Australian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era.

[2] Australia competed in 26 of the 28 Olympic program sports; they failed to qualify in baseball and team handball.

[8] This person was Jared Tallent, an Olympic debutant, who competed in the men's 20 kilometre race walk.

[11] Australia's men's basketball team qualified for the Olympics by defeating New Zealand in a best-of-three series to win the FIBA Oceania Championship 2007.

[15] Qualification Legend: QS = Qualify to semi-final; QF = Qualify directly to final Australia selected competitors in all four cycling disciplines – BMX,[16] mountain biking,[17] road racing[18] and track racing.

[19] Mountain biker Chris Jongewaard lost his legal appeal to be included in the team after being excluded because of a car accident, involving another cyclist for which he was due to face court in late 2008.

Hayley Beresford, Kristy Oatley and Heath Ryan competed in dressage.

Edwina Alexander, Laurie Lever, Peter McMahon and Matt Williams were selected for the jumping competition.

[22][23][24] # - Indicates that points do not count in team total * Only three riders are eligible to qualify for the jumping final.

[27] Head Coach: Barry Dancer Reserve: The top two teams from each group advanced to the semifinals.

[28] Head Coach: Frank Murray Reserve: Notes The top two teams from each group advanced to the semifinals.

Ben Wilden was the only trampolinist selected in the squad and Samuel Simpson was the only male artistic gymnast but a full women's artistic gymnastic team of six qualified:[32][33][34] Australia has selected a team of 13 for the 2008 Games:[35] Alexander Parygin, who won Olympic gold in Atlanta while competing for Kazakhstan, was initially due to be Australia's only male competitor in the modern pentathlon.

His qualification was overturned "on technical grounds" by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, when the Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain argued that he had failed to meet "eligibility criteria of 5,100 points at the relevant international competition, during the Olympic qualification period".

[40] Darby, having qualified in the same conditions as Parygin, had her participation in the Games open to question, but she eventually competed.

[43] M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race; CAN = Race cancelled; OCS = On the course side of the starting line; BFD – Black flag disqualification; DNF – Did not finish Australia has selected a squad of seventeen sport shooters to contest the 2008 Olympic competition:[44] The Australian softball team has qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Key: In Australia, both the Seven Network and SBS TV provided television coverage of the games.

Additionally, Telstra broadcast Seven's coverage and that of selected events to 3G mobile phones via the Next G network.

[62] In response, the AFL made concessions to Seven that allowed more Olympics coverage to be broadcast in certain markets.

[63] During the closing days of the games, Seven and the rival Nine Network engaged in a "bidding war" to secure athletes, particularly gold medalists, for exclusive contracts to appear on their respective programs.

Stephanie Rice signed a $800,000 two-year contract with Seven, and as a result withdrew (along with several other athletes) from being filmed for Nine's 60 Minutes hours before the show.