I'm not sure why the Aussies are so obsessed with Britain. We are a small island but time after time make the Aussies look silly with their repetitive whining.

If the Aussies had any class, they would just say well done Britain or just not say anything at all.

Dutchy, Reading, Berks

Craig

I can tell you there are about 10 million englishman living in Australia too.

Bert Newton, Townsville, Australia

To Brendon of Warrnambool if whinging became an Olympic sport Australia would undoubtedly win gold silver and bronze.Substantial Aussi whinging was also heard when England dumped you out out of the last rugby world cup and the one before that.

t glover, Dorset, England

The Oz population isn't one third of GB, there are at least another 10 million Aussies living abroad, most of them in London !!

Craig, Huntingdon,

It seems to me that many in GB have felt so deflated by previous performances that they cannot make sense of the fact that they are doing so much better that they resort to this attack on Oz. There is only one difference. This Olympics GB 12 cycling medals last Olympics 4. This Olympics Oz 1 last 10

Jim Dodds, Brisbane, Australia

Simon, narrow nationalism is the curse of sport and the curse of this small planet. anyone genuinely interested in sport appreciates the beauty of performance and achievement, as long as it is achieved fairly and with good grace.

peter, canberra, Australia

True sports fans, in Australia and elsewhere, are delighted at the British success and at the collective and individual performance. From someone who's worked in the Australian sports system for many years and watched the british swim team benefit from its training at the AIS in Canberra, well done.

peter, canberra, Australia

But a warning; don't get cocky and acknowledge openly that money and quality coaching and sports science, a lot of it from Australia (who also poached from around the world in the 80s) has a lot to do with it.

peter, canberra, Australia

Still a long way to go to match the British medal haul of the 1908 Olympics: 56 Gold, 51 Silver and 38 bronze which was almost as many medals as the rest of the world put together !

adam forrester, London, UK

London 2012 I can already see it, London turned into one huge Earls Court, overflowing with Aussies, Kiwis, Seth Efricans, Fosters. We are coming to plunder all your Gold Medals, your women and devour whatever food you might be taught to cook in the meantime. Get out now Londoners while you can ;)

Tony, Melbourne, Australia

Nice that the Aussies are now talking about medals per capita, in which they are 3rd.

Well how about a comparison of medals by geographical size of the country. My guess is that Britain is ahead in that.

Seriously though, well done to both

Paul, NY, USA

Good on you, Brits! However, it occurred to me that there can't be many countries who have won at least 8 medals (so far) and where probably 70% of the people know the names of every single medal winner; every medalist gets decent recognition. We're just one big happy family in NZ!

Terry, Napier, NZ

Interesting to know how a Scottish athlete feels when they look up from the dais at another country's flag and hear another country's anthem ( guess flower of Scotland is still unofficial) and how a Scottish supporter feels at home? I could not imagine cheering on a Kiwi or Canadian.

Chris, Sydney, Australia

Mate, it's tiring and gets a bit boring being on top all the time. We're just taking a breather. It's almost cricket season down here, which reminds me, didn't we win the last Ashes 5 to nada?

Don, Sydney, Australia

As an Australian living in the USA, it has been a pleasure to watch the performance of both the UK and Australia. Well done to the UK team. There is no debate this time - you are beating us on the medal tally hands down, and you deserve to revel in the moment.

David W, New York, USA

Oh, thats right - I heard you were going to dominate cricket after 2005 as well.

Steven, Watford,

Per Capita New Zealand is outperforming both GB and Australia!

Len, motueka, nz

Alfonso, NY
"The English have won a couple of medals in the cycling and all of a sudden they think they are world beaters. How is your basketball team coming along??"
We call it netball here mate and schoolgirls are really great at it!

Graham, Towcester, GB

I can't wait for a finally compeditive Commonwealth games!

Bring it on!

Aaron, Melbourne, Australia

I don't in anyway find Australians begrudging GB doing well. Yes there is banter, but it is much more likely that Australia will want to do better next time. The main difference this Olympics is in the cycling events. In the last Olympics Australia won 6 Gold . This year none. Do the maths.

James Dodds, Brisbane, Australia

As a Kiwi who spent many years living and working in London, I'm rapt to see you doing so well. I'm now living in Aussie, and am enjoying seeing them grimacing a little too.

Blair, Melbourne, Australia

England has now got almost 50% more Gold Medals than you Convicts.

Learn your place.

Roll on next years Ashes when we will beat you again.

Mike, Wembley, England

Roll on London 2012.

The sun will never set on the English Empire.

Dave, Whatford, England

@Digger of Perth. Re catching up on medals. I suggest you do a small bit of research and look at the All Time Medal Table in the Sydney Morning Herald. GB 693 OZ 421 and we beat you in Gold too !!
http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/beijing-2008/medal-tally/

Tom , Sydney, Australia

Australia's gold has been dissapointing, so to has the USA. Take away Phelp's gold and the US doesnt look so crash hot. Our overall medal tally is still pretty impressive

Matt, Brisbane, Australia

Well done, GB. As an Aussie, I'm happy to see BG doing well at the Olympics. The Olympics Games is a great way to bring a multicultural country together and build national pride, as it has done for Australia for so many years. I think GB is now achieving at a level that it always should have.

Brenton Foster, Sydney, Australia

PENNY TAYLOR UPDATE: abc radio: she has a "lateral ligament strain". Not necessarily season ending, will be iced and monitored for next 24-48 hours. Might miss semi, might miss final as well, will be a 'see as we go' game

Lauren Jackson, Bejing, China

I feel sorry for the Scots, Irish and Welsh.

Your little world is so Englandcentric.

Your correspondents should Get out and see than Great Britian is more than just smoggy old London.

Arthur, Melbourne, Australia

Nice to see the English have finally gotten over the 1966 World Cup win. It has only taken 42 years.

Xavier, Gold Coast, Australia

Simon

News Flash

Great Britian is not just England!!!

Cheers

Coby Robson, Cardiff, Wales

Simply whoever wins on the veledrome, wins!

Aussies got 6 cycling gold in Athens and none in Bejing. GB have dominated the wheels in Bejing.

Jake, Gosford, Australia

Simon - frankly a bad report today! After the, well, badly judged article around the Scottish curlers a few years ago, you seem to be making a case for Scottish home rule.

I'm a Unionist, stop giving others a means to attack - think before you write - GB is all four of us!!!

Alastair Milne, Glasgow, UK

I reckon the poms might introduce Whinging as an event in London

Brendan, Warrnambool, Australia

Mears v Pembleton

For Everything!!!!

Nathan Buckley, Liverpool, England

It is interesting to note the correlation between the worlds obesity statistics and the Olympic medal tally. Like in the Olympics, Great Britain and Australia are fighting it out, neck and neck, but this time for the title of fattest nation on the planet. The Olympics is a giant illusion.

Tom Watts, Coventry, England

Simon

Do you think that Collingwood handled the Alan Didak and Heath Shaw issue well?

Adrain Anderson, South bank, Australia

As an POM in australia for the last 14.5 years, Sydney & Melbourne before Tasmania, you can't find an Aus to talk about sport, except when they're winning, most of the time. Now it's yeah, look at he size of your population, and You've got the best Aussie coaches money can buy. Not a trace of grace

Mike Kunz, Launceston, Australia

Seems to be a bit of confusion about whether the team is Great British or English. Quite a few Englanders seem unaware that GB includes Scotland , Wales, Northern Ireland and possibly even Yorkshire.
Still, well done the Brits. The cyclists must have been on a steady diet ofr turtle blood.

Greg, Margaret River, Oz

Okay Simon

If you want to talk sport with an Aussie, how do you stop Geelong at the moment?

William Miller, Barwon Heads, Australia

The English always win the sit down sports.

Justin, Brisbane, Australia

England – the flower and the rose. Swing low sweet cheery blossom….

Nell Sulivan, London, England

Go Dream Team!

People overseas don’t realise that without the American basketball team, the Olympics couldn’t pay their own way.

Brian Sharpe, Boston, USA

Hopefully it will be ENGLAND in future olympics and not Team GB, fingers crossed. Looking forward to England v Czech Rep on Wednesday night - much more important. Mind you, If the 'Brits' (sic) can top the loud mouthed Aussies i'll be more than happy - they're scared over here..

Glenn Beckett, Sydney, Australia

This is the greatest performance in the history of England. I put this up with the conquering of Napoleon, seeing off the Dutch and the victory in the Boer war. England has dominated the field of human endeavour for the history of mankind. The world is now back on the correct tilt now the rightful lords and masters of the universe, England are back on top. Brave, brave England. Our mother, our provider and our friend.

Phil, Birmingham, England

The one smiling the most is Lord Coe.

Norman Wright, Gisborne, Australia

The English have won a couple of medals in the cycling and all of a sudden they think they are world beaters. How is your basketball team coming along?? At least Australia is in the quarter-finals. The Australia v Dream Team game may be the highlight of the whole Olympics. It certainly will be here in the USA.

Alfonso, New York, USA

I've aways been of the mind that success in international sport gets the banter going and lifts the country like no other activity. At the end of the games it wil be great to see our politicians take the credit.

John, Stroud, UK

Mike

The Aussie team competes in more sports in the Olympics than the GB team does and that is a fact.

Stephen, Sydney, Australia

I've got a $100 bet with an Ozzie I work with that GB will finish above Australia on the medals table. We made it about 3 days in when Australia was flying in the pool and we hadn't pedaled a single Kilometer.

Now, lets just say they're a bit worried ..but its not over yet! Go GB!

AT, Sydney,

Hi Simon, theres one reason Australia has not one so many medals this year and it doesn't have anything to do with Britain - Michael Phelps. Check out our silver medal tally - thats mainly from our male swimmers getting beaten by Phelps.

Melanie, Sydney, Australia

Can someone please remind The Times that Britain is not just about England? Chris Hoy is a Scot, and Nicole Cooke is Welsh - Britain's success at the weekend has come as a result of a combined British effort, not just England's. Pay your due respects.

Tim Palmer, Leicester,

Nice article, except for the slip.... so it was ENGLAND who won a gold medal in 1996 ? Repeat after me, this is the Great Britain team......Alex Salmond has not yet had his way, so you see Chris Hoy and Ross Edgar do the double for the Union Jack, not the Saltire.

TomCayman, George Town, Cayman Islands

the four independent football associations agree to play as one in the Olympics, theres a good chance they'll have to do so in the World Cup from then on, and no one in Scotland is willing to let that happen. Are we destined to spend the next four years going through this.

Fred Dexter, Newcastle, England

Even as an Australian in Sydney, I'm thoroughly enjoying the banter and Aussie-bashing that has been such a feature of the Olympics coverage. Quite frankly, it's about time your lot came to the party and, just like in the Ashes, we're happy for you to have a win every 20 years or so.

Kevin Rudd, Sydney, Australia

How many people live in the UK versus Australia. Lets balance it on a per capita basis and then see who leads it up....

Paul, Slough,

Marvellous!

Ritchie Benaud, Sydney, Australia

Sean

Why shouldn't we. We are married.

Liz, Melbourne, Australia

Yes, team GBR, well done. Much improved, and adjusted for population we are WAY ahead of China, Russia or the USA.
However, Australia are STILL ahead of us.
Perhaps we should introduce rugby union in London 2012!

Dave, Slough,

Stephen: "Hopefully with Britain’s success in these Games, the English will learn a little bit more about the world around them…..and other sports that Aussies have been interested in for decades."

What an amazing thing to say, given that Aus rely on splishy-splashies to win 70% of their medals.

Mike Gooding, Crawley, GB! GB! GB!

With 28 golds, Queen Elizabeth II is currently in second behind Hu Jintao in the heads-of-state medal table. By my reckoning, last time she finished second (35 golds) to some cretinous cowboy (36 golds). Not that she needs any more gold (or indeed silver), but some more heroics from her loyal British, Aussie and Jamaican subjects over the next few days could just see her pip her Chinese counterpart

John, Broome, Australia

Perhaps Liz and Andrew in Melbourne are going to nominate cut and paste or plagiarism for the London Olympics to help the Aussies get back on track, their mixed doubles team is an early favourite for gold!!!

Sean, Townsville, Australia

I just can't believe it, to be honest. Is it really us?" I know, all this success is making me nervous, it's like punching above your weight in a relationship, you know it's too good to be true and you're just waiting to be horribly dumped.

Ellenore, Ravens Court Park, England

And let's not go the per capita angle like we Aussies always do. We might have the same number of gold as the UK, maybe more medals in total, but if you look at Jamaica...

The Yanks are the funniest - go to nytimes.com and click their tally - they do it by total medals so are leading China!

Wes, Sydney, Australia

How about golds per millions spent on sport, think Aussies would be way ahead. Poms are doing well now because finally money is being spent on their sports, no brainer really. Also lets enjoy the next few minutes ahead, unfortunately it will be shortlived as the Poms have many more gold bankers to win i'm afraid... Fair play to them..

Tess McGrath, Redcliffe, Australia

Remember, too, that Australia has roughly a third of the population of Great Britain or Germany and a fifth of that of Russia from which to select its Olympic team. Per capita, they are by far the greatest sporting nation on the face of the Earth. But we all know that anyway. Don't we?

Brett Page, Melbourne, Australia

It’s not about parochialism Simon.

I will give you a tip – it is about the human story.

Emma Snowsill’s long term boyfriend was killed in a cycling accident last year and now she is Olympic triathlon champion.

Talk about the lows and highs.

Liz, Melbourne, Australia

Sorry to be pedantic but Imust correct both your reporter and various commentators. I am English but it is a british team competing at the Olympics. Secondly, accordiBg to the BBC it was Chinese TV which concentrated so much on Paula Radcliffe..

Alan, Newcastle,

I can talk sport. Can anyone say - Ronaldo.

Ben, South Hampton, England

Why do us English always compare ourselves to the Aussies? I thought we were the Mother country not them? It seems they are the ones to be compared to now.

Aidan James, Cheshire, England

Aussies now have eleven Gold too.

It is quite exciting.

Neville Brown, Sheffield, England

Jessicah Schipper was beaten by two Chinese swimmers in the 200 metres butterfly and neither had a top 50 finish in history? Very suspect.

Donald, South Hampton, England

The Aussies are here to talk sport 24/7...Always!

Sam Newman, Brighton, Australia

I don't think we should worry too much about the Aussies pulling ahead of TEAM GB! TEAM GB! TEAM GB! (as I understand they're officially known)," jabs Sinclair. "I'm sure the British cyclists still have a heap of medals to win in the velodrome. They've already cleaned up in the Riding Fastest In A Line, Riding Fastest By Yourself, Riding Fastest on the Opposite Side of the Track, Riding Fastest On The Same Side of the Track and, most impressively, Riding Fastest Behind A Little Chinese Bloke On A Moped. Surely there are at least a few more of these convoluted events to come.

Jack, Ipswich, England

Aussies win Gold in the female triathlon.

Forget nationalities Simon, it is all about the person side of things and that is what you should be concentrating on. Not stupid parochialism.

A tip for you Simon - The Olympics is about the HUMAN stories.

Emma Snowsill’s long time boyfriend was killed in a cycling accident and now she is Olympic triathlon Gold Medallist.

Talk about the highs and lows.

Andrew Chilcott, Melbourne, Australia

If only the British could speak AFL as well as the Aussies can speak EPL.

Then, and olny then will the world be a fair place.

Liz, Geelong, Australia

Britian 3rd, Aussies 4th.

It seems both countries are doing exceptionally well.

Neville Brown, Bolton, England

Australians don't talk sport...they more Burp it.

George Wagner, Adelaide, Australia

God Bless the British.

If they didn’t exist, you would have to invent them!

Cecil, Ayres Rock, Australia

"I don't want unbiased coverage; I want hilariously over-the-top Barry Davies-style Team GB! GB! GB! cheerleading."

Donald, Leeds, England

When are the Dinghy Races on - any commentary?

Graham Dunlop, Rusliup, England

"I think it's safe to say that whatever country you're in when the Olympics is on is purely focused on their own athletes and potential successes and failures. GB! GB! GB! used to be different because we won so little that the Beeb had no choice but to show a wide range of events." That's spot on, that, except that I think the Beeb might be even worse than a lot of those other broadcasters. If you'd have seen the marathon yesterday, and the coverage of Radcliffe in favour of everything else, you'd all be hanging Auntie out to dry right now.

Todd Shand, Glasgow, Scotland

China is feeling gutted right now. For all the loads of gold medals that they have accumulated, nothing would have been sweeter than to hear the Chinese anthem blaring out loud in the Bird's Nest (by virtue of winning a track event). They would love to trade some of those golds for Liu Xiang's avai

Lam Phung, Bejing, China

Have the British woken up from their 30 year Olympic slumber?

About time.

you Poms have a lot of medals to catch up.

digger, Perth, Australia

Yes England have too much focus on the EPL

There is a real world out there with lots of other sports which are more interesting than your usual 0-0 draw.

Sahid Malik, Birmingham, England

You are right Simon.

Most Englishman I talk to can’t talk sport at all.

All they know is EPL.

Hopefully with Britain’s success in these Games, the English will learn a little bit more about the world around them…..and other sports that Aussies have been interested in for decades.

Stephen Curry, Brisbane, Australia

I see Man U was held to a draw. This is the most important story in Sports today. Glum.

Who cares about the Olympics anyway?

Rob Boyce, Manchester, England

The English know EPL and very little else. Now pass me some kippers with mushy peas for my breakfast.

Great goal by Torres on the weekend.

Carl, Liverpool, England

I can't wait for the Olympics to be over so we can get back to football dominating everything rather than women's beach volleyball.

Kevin, Sheffield, England

Every time the English pull away on the medals table, We (the Australians) pull right back next to you.

Cheers.

William, Sydney, Australia