For many Australia visas holders, the country is traditionally seen as a hot country. In fact, beaches and deserts are often the most common images that is evoked in people's minds whenever Australia is brought up in the discussions. However, not many people know that Australia is, in fact a regular participant in the winter Olympics.
You might still probably be thinking how they are going to train in all those desert areas. Actually, contrary to the popular notion that Australia is purely a desert, there are actually places in the country suited for training for the winter Olympics. For instance, the southern regions of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales have a generous amount of snow during the winter months to provide practice grounds. Further down, the mountains of the state of Tasmania are ideal places for outdoor winter sports, like skiing.
And if that is still not enough, Australian athletes travel the world over to find other places to train in. One of the most popular of these is the town of Whistler in the British Columbia, Canada. This little town is very ideal in its winter environment, that many athletes travel here from Australia to train. British Columbia is, in fact, the host of this year's winter games held in February.
Though Australia didn't fair that much this year (they managed to win three medals), their participation was very well received. It was, in fact, considered a pretty good showing for a country that is traditionally considered not to be a strong contender in the winter games.
The event also showcased another interesting facet of the Australian culture, the people's love for sports. In fact, Australians are very much into sports that it has become a big part of their daily lives. Thus, you must not be surprised that every Australian that you will meet will have at least two to three kinds of sports that he regularly plays.
And there are actually very plenty of sports activities that one can choose from in the continent. There are the traditional games, like basketball, soccer and swimming (not surprising, since Australia is surrounded by water). Then there are indigenous sporting events, like Australian rules football and boomerang throwing competitions (yes, even the humble boomerang has its own sporting event). What more, Australians love to try new stuff, so more sporting events are being introduced in the country yearly.
And even those who are not active participants are still avid sports fans, in this case, as spectators. In fact, the topmost favorite topic of any conversation here would still be about sports.
Image reference: http://www.owia.org/files/41/aocweb.jpg
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