There were 48 Olympic gold medals on the line in Tokyo.
Our tipping competition put the athletics knowledge of some of Australia’s biggest athletics fans to the test.
We’re not an Olympic sponsor, so there were no prizes. 
At the close of entries, here’s some highlights from the tips made:
- Parochial support for Nicola McDermott as the favourite in the women’s high jump, with 33% thinking she would take out gold. Yaroslava Mahuchikh (32%) and Mariya Lasitskene (24%) were also well tipped in what will be a close competition.
- The most tipped winner was the USA in the Men’s 4x400m with 91%, while for individual athletes it was Armand Duplantis, with 90% believing he would take out the men’s pole vault.
- Other red hot favourites included:
- Sydney McLaughlin (Women’s 400m hurdles, 86%)
- Grant Holloway (Men’s 110m hurdles, 83%)
- Johannes Vetter (Men’s Javelin, 82%)
- Karsten Warholm (Men’s 400m hurdles, 81%)
- Ryan Crouser (Men’s Shot Put, 79%)
- Daniel Stahl (Men’s Discus, 79%)
- Shaunae Miller Uibo (Women’s 400m, 76%)
- The most open event was the women’s discus, with 25% tipping two-time champion Sandra Perkovic for victory. Valarie Allman (24%) Yaime Perez (19%) and Jorinde Van Klinken (14%) were also well supported.
- Aside from McDermott, our tippers thought that Kelsey-Lee Barber (javelin, 25%), Stewart McSweyn (1500m, 18%), Brandon Starc (high jump, 11%), Dani Stevens (discus, 8%), Ashley Moloney (decathlon, 8%) and Catriona Bisset (800m, 8%) were Australia’s best chances for gold.
| EVENT | FAVOURITE | SUPPORT |
| Men’s 100m | Trayvon Bromell | 75% |
| Women’s 100m | Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price | 75% |
| Men’s 200m | Noah Lyles | 68% |
| Women’s 200m | Gabrielle Thomas | 31% |
| Men’s 400m | Michael Norman | 43% |
| Women’s 400m | Shaunae Miller-Uibo | 76% |
| Men’s 800m | Nijel Amos | 49% |
| Women’s 800m | Athing Mu | 51% |
| Men’s 1500m | Timothy Cheruiyot | 58% |
| Women’s 1500m | Faith Kipyegon | 54% |
| Men’s 5000m | Joshua Cheptegei & Jakob Ingrebritsen (NB: Ingrebritsen withdrawn) | 28% each |
| Women’s 5000m | Sifan Hassan | 47% |
| Men’s 10000m | Joshua Cheptegei | 43% |
| Women’s 10000m | Letesenbet Gidey | 40% |
| Men’s 110m hurdles | Grant Holloway | 83% |
| Women’s 100m hurdles | Kendra Harrison | 44% |
| Men’s 400m hurdles | Karsten Warholm | 81% |
| Women’s 400m hurdles | Sydney McLaughlin | 86% |
| Men’s 3000m steeplechase | Abraham Kibiwot | 38% |
| Women’s 3000m steeplechase | Beatrice Chepkoech | 43% |
| Men’s Marathon | Eliud Kipchoge | 72% |
| Women’s Marathon | Brigid Kosgei | 36% |
| Men’s 20km Walk | Toshikazu Yamanishi | 32% |
| Women’s 20km Walk | Jiayu Yang | 44% |
| Men’s 50km Walk | Satoshi Maruo | 40% |
| Men’s Long Jump | Juan Miguel Echevarria | 36% |
| Women’s Long Jump | Malaika Mihambo | 32% |
| Men’s Triple Jump | Pedro Pichardo | 44% |
| Women’s Triple Jump | Yulimar Rojas | 75% |
| Men’s High Jump | Mutaz Essa Barshim | 35% |
| Women’s High Jump | Nicola McDermott | 33% |
| Men’s Pole Vault | Armand Duplantis | 90% |
| Women’s Pole Vault | Katie Nageotte | 35% |
| Men’s Shot Put | Ryan Crouser | 79% |
| Women’s Shot Put | Lijiao Gong | 50% |
| Men’s Discus | Daniel Stahl | 79% |
| Women’s Discus | Sandra Perkovic | 25% |
| Men’s Hammer | Pawel Fajdek | 56% |
| Women’s Hammer | DeAnna Price | 61% |
| Men’s Javelin | Johannes Vetter | 82% |
| Women’s Javelin | Maria Andrejczyk | 26% |
| Men’s Decathlon | Damian Warner | 54% |
| Women’s Heptathlon | Katarina Johnson-Thompson | 33% |
| Men’s 4x100m | USA | 81% |
| Women’s 4x100m | Jamaica | 72% |
| Men’s 4x400m | USA | 91% |
| Women’s 4x400m | USA | 90% |
| Mixed 4x400m | USA | 82% |
| Women’s 100m winning time | Median: 10.72 |
Here’s how our tippers fared:
Latest posts:
- Australia’s 2026 Commonwealth Games Selection Criteria: Smaller Team, Sharper Focus, Harder Choices
When Australia’s athletics team lines up at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, it will do so under a markedly different set of circumstances to recent editions. The setting is more intimate, the team smaller, and the selection criteria sharper than ever. Track and field will be staged at Scotstoun… Read more: Australia’s 2026 Commonwealth Games Selection Criteria: Smaller Team, Sharper Focus, Harder Choices - Australian Athletics’s top Instagramers of 2025
Increasingly the prospects of being a full-time professional athlete rely on content creation as well as prowess on the track. Cover image by Fred Etter Let’s take a closer look at the biggest influencers in Australian athletics based on those athletes who were in either the 2025 World Championships teams… Read more: Australian Athletics’s top Instagramers of 2025 - 2025 in review
A big year in Australian athletics. 28,659 Free Photos Published 82 Original Stories 2,000+ Spikes Customers Supported 1 Amazing Year in Australian Athletics Relieve the highlights of the year by looking back at our top content month-by-month. January We had big photo gallery coverage of the ACT Championships and NSW… Read more: 2025 in review - Australian Athletics Unites
Australian athletics has entered a new era, with Little Athletics Australia set to formally join forces with Australian Athletics in a move that brings an end to more than 60 years of structural separation within the sport. Following a series of meetings across both organisations, including a delayed Little Athletics… Read more: Australian Athletics Unites - O’Donnell surges to Zatopek victory
Seth O’Donnell didn’t just win Zatopek:10 — he claimed it. On a grey, drizzling Melbourne night at Lakeside Stadium, O’Donnell delivered the kind of performance that turns elite athletes into cult heroes: bold from the gun, unflinching under pressure, and forged through pain that few onlookers could fully see. From the first… Read more: O’Donnell surges to Zatopek victory
