Sports Sydney 2000 Olympic Games: 20th Anniversary

[Sparkle]

Today marks exactly twenty years since the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. One of the most culturally significant events in not only Sydney but in Australian history, we were on show to the world for 16 fabulous days, and the memories have lived on for all those lucky enough to not only attend the Games, but to witness the action live on television and be part of the tremendous celebrations.

Everything about the Games, from Juan Antonio Samaranch announcing "The Winner Is Sydney!", to the Torch Relay snaking its way around Australia, the tremendous Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and of course the 16 days of sports competing, was truly spectacular. On the sports fields, the Mens 4x100 metre Freestyle Relay kicked off a tremendous campaign for the Australian team, capped off by Cathy Freeman's brilliant run in the 400 metre sprint which is arguably the greatest sporting moment in Australia's history

The Australian Olympic Committee has launched a social media campaign: #MySydney2000, encouraging everyone to share their memories of a fantastic time for all Australians. I'd love if we could carry over that campaign to the General Discussion board, and relive the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

To add some General Discussion board flavour to the discussion, as someone who wasn't alive when the Games were on I'd love to hear about what the Games was like in the community: everything from school students participating in special activities, to the endless amount of sponsor promotions, the crazy amounts of merchandise produced for the Games, the building of the new infrastructure and setting up the whole country for the Olympics, the Channel Seven endless coverage of the Games, and watching at home or attending the Games in person

 

[The Passenger]

That was a great time to grow up in Australia if you were a youngster into your sport, as I happened to be. The backdrop to it all is the 1976 Olympics in Montreal when we didn't win a single gold and the Australian Institute of Sport was largely founded on that disaster. That meant by the time the 90's rolled around the money was pumping into sport in the country, our level of professionalism was much higher than just about any country and our standing in world sport was really on the rise. We still fell short of the big boys like the US, China, Russia and the big European countries but that was due to our small population. Then when we were awarded the 2000 Olympics in 1993 the amount of money thrown at Australian sport went up again, and in turn performances increased.

If we weren't winning world championships/cups we were at least batting well out of our weight division in seemingly every sport you could imagine. When Steven Bradbury won gold in Speed Skating you just thought it was starting to take the piss - is there any sport where an Aussie can't take on the world and win? Largely the same response has been seen in China and the UK since being awarded and hosting their Olympic games.

On top of this we were winning world cup in rugby (twice), dominating cricket in both short and long formats. Somewhat ironically given our dominance of the sport in the 50's and 60's the only sport were we went backwards (that I can think of) was tennis, but Rafter and Hewitt won 2 grand slams each and teamed up with Flip to win a couple of Davis Cups.

As for the games themselves...

Well off the field all I can remember is spending two weeks in a drunken haze chasing European women around the bars of Bondi and the Rocks. Not with any great success - unfortunately I can't impart my now acquired wisdom back to my teenage self. In retrospect I was probably about 5 years too young to fully take advantage of the situation that was presented.

On the field the highlight was the handball - that was a great sport to watch and the atmosphere was next level. The boxing and athletics were good as expected. Felix Savon was fighting in one of his earlier fights on the way to a gold medal. There was two disappointments, one of which was expected - the shooting and weightlifting. The shooting... Ooo my god I just remember travelling for what seemed like hours out to the middle of nowhere. The one event that always stuck with me was sitting in the stands about 50 metres from the platform and watching a guy try to hit a target that must have been about the size of a 20c piece from maybe 3-4 metres away. It was impossible to see what was happening without using one of the big screens. Needless to say I haven't been in any hurry to go back to watch shooting in the 20 years that have passed. To be honest I wasn't expecting much of the day in the first place. The weightlifting however was a real letdown. I can't remember the exact circumstances but I remember both my old man and I were keen as mustard but we only saw about 10 lifts and it was all very low key. It felt like we were at a training session or something.

But overall great times. It was the peak of perhaps the best sporting period the country has had.

 

[Roobs321]

I was at Parliament House when the torch relay went past. Took a photo. Saw some Olympians at AIS. I was on my Year 6 Snowy excursion at the time. So already a very exciting and unique time in my life. US Open Week 2 from memory. Was reading Goblet of Fire during that trip.

Olympics started about a week after returning. I did cross country, swimming, triathlon, road cycling and tennis as a kid so this piqued my interest most. Swimming was massive back then, always a big thing on tele. Triathlon and tennis were still newish as Olympic events.

I remember doing a 2 night sleepover at my best friend's during Week 1. He liked the rowing, and we saw a lot of the swimming, whilst his dad got the daily paper dedicated largely to games news. I definitely saw Eric the Eel, the 1500 heats and medley relays there. We also saw Scary Movie underage, which was the funniest cinema experience of our lives I suspect (given age). There was a lot of anxiety around Perec as Freeman's rival. I recall my dad spending a few days in hospital during Week 2 and being there during the Freeman race.

I lived a few hours south of Sydney and don't recall visiting during the games, but my Aunty and uncle lived there, and as junkie runners the 1500m with Hicham El Gherrouj was what they booked to see.

I remember Roy & HJ, the opening and closing ceremonies were unforgettable (had a dance teacher involved), one day I was bored and made little stick n paper flags for every country. And best of all, it was a 3 week school holidays!!! (My last in primary school as well). There was also a The Simpsons marathon on Fox8 that I was often glued to.

Atlanta was my first games experience as a kid (I was a foetus during Seoul and oblivious to Barca), so Sydney-Athens were probably the peak of my games interest, and was lucky to have that coincide with a local games and bumper medal tallies. Some of my biggest sporting heros at the time were people like Pat Rafter, Ian Thorpe, Ky Hurst, etc.

The biggest highlight by far was the 'smashing guitars' 4x100 freestyle relay. That and Bradbury were an outrageous adrenaline rush and instant canonical moments.

 

[Gough]

I'd not long bought a pub on the other side of the world and barely saw a minute of it. As an aside Thorpey now has man boobs.

 

[FRUMPY]

Probably one of the last Olympics where people gave a shit, maybe one or two more after Sydney. These days it doesnt get as much coverage or doesnt seem to. Probably because we have so much sport 24/7 and we can see alot of these athletes any time of the year. Back then you didnt see much of the sports or athletes. We were also a lot more competitive back then, every Olympic since we have become more and more noncompetitive (due to other countries increasing their spending and Australia dropping their spending)

Remember being at the pub the night of the opening ceremony. Usually would be drinking, talking shit, have a few bets and have footy in the background. Everyone was glued to the tv sipping their schooners watching the opening ceremony.

Was definitely the best olympics i remember. Obviously in prime time etc. The only thing that annoyed me was, as a baseball fan, in the gold medal match, we got to watch a couple of highlights rather than the gold medal match. I think we watched heats for athletics instead. This was before multiple channels (there maybe was a 2nd channel?)

 

[Suspense]

My memories of Sydney 2000 pretty much consist of Roy & HG's The Dream which was excellent (and the reason I still had my VHS player connected until the early 2010s).

 

[FRUMPY]

My memories of Sydney 2000 pretty much consist of Roy & HG's The Dream which was excellent (and the reason I still had my VHS player connected until the early 2010s).

THat was mus watch TV. Was great viewing. Did it for other olympics with some success and some failures. One of their winter olympic series was pretty funny as well

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Only 5-6 TV channels (plus Foxtel), internet was dial up, Socceroos never qualified for the World Cup. Australia hosting the Olympic Games felt like the biggest thing in the world. I was 13.

 

[FRUMPY]

Would have been great being at school when it was on. Pretty sure kids got to watch a fair bit of it during the day during class.

 

[peternorth]

Was a good time to be alive.

kevan gospers daughter being the first strayan torchbearer

 

[Gough]

Sad thing about the Olympics is there's almost no legacy about from a bit of back slapping and feel good nostalgia. The Olympic Stadium is already being rebuilt, our Olympic performances have steadily declined since then and the city of Sydney itself apart from a spike when it held the games has seen no real benefit. Essentially it was a giant waste of money, and you can see why most cities won't touch the games with a barge pole these days.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

The Olympic Stadium is already being rebuilt

Koala killer has backtracked those plans.

 

[raskolnikov]

It was good to have the Olympics in Australia but it was far from my favourite Olympics. 1988 Seoul was the best Olympics to watch by a mile. So many highlights.

 

[The Passenger]

and the city of Sydney itself apart from a spike when it held the games has seen no real benefit.

Was camping a month or so back and chatting to this pommy bloke on the next pitch, he was mid 20's and living in Sydney during the Olympics and he reckoned the city was one of the most buzzing cities he'd ever spent time in. Went back about a decade or so later and was shocked that the city was a pale imitation of what it once was.

He was completely right as well. Even pre-covid, there just hasn't been any life in the city since roughly 2005. Where there was once a feeling that anything could happen at any time, fairly quickly the soul was sucked out of the city in a mass of poker machines and security guards and whilst the property market remains strong most are happy with such a soulless arrangement. If it wasn't for the beaches, it would have little to offer to any outsider.

 

[Teagueeee15]

Would have been great being at school when it was on. Pretty sure kids got to watch a fair bit of it during the day during class.

I know in Victoria at least, the Sydney games were on during the school holidays.

 

[peternorth]

Workplaces and the like also displayed the games in the form of TVs on trolleys

 

[Roobs321]

I know in Victoria at least, the Sydney games were on during the school holidays.

Yeah in NSW (the games state) it was a 3 week holidays especially for the games. Part of the olympic planning was child care for staff given the school holidays being on. I remember my best friend coming over to watch the AFL Grand Final on Sep 2nd (I was obsessed with Jeff Farmer then and crazy about that Demons side), we left on our Snowy Trip on Sep 4th Monday, got back on Thursday evening, our excursion was given Sep 8th Friday off (starting our holidays), recall seeing Safin beat Sampras on the Monday morning (Sep 11th) and then the opening ceremony was the following Friday (kind of crazy in hindsight to have a grand slam finish in New York a few days before the opening ceremony in Sydney, but tennis didn't start until a few days later on 19th September). I also remember talking about Richard winning Season 1 of Survivor at a friend's 12th bday party the same afternoon as the Essendon-Carlton PF, which would timestamp Australian finale/reunion broadcast as approx. August 25th. I was also the first kid in my school to get Pokemon Gold/Silver on October 15th (a fortnight after the closing ceremony).

During the games I remember taking a daytrip to Mollymook and then on another day to Mogo Zoo, but don't have any memory of going north of Shellharbour during that period.

 

[burge13]

This did wonders for Sydney though. Easily the most overrated city in the country but still some 20 years on known the world over. It has an opera house (who even watches opera) and a bridge. They never sell sport out, their stadiums are miles away, lockout laws literally killed its nightlife yet people still talk positively of it. The Olympics did wonders for Sydney, without them, it'd rightly be known as the worst capital city in Australia other than Canberra but who counts that...

The Olympics themselves don't carry the same weight they used to. Costs too much to put on so cities don't want it. The sports aren't really cared about by the masses other than a handful of events. Shame but with so much live sports content why would people who don't watch athletics, wrestling, or table tennis usually tune into this when their sports are available. They don't

Shame for the athletes. Hopefully there's something to bring people back and fix it but maybe it's too far gone now?

 

[Reynolds Number]

I remember Eric the Eel from Equatorial Guinea, who shouldn't had been there but was entertaining.

And NZ struggling to win gold medals.

I paid too much attention to Roy and HG.

 

[Roobs321]

When I was 9yo in the same school holidays 3 years earlier my family visited the Sydney Aquatic Centre (we also saw Men in Black later that afternoon). I remember doing a few terrified laps in the olympic pool. I was just about to start doing the U-9s open swim in Nippers that spring, and hadn't yet been familiar with the deeper end in my local 50m pool, so it was confronting to have this clear 5m drop to the bottom below you. It felt like 20m. I could only manage 3 laps before I wanted to get out. My father never let me live that one down, that and a hysterical minute with a raised black snake that I almost walked into a few years later down near Eden.

So whilst the Sydney Olympics swimming was great fun for a sporting fan, it also put some butterflies in my stomach as I'd swam in that pool as a little kid not yet accustomed to the crystal deep.

 

[Roobs321]

This did wonders for Sydney though. Easily the most overrated city in the country but still some 20 years on known the world over. It has an opera house (who even watches opera) and a bridge. They never sell sport out, their stadiums are miles away, lockout laws literally killed its nightlife yet people still talk positively of it. The Olympics did wonders for Sydney, without them, it'd rightly be known as the worst capital city in Australia other than Canberra but who counts that...

The Olympics themselves don't carry the same weight they used to. Costs too much to put on so cities don't want it. The sports aren't really cared about by the masses other than a handful of events. Shame but with so much live sports content why would people who don't watch athletics, wrestling, or table tennis usually tune into this when their sports are available. They don't

Shame for the athletes. Hopefully there's something to bring people back and fix it but maybe it's too far gone now?

Yeah a bit like carnivals and easter shows and circuses, big variety events that were hype itself 50-100 years earlier but seemed to suffer the instant that social media and 6+ FTA channels came in. Nowadays they seem a bit inefficient in engaging a random person. The 2010 Commonwealth Games and Winter Olympics is when you really felt this beginning to transform, as those in particular are the sort of sporting events most Australians would shed with more fragmented distractions available.

 

[Caesar]

Very exciting few weeks. I was slightly too young to volunteer, but my uncle and dad both did.

We went to a few different events, but the most exciting was the gold medal match for the football. Cameroon came back from 0-2 down against Spain at half-time to draw 2-2, then won 5-3 on penalties. A 19 year old Samuel Eto'o's goal in the 58th minute to tie the match up is one of the most memorable moments on a football pitch that I can remember. At the time he had only just signed for Mallorca and I had never heard of him. It was the first gold medal Cameroon had ever won, in any sport.

The Spanish team was also excellent. It included guys like Xavi, Puyol, Marchena and Capdevila who at that stage were not well known, but would go on to play a big role in Spain's World Cup and Euro wins from 2008-2012.

 

[Caesar]

Sad thing about the Olympics is there's almost no legacy about from a bit of back slapping and feel good nostalgia. The Olympic Stadium is already being rebuilt, our Olympic performances have steadily declined since then and the city of Sydney itself apart from a spike when it held the games has seen no real benefit. Essentially it was a giant waste of money, and you can see why most cities won't touch the games with a barge pole these days.

Whilst I agree that the costs are hard to justify, there was certainly a measurable legacy. Sydney now has beautiful parklands in an area that was previously an industrial site. The Olympic Village became a prototype for sustainable housing that has been replicated elsewhere. In general the Olympic site is now the primary location for a host of national and international events that didn't really have an adequate venue before 2000.

More broadly the Sydney games brought a lot of international scrutiny (and a potential ATSI boycott) that caused indigenous affairs to be brought into the mainstream. By no means did it solve the problems, but it made it front of mind. It is hard to think of any major international Australian events prior to 2000 that had such a strong indigenous element to them, and it set a bit of a precedent that has largely been followed since.

The Sydney games also did a hell of a lot to raise the status of the Paralympics - probably more than any other. It also really kick-started the sports diplomacy strategy, which has been a fairly key strength of our foreign relations strategy.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

As someone growing up in WA it's hard to explain how big the 2000 Olympics were without also explaining the Australian media and television landscape in the mid-to-late 1990s. Video on the internet was something that took forever to download and looked like crap. None of the streaming available today. Free-to-air TV was 5 channels (6 if you had a community station). Foxtel or what became Foxtel only started in 1995.

Olympics and Commonwealth Games taking over a channel's programming for two weeks was really massive and unless you really didn't like sport you'd be watching it. It was also obviously known Sydney was hosting in 2000. Watching 1996 Atlanta, 1998 Nagano, 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur (last two both in Australia-friendly time zones) had a feeling that 2000 Sydney was going to be the culmination. Not that kid me would've described it that way because it felt like it would be big forever.

It was inevitable Australian Olympic fever would diminish bigly in the years after. With modern internet streaming and smartphones even if Australia hosted it again I can't imagine it would get the primacy it had. In retrospect, that era is lightning in a bottle.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Yeah in NSW (the games state) it was a 3 week holidays especially for the games.

In WA school holidays started after the first week. Remember watching it at school in lunch breaks and phys ed (haha).

AFL and NRL started and ended their seasons early to accommodate the Olympics. I think they'd try and scuttle the whole thing rather than going along with that now.