The hidden Olympic effort
Having marked already the 99.94 anniversary, Australia will celebrate the centenary of the birth of Donald Bradman on Wednesday. I've done a piece on that for our programme From Our Own Correspondent. I'd love to get your comments.
Staying with "the Don", the number of comments for that Brits' Olympics success piece reached a Bradmanesque score - 350 and counting. It almost became the blog equivalent of Bodyline, with some of the ugly nationalism, nastiness and peevishness that went with it. Time to call close of play on that one.
A couple of final thoughts on the Olympics. The response of Australia to what, let's face it, was still a pretty impressive medal haul, is fantastically Ruddwellian - another review. Where should the money be spent? How much money should be spent? Apparently, each of Australia's gold medals already cost A$50 million.
There have been a few calls to go down the British national lottery route, while others will no doubt think that encouraging even more gambling is madness.
Anyway, as we leave the Olympics behind, I'm going to pick up an argument that I made in Australia and the Rise of the Rest:
that the Beijing Olympics provided more evidence that this country is becoming an increasingly muscular middle power.
A few quick points:
- Australia provided a lot of the organisational expertise in Beijing. Leading lights in SOCOG, the Sydney Organising Committee, acted as consultants. Ric Birch, the creative genius who produced the opening ceremony in Sydney, also helped out in Beijing.
- Australia provided a lot of the coaching talent at the games for other successful countries. They talk about wind-assisted sprints, I'm surprised nobody here has yet produced a medal ranking for Aussie-assisted medals?
- Australian architects designed seven of the main Olympic venues, foremost among them the fabulous Water Cube. It was designed by the Sydney firm PTW.
- The Bird's Nest was built with Australian iron ore.
- Kevin Rudd's fluency in Mandarin has unquestionably boosted his diplomatic clout, both regionally and internationally. Whatever you think of the bloke, his linguistic skill has definitely won him the respect of his peers on the world stage.
- The Beijing Games has marked the ceremonial beginning of the Asia-Pacific Century, and Australia is a significant regional player. Bob Hawke and his foreign minister Gareth Evans were the founder fathers of Apec, after all; Paul Keating increased its diplomatic cache by helping to make it a leaders' forum. For the statistically-minded, six out of top eight countries in the medal table are members of Apec.
- Err, that's it.
A good games, with much to enjoy on both sides of the Oz/Pom divide.
London 2012. Can't wait. And guess what, Westfield, the Australian shopping centre giant, is already busy constructing the Olympic village...
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~11~RS~)
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I wish there was wider recognition of these kinds of contributions - there are Aussies everywhere, quietly achieving.
Another Olympics and a bit of self-reflection: something along the lines of, 'what the hell happened??!' Only kidding - we did well, all our Olympians tried their hardest and they should be commended for being good enough to compete in this level of elite sportsmanship.
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A lot of what you say makes sense but perhaps you have also spent too much time in Australia as you seem to be doing what Aussies do all too often for me (OK, the English are also guilty as sin for this too) but every link, no matter how tentative or irrelevant is noted!
Of course their sporting coaches helping other people - that is worthy of note but come on the Iron Ore - did you get that from David Koch??
I am often confused by this - almost 1930's European styled nationalistic pride - that can be attached to anything, perhaps a bit worried and less confused.
People take pride in the oddest of things.
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Thank you Nick, we Australians are so proud of the efforts of our Olympic team. They won medals in many disciplines for the first time. They were also gracious in defeat, only too ready to congratulate the winners. I, in particular look forward to the Commonwealth games as the silver and bronze will become gold. GB only received one more medal than Aus, but that will inspire us to do better. The next battle between the old enemies is the test matches in England next year and we cannot wait. England should saviour their one medal win as they will be watched by us, and we will resolve to ensure that it does not happen again. We look forward to welcoming our team back home as they are our best ambassadores.
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Australia and New Zealand are the only OECD countries from the southern hemisphere and Australia is the only southern hemisphere country to host the Olympics. I think that our success in overcoming the problems of our location in the world are not entirely accidental but in part due to hard work as well as good fortune.
Having such a multi-cultural society, we are constantly harrassed by the powers-that-be and ourselves to compare and compete with the rest of the world. We compare our food to that of Italy and Vietnam and try to lift the standard. We compare our literacy test results to Finland, our service levels to the US, our sporting acievements to much bigger countries.
We work longer hours these days than almost anywhere, mostly do all our own menial tasks as we rightly do not have a source of cheap labour, and achieve some successes in many fields.
What I am most proud of from Beijing is the overall behaviour of our Olympians. They presented as polite, intelligent and generally delightful young people and good luck to them!
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Nick, agreed. Well done to all the athletes at the games and those others you mention that demonstrate how much influence Australia has, especially when it comes to hosting/coach sports.
Any news on when the Sports Minister will be wearing the Union Jack or how the funding of the two teams compares?
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Regarding "The Don", I was lucky enough to see him get his 100th First Class century at the Sydney Cricket Ground against India. It was in 1947 which dates me doesn't it? I remember he sort of crept up on it one run at a time. You could have heard a pin drop until he hit the decisive run when the SCG literally erupted and we could all relax. I think he went on to make about 175 before being caught at mid off.
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Good point Nick - credit where it's due - to Australia's talented exports. It's worth mentioning the positions held by Australians back in the UK and Europe in peak art institutions.
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And of course who can forget the contribution of Multiplex, the Australian builders of the new Wembley statdium....was it two or three years late? Good luck London.
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I think the Olympians have done us proud and agree with what bright Sharon said.
The Olympians are so well mannered and really take winning and sometimes losing well.
We will continue to be a proud nation and I want to know what is wrong with that? As I have noticed if you take no pride in your country, then it is very obvious and makes for a very unhappy place.
On another random note they need to get rid of Raylene Boyle as the channel 7 commentator what an absolute idiot she is.
Absolutely cut the athletes who didn’t win a medal down and it was horrible.
She was horrible to two runners in the Australian 4x400m Clinton Hill and John Stefenson, the team and they ran faster times then Athens but didn’t win a medal ... shame on you Raylene you should be ashamed! And shame on Channel Seven !
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youngspeaker, there's nothing wrong with being proud of your nation (unless you take a biblical view when I believe it's a sin).
So long as you remember to also show some humility, modesty and avoid arrogance at all costs. I have noticed if you don't do this it can make a for a really unfriendly place.
Boo hiss to channel 7. Not met anyone who likes them yet.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Australia has proved that they are among the best in sports,technology,education,politics and all other fields in which a common man takes interest.
Australia was earlier not considered as a soccer power house, but they went to Germany 2006 and alost a close knockout match to eventual champions Italy.
Australia is a place where sources of raw uranium are found.
Thus Aussies are comming in each part of your life....
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Nick:
That is true, the unsung olympians...
--Dennis Junior--
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