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| Sean Costello Word Count: 800 |
I have two confessions to make. Firstly, I wasn't sure the Olympics would be a good thing for Australia. Secondly, if you had offered me the choice of tickets to the final of the Soccer World Cup or the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics six months ago, I probably would have taken the soccer tickets. Over the past three weeks, all that has changed.
I wasn't sure I liked Australia gaining the Olympics for a number of reasons. Firstly, the past few years have revealed the IOC to be a questionable organisation. Their benevolent facade has been scratched, and an underbelly of corruption and arrogance has been revealed. The world would like to know more, but their secretive attitude and complicated bureaucracy prevents that. Further, the bidding for the Olympics was shown to be more about the size of a country's bribes than the size of its stadiums. For an event which was supposed to encourage economic growth and enhance a country's reputation, the Olympics was looking more like a heap of bad publicity waiting to happen.
Speaking of bad publicity, the performance of SOCOG leading up to the Games suggested Australia's reputation would be anything but enhanced. Ticketing scandals, CEOs quitting and lies to the media were doing nothing to make up the ground already lost the Salt Lake City disaster. I'm sure I wasn't alone in fearing we would all one day regret hearing those fateful words from Juan Antonio, seven years ago.
| However, my inability to get excited about going to the Olympics probably had more to do with different types of publicity. The Olympic Torch relay around Australia was a brilliant idea. It resulted in the nation feeling part of the Olympics, and attracted great crowds wherever it went. However, I reached saturation point about half-way through the event, due to constant cries of the 'Olympic spirit came to East-Nowhere today...' and 'and the spirit of the flame touched Whoop-Whoop yesterday...'. |  |
What was the spirit of the flame these orgasmic journalists were always gushing about? At first I thought it might have developed from the history of the Olympic torch relay. The relay was introduced at the 1936 Berlin Games, a Games opened by Adolf Hitler. However, I'm fairly sure the Nazi spirit wasn't what these journalists had in mind.
Maybe it was the spirit of the event to come. Fifteen-thousand drug enhanced bodies converging on the country at once. An orgy of dodged drug tests, other people's urine and pre-planned excuses based on large amounts of vitamin C or Berocca. At least, that's the way some media had portrayed the Games leading up to it. However, I assume it wasn't the spirit of the Olympic drug cheats that was coming to outback Australia either.
So why has my position changed? Well, I still don't know what the Olympic spirit is (although, in all fairness, it is probably the ability for all nations to come together for two weeks, no matter what their previous and future differences might be, such as the Korea's marching under the one flag), but what I did find, was the spirit of Australia - without flying Qantas. For two-and-a-bit weeks, Australia revealed the world's biggest secret - we are the best nation on Earth. I'm not basing that statement on my own patriotic sentiments, but on the reaction of all the overseas athletes and officials. Night after night, whether it was on the news or H.G and Roy's 'The Dream', visitors gushed over everything Australia. And they weren't gushing over some fake facade, like the fact that we got on so well with our indigenous population, or how the sun always shone.
From the time Cathy Freedom lit the torch, till Midnight Oil performed at the closing ceremony wearing 'sorry t-shirts', Australia bared its soul to the world - and they loved it. They loved that we were struggling to gain reconciliation with our indigenous people. They loved the fact we applauded and cheered all athletes, no matter where they came from. They loved the way we could be so passionate about sport, yet laugh about it afterwards. They loved that we went and watched the likes of European handball and Greco-Roman wrestling, even though we had no idea of the rules and Australia wasn't within an inflatable kangaroo of winning. They loved that 47 000 Australians would volunteer to work 10 eight-hour-days without being paid - and do it with a smile and a laugh.
And best of all, we were surprised that they loved it, because we thought everyone did it that way.
Granted, the Sydney Olympics were a success due to the ability of nations to put conflicts aside for two weeks. They were also a success due to the competitiveness, friendliness and enthusiasm of those who competed, refereed, administered and managed. The organisational brilliance of SOCOG (yes, brilliance) probably had a fair degree to do with it as well. But for me the Olympics were not a celebration of Olympic spirit or organisational expertise. They were a celebration of Australia. For the first time, we showed the world a large part of our best and worst. Along with the rest of the world, we discovered there was a great deal more best, than worst.
Cheers
Sean Costello
Novo Editor
