Austria competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's twenty-seventh appearance at the Summer Olympics. Austrian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The Austrian Olympic Committee () confirmed a squad of 71 athletes, 37 men and 34 women, to compete across 22 sports at the Games. The nation's full roster had one more participant than the previous two Games.
The Austrian roster featured 29 returning Olympians, with Chinese-born table tennis player Liu Jia, the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony, leading them as the only competitor going to her fifth consecutive Games. Apart from Liu, judoka and Beijing 2008 silver medalist Ludwig Paischer, dressage rider Victoria Max-Theurer, and skiff duo Nico Delle-Karth and Nikolaus Resch in the 49er class also topped the roster lineup to make their fourth Olympic appearance. Other notable Austrian athletes included world-ranked sailor Lara Vadlau and her Polish-born partner Jolanta Ogar in the women's 470, London 2012 sixth-place finalist Corinna Kuhnle in slalom kayaking, and twin sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini Alexandri.
Austria left Rio de Janeiro with only a bronze medal, won by sailing duo of Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank in the Nacra 17 class, avoiding an empty-handed return as had happened at the previous London 2012 Olympics. Slalom canoeist Corinna Kuhnle, rifle shooter Olivia Hofmann, discus thrower Lukas Weißhaidinger, and rower Magdalena Lobnig (sixth, women's single sculls) were among the Austrian athletes progressing to the finals of their respective sporting events, but came closest to the nation's medal haul.
Background Austria participated in twenty-seven Summer Olympics between its debut at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The nation chose table tennis player Liu Jia as its flagbearer in the opening ceremony and the sailing duo of Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank for the closing ceremony. They were one of the three nations who used more than one person to bear the flag in the closing ceremony. A delegation of 71 athletes, 37 men and 34 women, travelled to Rio de Janeiro and competed across 22 sports. Among the sports represented by its athletes, Austria marked its Olympic debut in golf (new to the 2016 Games), as well as its return to diving after 8 years, rowing and weightlifting after 12 years, and archery after 32 years. Austrian athletes have won a total of 86 medals at the Summer Olympic Games.
Medalists
Medal Name Sport Event Date Sailing Nacra 17
Archery
Laurence Baldauff qualified for the women's individual recurve by obtaining one of the eight Olympic places available from the 2015 World Archery Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Each match consisted of up to 5 sets of 3 arrows per archer. The archer with the best score in each set won the set, earning 2 points. If the score was tied, each archer received 1 point. She achieved a score of 619 to seal a forty-first seed in the ranking round. Baldauff was eliminated in the round of 64 by Bombayla Devi Laishram of India.
AthleteEventRanking roundRound of 64Round of 32Round of 16QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal / ScoreSeedOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankLaurence BaldauffWomen's individual61941L 2–6Did not advance
Athletics
Austrian athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event):
Track & road events AthleteEventHeatSemifinalFinalResultRankResultRankResultRankAndrea MayrWomen's marathoncolspan=4 2:41:5264Beate SchrottWomen's 100 m hurdles13.478Did not advanceJennifer WenthWomen's 5000 m16:07.0214 qcolspan=2 15:56.1116
Field events AthleteEventQualificationFinalDistancePositionDistancePositionLukas WeißhaidingerMen's discus throw65.862 Q64.956
Combined events – Men's decathlon AthleteEventFinalRankDominik Distelberger Result10.847.3313.401.8948.6114.3938.094.8061.834:33.47795419Points897893692705880925626849765722
Combined events – Women's heptathlon AthleteEvent 200 m 800 mFinalRankIvona DadicResult13.811.7713.4324.606.0546.082:15.64615521Points1001941756924865784884
Badminton
Austria has qualified two badminton players for each of the following events into the Olympic tournament. Elisabeth Baldauf was selected among the top 34 individual shuttlers in the women's singles based on the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016, while David Obernorsterer picked up one of the spare athlete berths from the doubles as the next highest-ranked eligible player in the men's singles. The duo, which frequently plays together in international open events, both made their individual Olympic debut. Both of them lost all their games and came last in their groups. Obernosterer competed in group E of the men's singles event together with Lin Dan, Vladimir Malkov, and Nguyễn Tiến Minh. His first game was against Lin. Lin has previously won two gold medals in the 2012 Olympics and 2008 Olympics. On 11 August, Obernosterer lost the first set 5–21 and the second 11–21. The following day, he lost 18–21 and 14–21 against Minh. Finally, on 14 August, he lost 11–21 and 10–21 to Malkov. He failed to qualify for the round of 16.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth Baldauf was in group N of the women's singles along with Tai Tzu-ying and Natalia Perminova. She lost her first game on 11 August against Tai 11–21 in the first set and 9–21 in the second. Two days later, she lost her second and final game against Perminova 17–21 and 8–21. Tai ended up qualifying for the elimination round by beating Perminova 21-12 and 21-9 but was then eliminated by Pusarla Sindhu who later won the silver medal.
AthleteEventGroup stageEliminationQuarterfinalSemifinalFinal / OppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankDavid ObernostererMen's singlesL (5–21, 11–21)L (18–21, 14–21)L (11–21, 10–21)4Did not advanceElisabeth BaldaufWomen's singlesL (11–21, 9–21)L (17–21, 8–21)3Did not advance
Canoeing
Slalom For the K-1 slalom events, 21 boats qualified for the heats. The 15 best times from the two runs in the heats qualified for the semifinals, and then the best 10 boats from the semifinals qualified for the finals. Austrian canoeists have qualified a maximum of one boat in each of the following classes through the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. London 2012 sixth-place finalist Corinna Kuhnle (women's K-1) and rookie Mario Leitner (men's K-1) were named to the Austrian roster on 20 June 2016. Mario Leitner finished his first run in the men's kayaking event in 93.29 seconds and his second run with a worse time of 93.89 seconds. He finished in the fifteenth allotted position, thus qualifying for the semifinals. However, he finished fifteenth with a time of 100.25 seconds, missing out the finals by a 4.57-second deficit. Meanwhile, Corinna Kuhnle finished her first run with a time of 109.63 seconds and her second in 107.02 seconds, placing twelfth overall and making her way to the semifinals. In the semifinals, she finished with her best time of the event with 101.54 seconds, which ranked her first in the semifinals. She could not match that time and came fifth in 104.75 seconds, missing the podium by 2.26 seconds.
AthleteEventPreliminarySemifinalFinalRun 1RankRun 2RankBestRankTimeRankTimeRankMario LeitnerMen's K-193.291293.891393.2915 Q100.2513Did not advanceCorinna KuhnleWomen's K-1109.639107.0210107.0212 Q101.541 Q104.755
Sprint
Austria has received a spare berths from the International Canoe Federation to enter two boats each in the women's K-1 200 m and the women's K-2 500 m to the Olympics, as the next highest-ranked nation, not yet qualified, at the 2015 Canoe Sprint World Championships, and as a response to the forfeiture of five boats held by the Russians due to their previous doping bans and their implications in the "disappearing positive methodology" set out in the McClaren Report on Russia's state-sponsored doping. Two-time Olympic kayakers Yvonne Schuring and Viktoria Schwarz, along with rookie Ana Roxana Lehaci, were named to the Austrian roster on 27 July 2016. Viktoria Schwarz participated in the K-1 200 metres. In the heats, she finished fifth in 42.847 seconds, qualifying for the semifinals. Rounding off her semifinal heat with a seventh-place time in 43.072, Schwarz was ineligible to compete in any of the final rounds.
Lehaci and Schuring participated in the K-2 500 metres, finishing sixth with a time of 1:46.429 minutes and automatically qualified for the semifinals. If they would have finished first, they would have automatically qualified for the A finals. They finished fourth behind Alyssa Bull and Alyce Burnett of Australia, failing to qualify for the A final. The Austrian duos' time was 1:44.462 minutes and the Australians' was 1:44.290. In the B final, they finished third in 1:48.834 minutes, ranking eleventh overall. AthleteEventHeatsSemifinalsFinalTimeRankTimeRankTimeRankViktoria SchwarzWomen's K-1 200 m42.8475 Q43.0727Did not advanceAna Roxana LehaciYvonne SchuringWomen's K-2 500 m1:46.4296 Q1:44.4624 FB1:48.83411 Qualification Legend: FA = Qualify to final (medal); FB = Qualify to final B (non-medal)
Cycling
Road
Austrian riders qualified for a maximum of two quota places in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of their top 15 final national ranking in the 2015 UCI Europe Tour. One additional spot was awarded to the Austrian cyclist in the women's road race by virtue of her top 100 individual placement in the 2016 UCI World Rankings. The entire road cycling squad was named to the Austrian roster for the Games on 12 July 2016. Stefan Denifl and Georg Preidler both competed in the men's individual road race, with the former failing to finish and the latter placing 44th with a time of 6:29.42. The pair were later implicated in a blood doping scandal, with Denifl in particular being accused of doping in a timeframe including the Olympics. Priedler fared better four days later at the men's individual time trial, finishing 16th out of 35 starting riders with a time of 1:16:02.36. Martina Ritter, who won the Austrian National Time Trial Championships two months earlier, competed in the women's individual road race. According to Ritter, she fell and hit her ribs in the second lap, which led her to struggle in the last climb. She finished in 46th place with a time of 4:02:07.
AthleteEventTimeRankStefan DeniflMen's road raceDid not finishGeorg PreidlerMen's road race6:29:4244Men's time trial1:16:02.3616Martina RitterWomen's road race4:02:0746
Mountain biking Austria qualified one mountain biker for the men's Olympic cross-country race, as a result of his nation's fourteenth-place finish in the UCI Olympic Ranking List of 25 May 2016. London 2012 Olympian Alexander Gehbauer was named to the Austrian roster for the Games on 10 July 2016. Gehbauer fell headfirst while going down a steep rocky descent, losing consciousness and ending up bloodied with multiple bruises. He fractured his metacarpal bone and withdrew to a hospital for treatment.
AthleteEventTimeRankAlexander GehbauerMen's cross-countryDid not finish
Diving
Austria received an invitation from FINA to send a diver competing in the men's individual springboard to the Olympics, based on his results at the 2016 FINA World Cup series. Constantin Blaha was chosen to compete in the men's 3-metre springboard event. He previously competed in the men's 3m springboard event of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He was awarded a total of 351.95 points over six dives. He ranked 27th and failed to qualify for the semifinals. He also did not qualify for the semifinals in Beijing, placing 22nd.