Speaker 1: Already and this is this is the daily This is
Speaker 1: the Daily. Ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the twenty sixth of September. I'm Lucy Tassel.
Speaker 1: I'm beliefit Simon's.
Speaker 2: Twenty five years ago today Australia woke up in the
Speaker 2: aftermath of one of the greatest gold medal races of
Speaker 2: all time, Kathy Freeman's win in the four hundred meters.
Speaker 2: They goes up, the guy takes the lad looks up,
Speaker 2: grows away from Graham and Mary. This is a famous victory.
Speaker 1: I'm made, never said performance.
Speaker 2: It was the undeniable high point of the Sydney two
Speaker 2: thousand Olympics Games that changed the city and set a
Speaker 2: high bar for other cities to follow. On today's episode,
Speaker 2: we're taking a walk back in time to the year
Speaker 2: two thousand, explaining how the Games came to Sydney, bringing
Speaker 2: you some of the highlights, and discussing its last legacy.
Speaker 2: But first a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 3: Now, Lucy, I don't remember the game. So I'm twenty eight,
Speaker 3: freshly twenty eight and gray birthday. But yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: remember the games. I was too young. I must have
Speaker 3: been two or three years old. Yes, good Mas. Do
Speaker 3: you remember it?
Speaker 2: I remember little bits. I remember making an Olympic torch
Speaker 2: out of white cardboard and read an orange cellar phane.
Speaker 1: That's an amazing memory.
Speaker 2: You must have been also three four four four freshly
Speaker 2: four because I lived not that far from Home Bush
Speaker 2: where the games were taking place, and I remember waving
Speaker 2: it on the side of the road as the torch
Speaker 2: relay went by. Lucy. And I also remember I was
Speaker 2: taken to see the wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics. So
Speaker 2: those are my Olympic memories.
Speaker 3: Good game, Yeah, I guess I remember watching it, That's
Speaker 3: all I remember.
Speaker 2: But then there are other things that happened during that
Speaker 2: game that have kind of become memories for me from
Speaker 2: having watched them over the years.
Speaker 3: Yes, I feel like I remember Kathy Freeman, but I don't.
Speaker 1: But I've just seen that footage so many times.
Speaker 2: Exactly growing up also in Sydney, as we did. I know,
Speaker 2: I've spent a lot of time in my life in
Speaker 2: and around Sydney Olympic Park going to concerts. Most of
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to.
Speaker 2: Imagine now actually that until twenty five years ago, basically
Speaker 2: that area really didn't contain much. Yeah, so interesting, and
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting that that is something that that
Speaker 2: development is something that was pitched when Sydney began its
Speaker 2: bid to host the Games, and the fact that Sydney
Speaker 2: hosted the Games was such a big deal at the time.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's still a big deal now. How
Speaker 3: does a city come to host the Olympics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cities have to submit a bid. Back in the
Speaker 2: mid twentieth century to the late twentieth century, it was
Speaker 2: very competitive. Countries would compete against each each other. They
Speaker 2: would nominate cities to be able to host the Olympics
Speaker 2: in the Paralympics, and typically those bids would be carried
Speaker 2: out six or seven years ahead of the Games to
Speaker 2: give cities enough time to build up all the infrastructure,
Speaker 2: and they would put together these packages explaining why they
Speaker 2: would be good at hosting it and present it to
Speaker 2: the International Olympic Committee. And sometimes it would take many
Speaker 2: different tries. So, for example, Los Angeles attempted to host
Speaker 2: the Games or submitted bids many many times before they
Speaker 2: eventually won the nineteen eighty four Olympics and Paralympics. And
Speaker 2: it's true for Sydney to plans to host the Olympics
Speaker 2: in Sydney were being molled as early as the nineteen
Speaker 2: seventies actually, which is a long time before our eventual
Speaker 2: successful bid. Over the years, Australia put forward a number
Speaker 2: of cities to host the games. Brisbane and Melbourne, which
Speaker 2: had hosted the nineteen fifty six Olympics.
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a big, big deal for Australia back
Speaker 2: in the day, so hosted them in nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 2: And then in the eighties Australia was like, do you
Speaker 2: want Brisbane? Do you want Melbourne? Those bids ended up
Speaker 2: going to Barcelona and Atlanta. But we got third time
Speaker 2: lucky in nineteen ninety three when Sydney successfully bid for
Speaker 2: the two thousand Olympics and Paralympics. And so what does
Speaker 2: the city need for a successful bid? The list is
Speaker 2: not that long, but everything on the list is incredibly involved.
Speaker 2: You need places to host events. You need pools, running tracks,
Speaker 2: tennis courts, beach volleyball courts, gymnasiums, velodromes, shooting ranges, archery ranges.
Speaker 2: Like when you think about the vast number of Olympic sports,
Speaker 2: and it's often changing. For example, obviously Paris hosted the
Speaker 2: Olympics last year, but the surfing competition was held in Tahiti,
Speaker 2: which is a French territory. So you need to be
Speaker 2: able to host all of the different events. You need
Speaker 2: housing for the athletes and the parer athletes. You need
Speaker 2: hotel rooms to house the thousands of tourists and journalists
Speaker 2: and officials that descend on your city for the Games.
Speaker 2: You need a stadium that's big enough for the parade
Speaker 2: of athletes at the end of the opening ceremony and
Speaker 2: for major events. And you need transport to get everyone
Speaker 2: to and from and parking. There's so many different things
Speaker 2: that are all really expensive and involved to put together.
Speaker 3: And often the cities don't actually have those facilities, but
Speaker 3: they say to the Olympics Committee that they will build
Speaker 3: them in order to host the Olympics, which was the
Speaker 3: case with Sydney. So for example, we had the transformation
Speaker 3: of Sydney Olympic Park. We also had things like the
Speaker 3: rowing Center being set up in the city's west, things
Speaker 3: that would if Sydney were to ever bid for the
Speaker 3: Olympics again, we could say we already have this infrastructure,
Speaker 3: which is why you might see some cities hosting the
Speaker 3: Olympics multiple times, like La La exactly, London, Paris, those
Speaker 3: are the only ones, Oh, Tokyo, that's another one. Yes,
Speaker 3: and then you also need to present all of these
Speaker 3: things or your plans to achieve these things to the
Speaker 3: International Olympic Committee. Sydney's bid in nineteen ninety three was
Speaker 3: a forty minute presentation that also included a speech from
Speaker 3: an eleven year old schoolgirl who described Sydney as a
Speaker 3: friendly city where it doesn't matter where you come from.
Speaker 2: I know, so sweet. And another way that you can
Speaker 2: appeal to the International Olympic Committee is financially. So John Coates,
Speaker 2: who is a very important member of the Sydney Olympic
Speaker 2: Games Committee, later admitted he had actually offered grants to
Speaker 2: two African nations in exchange for their support for Sydney's bid,
Speaker 2: so no money actually changed hands, but there was kind
Speaker 2: of a promise of support if Sydney's bid got up.
Speaker 3: And of course we mentioned Kathy Freeman at the top
Speaker 3: of the episode. Yes, and obviously that's one of the
Speaker 3: great sporting moments in Australian history. What are some of
Speaker 3: the other highlights from Sydney two thousand before we.
Speaker 2: Move on from Kathy Freeman. Two quick things. Her win
Speaker 2: in the four hundred meters that we played a clip
Speaker 2: of was Australia's one hundredth Olympic gold medal of the
Speaker 2: time I know, and it was the first individual gold
Speaker 2: won by an Indigenous Australian. After she won, she draped
Speaker 2: herself in the Australian and Aboriginal flags to do her
Speaker 2: victory lap, which actually put her at risk of disciplinary
Speaker 2: action from the IOC because athletes aren't meant to kind
Speaker 2: of wear any flags other than their own countries. And
Speaker 2: she had done the same thing at the nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: four Commonwealth Games and she had been publicly and formally
Speaker 2: reprimanded for doing so.
Speaker 1: Wow, but that rules still in place for.
Speaker 2: The Commonwealth Games, no for the Olympic Games. Yes, However,
Speaker 2: I don't believe she was actually reprimanded after the two
Speaker 2: thousand Games. I mean, it was such an incredible moment
Speaker 2: and certainly at the time Prime Minister John Howard said
Speaker 2: for her to carry both flags was quote terrific and
Speaker 2: perfectly natural. So I think the kind of the vibe
Speaker 2: had shifted. Yes, But let's move now from the track
Speaker 2: to the pool, which is where Australia has historically shone.
Speaker 2: Two major highlights for you here. The first involves a
Speaker 2: then seventeen year old rising superstar you might have heard
Speaker 2: of called Ian Thorpe. Yes, he was coming into his
Speaker 2: hometown games and his first Olympics carrying the hopes of
Speaker 2: a nation on his extremely broad shoulders. His biggest test
Speaker 2: was actually set for the first day of swimming competition
Speaker 2: at the Olympics, where he was facing his first ever
Speaker 2: Olympic race and the men's four by one hundred meter
Speaker 2: freestyle relay. Adding to the pressure was the fact that
Speaker 2: Australia was going up against the USA, who had never
Speaker 2: lost the four by one hundred meter freestyle relay in
Speaker 2: the history of the event. They had never not won gold.
Speaker 2: In fact, American swimmer Gary Hall Junior also said ahead
Speaker 2: of the Games that he expected Team USA would quote
Speaker 2: smash Australia like guitars. Wow, that is a stri and aprinsum.
Speaker 2: We're talking about it.
Speaker 3: Because it went well for Australia, yes, exactly, and it
Speaker 3: went better than expected.
Speaker 2: So in Ian Thorpe's heat. His first Olympic race, he
Speaker 2: set an Olympic record, that's in the four hundred meter freestyle.
Speaker 2: That night he swam that race even faster to break
Speaker 2: a world record and win gold. And then just an
Speaker 2: hour later the four by one hundred meter relay began.
Speaker 2: Michael Klym set a world record one hundred meter swim
Speaker 2: in the first two laps for Australia. But then going
Speaker 2: into the last two laps, Ian Thorpe actually slipped a
Speaker 2: little bit behind Gary Hall Junior as they were going
Speaker 2: into the very last lap, the last fifty meters, and
Speaker 2: I'll let you listen to what happened next.
Speaker 1: Cooper's coming out off the hall. They are aboutching spikes.
Speaker 2: Now polop U turns with hole like that about top
Speaker 2: three meters to form Piper's over whol again oil and
Speaker 2: pop popch.
Speaker 1: And corn popper, the hole pop gavis one. The drama
Speaker 1: is so dramatic, it's yeah, it gives me chills.
Speaker 2: I can't deny it. It gives me chills. Before we move
Speaker 2: on from the pool, I've got one non Australian highlight
Speaker 2: to share with you. It comes to us from the
Speaker 2: tiny West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, not known for
Speaker 2: its swimming success. I think I know this story. I
Speaker 2: bet you do.
Speaker 3: Is it that the swimmer came last and everyone was clapping?
Speaker 1: It's like that. Okay, everyone did clap, Yes, it was
Speaker 1: clapping involved, There was involved.
Speaker 2: Eric Mussambani was representing Equatorial Guinea in swimming. He had
Speaker 2: learned to swim eight months earlier.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: He arrived at the Games on a wild card entry
Speaker 2: awarded by the International Olympic Committee, and he was the
Speaker 2: only person in his heat for the one hundred meter freestyle,
Speaker 2: so not last, but the only person in.
Speaker 1: The pool close close. He was last, but he was
Speaker 1: also first, one of one.
Speaker 2: Actually, he had never swum the length of a fifty
Speaker 2: meter Olympic pool before. He'd had actually never seen one,
Speaker 2: so you can only imagine how intimidating it would be
Speaker 2: to swim that in front of a crowd. Slowly, as
Speaker 2: he swam his two laps, the crowd at the Sydney
Speaker 2: Olympic Park Aquatic Center began to figure out what was
Speaker 2: happening back that he really was literally quite literally out
Speaker 2: of his depth, and they began to really cheer, and
Speaker 2: when he finally made it to the end. The crowd
Speaker 2: just exploded. Yeah, it's a very kind of special moment.
Speaker 3: Now that is the Olympics, but we also hosted the Paralympics. Yeah,
Speaker 3: what were some of the highlights of the Paralympics in
Speaker 3: two thousand.
Speaker 2: The Sydney Paralympics were extremely successful, not just for Australia
Speaker 2: but for the Paralympic Games. The Sydney Paralympics were the
Speaker 2: first to sell more than a million tickets overall in
Speaker 2: the pool. For Australia, Chevon Peyton picked up six gold
Speaker 2: medals and broke six records, which is just astonishing. On
Speaker 2: the track, para athlete Luis Sauvage won two golds and
Speaker 2: a silver. It was her final game and she went
Speaker 2: out with a bang. And then she's actually since gone
Speaker 2: on to coach Madison de Rosario, who is also a
Speaker 2: para athlete, who matched her feet of two golds at
Speaker 2: the same games in Tokyo in twenty twenty one. Overall,
Speaker 2: Australian power athletes picked up one hundred and forty nine medals. Wow,
Speaker 2: I know, it's so it's simply so many, and we
Speaker 2: topped the medal table for the first time at the Paralympics,
Speaker 2: I know, and overall more than three hundred records were
Speaker 2: broken across the whole Paralympics, including it was the record
Speaker 2: for the most para athletes competing at a Paralympics ever.
Speaker 2: So it was really like an amazing Paralympics. And honestly,
Speaker 2: reflecting on all of this, I just thought, Wow, Brisbane
Speaker 2: twenty thirty two has a lot to live up to.
Speaker 1: I was going to say.
Speaker 3: Hearing how successful we were at both the Olympics and
Speaker 3: the Paralympics, I know, it makes me so excited for
Speaker 3: Australia to host the Olympics and the Paralympics again, which
Speaker 3: Brisbane will be doing in twenty thirty two. That's right,
Speaker 3: although I'll say it's at a very different time for
Speaker 3: the Olympics, the Paralympics, the Games, the culture around them
Speaker 3: has really shifted and changed, I would say in terms of.
Speaker 1: It not being as big of a deal anymore.
Speaker 2: It's not that it isn't as big of a deal.
Speaker 2: It's just that all of the things that I described,
Speaker 2: the kind of size of the undertaking becomes increasingly difficult
Speaker 2: for cities to take on. So Brisbane was the only
Speaker 2: city to bid for the twenty thirty two Summer Olympics
Speaker 2: and Paralympics. Interesting that had happened in the past, but
Speaker 2: not particularly frequently. There's also the case of the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four Olympics and the twenty twenty eight Olympics, which
Speaker 2: were Paris and la respectively, were awarded at the same time.
Speaker 2: So and Brisbane was even the Olympics in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: So there's really like countries are getting more and more
Speaker 2: of a lead time to plan to set up.
Speaker 1: There's also protest.
Speaker 2: Movements against the Olympics, including one in Los Angeles that
Speaker 2: protest group argues the games were decided without public consultation,
Speaker 2: won't be sustainable and won't actually benefit the city of
Speaker 2: La over the following years. In Brisbane at least, there
Speaker 2: have been disputes over how much money will be spent
Speaker 2: in the city and what infrastructure will actually be built
Speaker 2: and who will foot the bill. But one thing I
Speaker 2: know for sure about the Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics is
Speaker 2: that it's going to be so nice to have a
Speaker 2: games in our time zone, in our time zone, that's right,
Speaker 2: because the Paris ones we were having to stay up
Speaker 2: all night to watch anything. I was up at midnight
Speaker 2: watching the rugby sevens learning what rugby sevens was. I'm
Speaker 2: excited for that to happen in primetime.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, Lucy, thank you for taking us down that
Speaker 3: trip back in time. You are our in house historian
Speaker 3: and our in house sports editor. That's so you're really
Speaker 3: combined to those two talents for this amazing explain that.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanksville, And of course, if you are interested in more
Speaker 2: sport news, you can sign up to our sport newsletter. Yes,
Speaker 2: we'll put the link in the episode description.
Speaker 3: Yes, and thank you so much for listening to this
Speaker 3: episode of The Daily os. We'll be back this afternoon
Speaker 3: with your evening headlines, but until then, enjoy your Friday.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
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Speaker 1: Gadigol people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.