Australia at the 1936 Winter Olympics

The Australian Olympic Committee was formed on 1 January 1895 with the nation making their debut at the first Olympics in Athens with Teddy Flack being the first representative of the nation.[1][2] This was the nation's first appearance at an Winter Olympics and the ninth overall Olympics that Australia had sent a delegation in.[3] The 1936 Winter Olympics was held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and took place from the 6 to 16 February: a total of 646 athletes competed from 28 nations.[4] The Australian delegation consist of a speed skater, Ken Kennedy who before the games had won the 880 yards and a mile national titles in speed skating over in Britain before competing for Australia at the 1936 Games.[5][6]

In what was his only Olympics, 22 year old Ken Kennedy competed in four speed skating events throughout the 1936 Games.[7] His first event was in the men's 500 metres which took place on 11 February. He was a part of the 36 competitors that competed in the distance with Kennedy finishing 29th overall with a time of 47.4 seconds.[8] His next event was the men's 1500 metres which took place the following day. From the 37 skaters that he entered, he finished in 33rd with a time of two minutes and 31 seconds, a full twelve seconds behind the eventual champion in Charles Mathiesen.[9] On 13 February, he competed in his last event of the Games as he didn't start the 10000 metres event.[10] From 39 entrants, Kennedy finished in 33rd place overall with a time of nine minutes and 48 seconds. He was almost one and a half minutes behind gold medallist, Ivar Ballangrud from Norway.[11]

• Australia NOC
• Olympic Winter Institute of Australia