The Olympic Gold Standard
One of my favourite yarns from the Sydney Olympics concerns the thin blue line painted onto the roads as a guide for runners in the marathon. In the middle of the night, as most of Sydney slept, someone armed with a brush and a can of blue paint decided the route was in need of a detour - and redirected it into a nearby pub.
I have just been compiling a report about the matchless success of the Sydney Olympics, which were famously described by the then President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, as the most successful in the history of the modern Games. 
That diverted blue line helps lead you to the answer. Neither Sydney nor Australia took the Games too seriously. John Morse, then head of the Australian Tourism Commission, put it rather neatly. The organisers realized that the games were not only a 16-day sporting competition but an excuse for a 16-day party.
From the very outset, the organisers wanted to imprint their country's personality onto the games: its laid back approach to life; its sense of larrikin irreverence and fun.
They were helped by the army of volunteers, who cracked jokes and launched into song to entertain spectators waiting in lines and queues. They were aided by the "live sites" dotted around the city, which were originally intended as a way of dispersing spectators and thus preventing the transportation system from being overloaded, but which took on a life all of their own.
Sydney provided the most fabulous of backdrops, and the simple fact that the Games took place a year before 9/11 meant they were not swamped with overbearing security.
A sense of fun combined with a sense of inclusiveness. There was a strong belief that the Olympics could have a unifying impact on a country where 24% of its resident population was born beyond Australian shores. The organizers did so by creating - and then liaising closely - with a Multicultural Advisory Committee, drawn from Australia's ethnic communities. It worked a treat.
The organising committee also spent years drumming up support in the bush and the Outback. Cleverly, they targeted kids, knowing their infectious enthusiasm would transmit to their parents - as, indeed, it did.
In the Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman, the Games also had the perfect poster girl. On the first night, she lit the Olympic flame; on the 11th she won a gold medal in the 400m, and it vested the Sydney Games with an even greater historical meaning.
The Sydney Olympics has been described as Australia's Coming of Age: the country held up a mirror to itself and very much liked what it saw. Sandy Hollway, the CEO of the games, talks of how the opening ceremony dealt a fatal blow to what was labeled "the cultural cringe", an ingrained sense of inferiority. Samaranch described the opening ceremony as the "most beautiful" he had ever seen.
In a setting where metal provides the currency of success, for 16 days in September 2000 Sydney set the gold standard for the rest of the world.
I'd love to hear your memories of the Sydney Games, or what you think was the meaning attached to them. And why were they the best?
I'm 
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During the Sydney games, whenever the Australian anthem was played, the (Australian) crowd sang the words "girt by sea" in an overtly mocking way. Everybody seemed to find this extremely funny. People actually seemed to look forward to this part of the anthem so they could be silly about it and have a laugh.
I always chuckle whenever I hear this part of the national anthem since that time.
My interpretation is that we Australians are uncomfortable with the bombastic language in our anthem and usually don't like to stand up with our hands on our heart, so we find it amusing to poke fun at this sort of thing.
Can we expect the people of China to amuse themselves by collectively mocking their own national anthem at the Beijing olympics?
Rodney
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As an Australian overseas I always enjoy this blog.
I think the Australian character allows us to be capable organisers without fastidiousness. I live in Japan, a country with a reputation for organisational ability yet in my experience, a meticulousness which can be either valuble or self-deafeating. I think Australians are good in dynamic or crisis situations where generalism is required.
PS. I think if the games go according to Chinese plans then Beijing 2008 will be the best games since Berlin 1936.
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That was a really positive article from Nick and it is good to see.
I was working at the Olympics and although I worked 16 hrs some days it was one of the best times I have had in my life.
Everyone was happy and proud. I have never been to an Olympics before and probably never will but it was fantastic.
I know we are only being patriotic but most people from around the world enjoyed themselves.
The Volunteers where what made the games so good they were so friendly and so happy to be helping it was so nice.
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Funny enough the threats to China have increased so much since our economy became more successfully. 8 Years ago we wouldn't have dreamed of all the troubles we have to face these days. Didn't we all think we were going to host a big and fun party?!
Now I only hope the party won't turn into a bigger disaster.
The differenence between the Sydney game and the Beijing one is that nobody wanted to wreck the first party but so many people want to wreck the second one.
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As a recent arrival I have no idea what it was like during the Olympics, but I would be far more interested in your opinion as to what has been the most enduring legacy of the games rather than what was the most repeated soundbite or photo opportunity. I can guess that improved public transport would not be on the list.
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As usual you continue to perpetuate misconceptions about Australians; probably because it pleases the poms to think of us in stereo type terms. This "laid back" approach to things just isn't true. The Sydney games were a success because thousands of people worked tirelessly to make them a great success. You and your ilk are always tossing this "laid back" line at us at every opportunity but the facts just don't support it. We work harder and longer hours than most countries in the developed world and the building of this modern nation out of nothing in 200 years just didn't happen by chance. Millions of people worked their hearts out to make it so. If we appear to be "laid back" its because we have a natural aversion to self congratulation; something tired old Europe could learn from us.
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Yes, we are laid back and a bit irreverent. And yes we can also work bloody hard and achieve big things of which the Olympics is a prime example. What I remember most about the Olympics is the stream of media commentary before the Games about everything that was going wrong with the preparations which inspired the brilliant TV show 'The Games' with John Clarke, Bryan Dawe and Gina Riley. The media mostly worried us to death about tickets, transport, and everything else. Then the Games arrived, the weather was great, things ran smoothly, people enjoyed themselves and when it was over we wondered when we could do it all again. Unfortunately, Sydney has failed to capitalise on the legacy of hosting the best-ever Games and has gone back to admiring its reflection in the Harbour. Maybe we need another Games bid to shake the joint up again.
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I can't wait for the debate - " London 2012 better then sydney 2000 " ? One thing is for certain and that is security in London will be overwealming in contrast to the Sydney games.
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I remember the Olympics as a really happy time. Many of us went to see sports we would never normally watch just to be part of the experience. I got a jolt when the Year 3 kids I teach reminded me that they were babies then! They are talking proudly about their grandparents having been there in the same way that they discuss their relatives' feats on Anzac Day. It certainly makes you feel ancient but I must say the kids are extremely excited about the Beijing Games and I am finding their excitement infectious.
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"If we appear to be "laid back" its because we have a natural aversion to self congratulation" Oh please, you are the most self congratulating country I have visited.
I lived there at the time and the overwhelming need by Australians for you to LOVE everything Australian was quite suffocating. At least "tired old Europe" is relaxed in this respect.
Anyways, memories? Kathy Freeman winning the 400m brought a tear to my eye, the 30 eternal seconds when the flame machanism jammed on its way up.
Altogether a great games
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Laid back? I remember the run up to the 2000 Olympics being a litany of warnings and predictions of doom. In the end it all came off very successfully because of the hard work of the volunteers and organisers and the positive atmosphere created by the Aussies, which was reciprocated by the visitors.
There were some public demonstrations, but they fizzled out and the protestors went to the pub:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E4DE1E38F935A2575AC0A9669C8B63
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The abiding memories of the Sydney Olympics were the olly vollies in their distinctive and ubiquitous presence throughout the city and suburbs and, of course, at the venues themselves and the spontaneous, self mocking outbursts of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" at railway stations and where ever a few people were gathered.
I have yet to see or hear of their Chinese counterparts. Perhaps the equally ubiquitous uniformed members of the ever helpful Chinese Liberation Army are keeping them (along with spectators) behind what appear to be a large number of unnecessary barriers.
And with the luck of the Lucky Country, the weather was better too.
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Living in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics was such an uplifting experience. The whole city seemed to float on air during that period. Everybody was really nice to one another to the extent that, after the Games had finished, ABC radio presenter Richard Glover said "Right, you can all go back to being nasty to one another now!"
BUT...The experience was spoilt, as the current Games is, by the execrable TV coverage. Watching Channel 7 is fine if you want to watch little other than Aussie,Aussie,Aussie (with or without the oi,oi,oi!) but hopeless if you want an overview; and not a highlights show in sight. On one occasion in 2000, Channel 7 chose to screen a womens' basketball match involving Australia rather than an extremely important session of athletics finals.
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I served as a volunteer during the "best games ever" and it was one of the greatest times I've ever had. To me those 16 days were a period that people, no matter from what walk of life they were from, were truly as one. We all came together for out love of sport and our love for our nation and to experience something, however brief, that is lacking in the world, a sense of a global community.
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I agree with Multikonka - there certainly was a litany of warnings as well as lots of encouragement to get out of Sydney for the duration. The company I worked for at the time even allowed staff to move to our offices in Melbourne and Adelaide and perform their jobs from there if they wanted. Sydneysiders were expecting a nightmare and what we got, or certainly what I got, was the time of my life. Perhaps an example of when one expects the worst, one is seldom disappointed and sometimes surprised!
I took time off work for it and had a 16 day party. The feel-good vibe that took over the city almost had me wondering if the authorities had put something in the water supply!! I genuinely felt sorry for those that heeded the government warnings and fled interstate or overseas. They don't know what they missed.
As Nick pointed out, though, we had the last 'pre-9/11' Olympics, so, yeah the security was there, but not a patch on what Athens and Beijing would have had, which is a shame for the athletes, visitors and the residents of the respective cities alike. The Sydney games sit in my mind as a product of an earlier, happier, less uptight era, and yet were only 8 years ago.
Clearly, if the Sydney games had been this year, they would have been a totally different and much less pleasant affair. The heavy-handedness displayed by the NSW government surrounding APEC and World Youth Day certainly alludes to that.
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nnn
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nick,i have some unique aussies on film that you might enjoy watching. have you a po box??
rode
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