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Friday the 16th of September saw the culmination of years of exhaustive effort
and probably even more exhaustive money spending, bribery, and backdoor
shennanigans as the eyes of the world turned to Sydney for the official
Olympic Opening Ceremony for the Games of the XXVII Olympiad. Around 110,000
spectators packed the new Olympic Stadium at Homebush, with thousands of staff
and volunteers to shuffle everyone around as they vied for position to see the
world's athletic elite.
Probably like many Australians in the 16-24 age bracket, I'd absorbed what I
thought was far too much Olympic slaw - I didn't really have much interest
after all the media coverage, scandals, and lack of Quake III in any of the
competitions. However, when the chance came to take my cousins courtesy of my
uncle, I thought I'd give it a go - when else would I get the chance to do
something like that?
Sydney City
Arriving in Sydney, the first impression that I (and I assume the countless
others) received was a vast overload of Olympic advertising - anywhere you go
throughout the city, you're passively bombarded by billboards and posters
bearing the familiar five rings tastefully located near some corporate logo. I
was a little concerned about the overt commercialism being displayed; it was
all very tasteful, but if too liberally applied at the actual event it might
have made the organisers look like money grabbing fiends.
The whole city though looks awesome - everything is clean and green. The roads
are excellent - the addition of an Olympic Lane in a lot of roads has made a
lot of difference to the flow of traffic - only official Olympic vehicles
(like buses) are allowed in them. Everywhere you look, the Sydney 2000 slogan
is cleverly present, added to such commonplace city elements as street signs
and bus stops. As a visitor to Sydney, something else that impressed me was
the fact that there are plenty of street signs, not just pointing to the
Olympic venue but also to all the other parts of the city. Navigation around
the place is about as easy as it could be; the several ventures I made out on
my own whilst driving really reminded me how pathetic the road system is in
Brisbane.
The presence of the 50-odd thousand Olypmic volunteers does not go unnoticed
as well; replesdent in there colourful tracksuits, they stand out in the crowd
and add a strong feeling of the Olympic presence throughout the city. Everyone
seemed fairly happy to be doing their volunteer roles and were helpful to vast
amount of foreigners that are present on our shores.
The 2000 Olympics
The first step in the Olympic experience was getting their. Fortunately, my
uncle and aunt had cleverly plotted out the optimal public transport course
for the voyage, so I didn't even have to engage my brain to get there. We
drove to a bus stop, parked the car, then jumped on the bus with a small horde
of other soon-to-be spectators, and started moving.
The mood at this stage was one of mild anticipation; everyone on the bus was
obviously excited but the full impression of what we were going to had yet to
kick in. Even after we got off the bus at the Olympic stop it still wasn't
there. It was a bit of a hike from where the buses stopped, but once we'd made
it a bit closer to the stadium; the awe started to kick in. Briefly stopping
through the Olympic Expo, we made our way past the Novotel Hotel and were
greeted with the sity of the main stadium; a giant steel and concrete palace
for the sporting kings to compete in.
From there, looking down the Olympic Boulevard to the concourse and gates, the
only thing visible was a sea of people; tens upon thousands gathering around
the entryways either meeting people or queuing to get it. We decided after a
brief discussion to not hang around and get inside as soon as possible. From
there, we headed down to gate K, then made our way up the six storey spiral
rampway to our entrypoint.
Walking into the stadium, the size of it hits you like a punch in the face.
The giant structure with its thousands of seats is unbelievably impressive;
even more so when you consider that it was crafted from the ground up
specifically for the 16 days of events. An impressive looking stage, two
well-placed large screens - pretty much unfaultable. The only thing that was a
little curious was the shape of the roofing; from our seats (high up and to
the right of the stage), it was pretty simple to determine that most of the
people in the stadium would be at a bit of a loss when it came to the lighting
of the Cauldron, so we spent a bit of mental energy trying to figure out how
it was going to be lit (to no avail...)
Impressively, my fears of excessive commercialism were not realized. In fact,
there was an absolute minimum (some might say zero) of sponsor presence within
the stadium. Some mild homage was handed out before the offical ceremony
began, but that was it; no oppressive corporate icons or stooges laying down
any sort of visual snack whatsoever.
The Ceremony
The cermony kicked off with some small starting pieces, some introductory
speeches and presentation by two ubiqtuous newsreaders, finished off with a
rousing Waltzing Matilda by John Williams stirred the Australian crowd into
singing. From there, there was a tense wait for the countdown (which the crowd
had to practice twice due to the incredibly complexity of counting down
backwards from ten).
I'll assume that most of you at least watched some brief coverage of the
ceremony itself - if you didn't, then believe it or not, you sure did miss
out. I can imagine what a lot of yall are saying, probably something along the
lines of "sif", but it was really impressive stuff.
The ceremony was divided into separate sections, all of which demonstrated
some of the significant parts of Australia's history and culture, proudly
paying special homage to the Aboriginal background of the nation.
Starting with a lone rider sporting the the classic Australian Drizabone and
Akubra hat combination, the audience was treated to an incredibly designed and
produced spectacular. It would be a long exercise to accurately portray
through words all the diverse components of the entire production - and even a
more difficult exercise to do it justice on paper.
Based on prior experience from watching earlier ceremonies of this nature, I
had fully expected the initial component to be fairly flat and two-dimensional
in nature, like these things usually are. Following the standard formula, it
started out like this - very well choreographed and performed by the hordes of
actors (and Nikki Webster, the 13 year old prodigy whose confident acting and
stunning vocals impressed the hell out of everyone), but nonetheless a fairly
standard affair. However, as soon as Nikki was raised into the air, we went
from the two dimensional land of Wolfenstein to the 3d glory of Quake. This
was maintained throughout the show, and it was simply so well integrated into
the theme of the whole ceremony that it gave it a stong edge that made it
infinitely more appealing than any show I'd seen like that before.
During various points throughout the ceremony, the audience was invited to
participate in various manners, the most notable of which were the red flashy
armbands (basically a wristband with some movement-activated red LEDs) and the
flashlights. At various points during the evening, the lights were turned out,
and 110,000 people turned on the devices and waved them around - I'm sure this
would have looked impressive on TV, but being inside the stadium, actually
seeing all the lights sparkling on and off, punctuated by the supernova
flashes of thousands of cameras every second was a sight that had to be seen.
A very simple concept, but in that sort of scale, one that provided the
audience with a visual spectacle the likes of which they are not going to see
again in the near future.
The original hosts of the games, Greece, led the other nations in the
athlete's march. I thought it was sort of interesting the way the Australian
crowd responded differently to each of the nations that made their way across
the Olympic tarmac; more well-known countries were greeted with more
enthusiasm than others. Korea in particular received a very warm welcome, as
did Irelan, Great Britain, and the United States.
However, none of this was comparable to the tumultuous cacophony of patriotic
roars that met the arrival of the home team. The vast Australian Olympic army
marched onto the field with some true blue Aussie background music provided by
the enormous Olympic Marching Band as the entire stand stood and cheered the
athletes as they made their way around the stadium. The athletes themselves
were no less jubliant, basking - modestly, I'm sure - in the glory and
adulation of the crowd.
The climax of the event was the much-discussed and secretive lighting of the
Cauldron - the transferral of the Olympic flame to the metaphorical torch of
the host country's land. Rumours ranged from a flaming boomerang to Don
Bradman hitting a flaming cricket ball, both of which I'm sure would have been
happily absorbed by the population of Australia. The flame entered the stadium
and was passed around a proud history of Australian sporting women, covering
more than the last half-century of the finest female sporting excellence this
country has offered. The flame did a full circuit of the stadium, before
ending up in the hands of arguably one of Australia's finest athletes - Cathy
Freeman.
While the audience's attention had been captivated by the movements of the
flag, the background team performed a task that they did repeatedly throughout
the night - whilst we were focused on something else, a thousand other things
happened outside our periphery, and then when we looked back, there was a
whole new aspect to experience. This one was different though. As Cathy
mounted the stairs to the stage, the audience looked and noticed that the
entire top segment of the stage had vanished, to be replaced by a circular
pool of water. A shimmering waterfall appeared behind the pool, leading all
the way to the final destination of the flame. But still, no hint of what was
to happen had made itself apparent.
Cathy then strode onto the water, Jesus-style, then turned to face the crowd,
standing in the centre of the pool. Confidently, she lowered the torch until
it was submerged in the water - and then flames burst into life around her.
Then, slowly, the flaming steel saucer levitated out of the water, raising
around Cathy as she stood, torch proudly aloft, watching the flaming icon
raise above her.
From there, it slid back to the waterfall. The only real hiccup of the night
occurred when the flaming beacon appeared to stutter as it began the move to
the top - whether a fault in the machinery or simply the timing of the move,
I'm still not sure, but during this time the entire crowd (and I'm sure the
watching population of the world) waited with bated breath for the process to
continue. Eventually, the blazing disk started its journey to the top, amidst
the (relieved) cheers of the audience. The sky came alive with fireworks as it
reached the apex, and the flame's enourmous journey was completed.
Post-event
In the 24 hours since the shutdown of the Opening Ceremony, Australia has had
the privilege of watching several of its athletes win medals, and for the
first time I can remember, I've watched all of them win, watching as
their training over the last years and the brief, incredibly intense effort
that it culminated in brought about success, both for them, but more
importantly, for their country.
The Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony was a very impressivevisual feast, whilst at the same time making me even more proud of being an Austrlian than I
usually am. We proved to the world that we can compete on an international
arena, in aspects of culture and technology - and soon, surely, we'll show
them how to compete on the sporting field.
Critique
Perhaps the only downside of the night was the slaw that resulted after
leaving. I guess logistically trying to squeeze probably around 150,000 people
on buses is quite a difficult feat. Manoevering through a crowd like this,
fighting for a position on a bus was a pretty neat feat, especially with three
tired cousins. Fortunately, it wasn't as if the home team had just been
slaughtered, and the crowd managed to maintain its high spirits during the
arduous task of obtaining public transport. Eventually, after about an hour
and a half of waiting, we got on a bus and began the journey home. Somehow, I
even managed to find the car and drive back home without getting lost.
As a mild aside, while the Olympics are on, I will be boycotting McDonalds for
not living up to Greenpeace's expectations with regards to being a green
sponsor. Fortunately for me, Coca Cola put in the effort and satisfied the
conditions, but McDonalds just plain suck.
Boycott!
Anyway, mad props to the Olympic organisers for fighting through the media
slaw that they had to endure and managing to put in such an impressively
awesome event. The entire operation ran almost flawlessly in the excellently
constructed facilities, and I look forward to watching and cheering on
Australia's athletes as they vie for pole position in their respective sports.
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