Masters of sport
One of Australia’s biggest sporting events, the biennial Asia Pacific Masters Games will be held on the Gold Coast from October 28 to November 5 this year. It is expected to attract at least 11,500 participants from 45 countries, who will compete in 40 different sports at world-class venues across the Gold Coast.
Sydney has the numbers
Up to 10,200 athletes and approximately 5,100 support staff from 200 countries are expected to participate in the Sydney Olympic Games. Some 15,000 accredited media representatives from around the world are due in Sydney to cover the Games for a world-wide audience of about 4 billion people.
SydneyÆs Top 10
A total of 31 sporting disciplines will be contested in 28 sports in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Based on the first 125,000 applications for tickets, the 10 most popular events in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games have been ranked as follows: 1. Athletics, 2. Swimming, 3. Football, 4. Opening ceremony, 5. Hockey, 6. Basketball, 7. Artistic gymnastics, 8. Tennis, 9. Equestrian three-day event, 10. Cycling û track
Building an Olympic legacy
Since the Olympic Co-ordination Authority in Sydney was formed in 1995, there have been more than 15 million hours worked on Olympic construction projects. The biggest task was building the centrepiece, Stadium Australia, the largest stadium ever built for an Olympic Games. Seating 110,000 spectators, it is eight levels inside and about 14 storeys high; four Boeing 747 aircraft could fit wingtip to wingtip under the span of the main arch.
Olympic medals are winners
More than 3000 medals are being created for presentation to top-ranking Olympic athletes during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The medals were designed by Wojciech Pietranik, a Polish-born sculptor with a love of Australia, who works with the Royal Australian Mint design team.
ItÆs a big jobà
About 2,400 people will be employed directly by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games; up to 65,000 will be employed by contractors responsible for catering, cleaning, housekeeping and security; and some 40,000 volunteers will fill a variety of roles across every Olympic venue.
Next biggest thing
After the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games from October 18 will be the worldÆs second-largest sporting event and the Sydney event will be bigger than any previous Paralympic Games. Taking part are 4,000 athletes from 125 countries in 18 sports: The two new sports are sailing and wheelchair rugby.
Shining brightly
To keep the Olympic flame alive, researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Department of Mechanical and Technical Engineering, and engineers from Fuel and Combustion Technology (a South Australian company), came up with a propane/butane power system that will burn for 20 minutes, producing a flame that emits no smoke. It can burn in winds of up to 65km/h and cope with torrential downpours.
Long journey home
From June 8 2000, the olympic flame will be carried by 10,000 torch bearers to within one hour’s drive of 85 per cent of the Australian population on its 100-day, 27,000km journey from Uluru (Ayers Rock) to the Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony.
ItÆs a numbers game
On the busiest days of the Games, an estimated 500,000 people (including spectators, workers and athletes) are expected to travel to Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush Bay, situated 19km west of Sydney’s central business district. More than 100,000 people will travel to Darling Harbour in the city (second biggest Games venue) and about 70,000 people will head out to Games venues in Western Sydney.
Keeping Sydney on the move
Sydney’s Cityrail network will operate 24 hours a day during the Games. The bus fleet for the
Olympic Games will be Australia’s biggest bus operation, utilising an estimated 3,350 buses. International passenger arrivals and departures at Sydney Airport are expected to rise from the current daily peak of 33,500 to 57,000. Domestic passengers are likely to rise from 68,000 to 77,000 on peak days.
Free Olympic session viewing
In addition to the paid tickets for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, spectators will also be able to view some sessions free. These include the triathlon (focusing on the Sydney Opera House area), the marathon, road cycling, and sailing on Sydney Harbour. Designated spectactor routes will be established by SOCOG.
A cultural perspective
On 18 August the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival begins and continues throughout the Olympic Games, until 30 September. It is the final event of the four-year cultural program of the Games. More than 4000 artists will star in 53 major productions in 50 exhibitions across 45 venues.
50 years before
The first Olympic Games to be held in the Southern Hemisphere were held in Melbourne, Australia in 1956. Australia won 13 gold medals. Among the highlights was Australian Lorraine Crapp taking out 18 world swimming records in her freestyle events.
Top Aussie hopes
Australia hopes to be ranked in the top five nations at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on both the overall and gold medal counts. A total of 60 medals has been targeted, including 20 gold. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Australia won 41 medals, including nine gold.
Top Aussie
Paralympic athlete Louise Sauvage was announced as the Female Athlete of the Year for 1999 at the 20th Anniversary Australian Sport Awards presented by the Australian Confederation of Sport. Louise is the first athlete with a disability to win this award. An Olympic Gold medallist, Louise has been an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, and received the AIS Athlete of the Year award in 1997.
Top billing sports star
Australian runner, Ron Clarke is the most celebrated world record-breaking distance runner in athletics history. In a career that spanned 16 years, he broke 18 world records from distances of one mile to ten miles but, tragically, he didnÆt win an event at either an Olympics or Commonwealth Games. RonÆs latest venture is an ecological sports resort, Couran Cove, located on South Stradbroke Island off QueenslandÆs Gold Coast.
Thorpe is peopleÆs favourite
Champion young Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe was awarded the 1999 People’s Choice Award at the Awards in Sydney in November 1999. Viewers of the Seven Network (the Australian Broadcast Rights Holder for the Olympic Games) voted Ian Thorpe, 16, their favourite star of Australian television. The World Record holderÆs exploits in the pool have translated into great overall popularity in Australia and internationally.
Australian attache
Dawn Fraser has been appointed as Attache for the Australian Olympic Team for the 2000 Games. Dawn is Australia’s number one sportswoman in the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame. She is the greatest woman swimming sprinter of all time, winning the same event, the 100 metres freestyle, at three consecutive Olympic Games. She is the holder of 39 world records.