"I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever" - Juan Antonio Samaranch at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games The build up to the Sydney Olympics started three months before the official opening ceremony, when the Olympic Torch arrived on 8th June at Uluru, the spiritual centre of Australia. It spent the next 100 days travelling 27,000 kilometres around the country before arriving in Sydney. It travelled through each suburb, including where we were living (Coogee, on day 99!) when nearly thirty thousand people crammed the beach to watch. On 15th September it moved onto it's final destination at Homebush Stadium where the Olympic Flame was lit by Cathy Freeman, the 400m world record holder. To kick off the official Opening Ceremony she stepped through a waterfall and into a pool of water before lighting a ring of fire that turned into the cauldron. This then rose over her head and continued up a multicoloured watery track to the top of the stadium where it remained until the close of the games on the 1st October. The main stadium for the Olympics was purpose built for the occasion although the building was completed nearly a year early. The stadium was open to the public in the months leading up to the Olympics, and proved very popular - people wanted to swim in the same pool as the athletes would be competing in! The stadium seated 110,000, the largest stadium ever built for an Olympics. It was the location for both the Opening Ceremony on the 15th September and the spectacular Closing Ceremony on 1st October, which included Kylie Minogue and Savage Garden among the entertainers. After the Olympics and Paralympics were over, the stadium was reduced in size to 80,000 capacity. The media village was located about fifteen minutes drive from Homebush, in Lidcombe, and that was where I was working for IBM. During the Games, over 5800 of the world media were living here, so IT support services were in demand. There was a 24 hour pub, a gym, Internet cafe, restaurants, plus laundry service, body care facilities and even a couple of wildlife enclosures! Transport to the Olympic stadium and International Broadcast Centre ran 24 hours a day, while the central village green outside the pub was a popular meeting spot to either relax in the sun or entertain yourself. I spent most of my time playing table tennis as the technology was nearly faultless!
