006 FIFA World Cup; their second FIFA World Cup appearance after 32 years of failing to qualify for the tournament.
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The AFL became the first football code to establish two clubs in the 5 major metropolitan cities ( Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) with expansion in 2011 Gold Coast Suns and in 2012 Greater Western Sydney Giants.
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Australia hosted the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, winning the tournament in a thrilling 2-1 victory over South Korea.
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The final match of the tournament took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between co-hosts New Zealand and Australia in front of a record crowd of 93,013. Australia defeated New Zealand by 7 wickets to win their fifth ICC Cricket World Cup .
