2000 Sydney Olympics 10th Anniversary

Ten years have past since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Here are 10 reflections:

1. The Friendly City – Sydney really was the place to be. Cool vibe. People spoke to each other in the street, on the bus and at the check out.
2. Jane Saville – Australia won a stack of gold medals, I can’t remember many of them. But one I do remember was an almost gold medal. Jane Saville. On her way into the stadium to claim her deserved gold medal in front of a massive home crowd in the 20km walk, she was penalised for lifting her foot. Heart-breaking stuff. I was devastated. So was she. In 2004 she went on to claim the bronze in Athens.
3. “Ich liebe dich!” – I went to 3 different events: gymnastics; hockey and handball. Handball was awesome! Really good crowd participation and an entertaining fast-paced game. When watching the Austrians women’s team, I yelled out “Ich liebe dich!” to their star player… and she acknowledged me!!
4. The Dream – Roy & HG served up a treat each night. Check out some vids.
5. Meat pies, beer and cigarettes – these aren’t the normal dietary requirements of an Olympic medal winning athlete. Except for Jumping Jai Taurima. He got second in the long jump. He still maintains the Oceania record for that jump. Some young kid trained with great discipline for 15 years to realise his Olympic dream of long jump glory, only to be beaten by Jumping Jai while he ate a pie and smoked a ciggy!
6. Volunteers – retirement villages were empty during the games while all their patrons were off volunteering in those ridiculously ugly volunteer uniforms. There were 46,967 of them. All pretty small cogs in a massive machine. Gotta be stacks to learn about getting volunteers excited for gospel ministry and mission. The 46,967 volunteers knew they were part of something big and special. Those who volunteer in clumsy little churches are actually part of something bigger and far more special. The organisers were generous in providing for all the volunteers during the games and then showing their appreciation afterwards. My brother volunteered by wearing a large piece of corrugated iron on his back during the opening ceremony!! We called him a “tin man”.
7. PR Human Resources Managing Data Entry-ist – I worked during the Olympics for one of the bus companies helping provide buses. It was lots of fun. I worked for 3 weeks straight from 2pm-10pm. My desk was nearest the TV. I remember going into the TV room to access the drinking water every 15 minutes. In my role, I helped to look after all the bus drivers. I was the buffer zone between the drivers room and the rest of management. I did lots of paper work. The most powerful aspect of my job was the ability to control traffic. If a driver contacted me and said that they were getting held up on a particular road, I rang the RTA and got them to manipulate the traffic lights accordingly. I wish I still had the number!
8. Main Stadium – I’ve been to the Olympic precinct for lots of different things, but it took me 10 years to get inside the main stadium. Sydney FC vs Everton a couple of months ago was the first time for me. That’s all.
9. Accident reports – If you watched the news, you would have been lead to believe that, apart from the torch thing stalling in the Opening Ceremony, there were absolutely no glitches. Wrong. I filled out numerous accident reports each day. Some pretty minor. Others more significant. One of our drivers was involved in a major accident on the corner of Homebush Bay Drive and Concord Dr. It was a miracle that those in the car survived, without even a scratch! Every major television network was there within 20 minutes. I managed to position myself in the background of their filming. But none of it made it onto the news. I’m sure there were other things covered up too.
10. Uniting humanity – the Olympics, along with the Soccer World Cup, are two ways that our world tries to unite the world with sport. Just like the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, this uniting is actually a way of people saying how great we are without reference to God. That’s a bit dumb. Sport is good, but not the ultimate thing. Jesus is where the action is. Worship him, not sport. Don’t try and set yourself up against God.

This post is 734 words. Probably some type of record ’round here!