Sydney 2000

Sydney 2000

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE SYDNEY GAMES

I t was 11.15pm on a warm Sydneyspring night in September.Aboriginal 400 metre runner Cathy

by Glenda Korporaal*

Freeman, wearing a striking whitelycra body suit, strode up onto thestage at the northern end of Sydney’sOlympic Stadium, the final bearer ofthe Olympic torch in 2000. Shewalked into a pond of water and bentdown with her torch, lighting the sub-merged rim of the cauldron.The 110,000 strong crowd watchedas the fiery rim rose around her. Stillholding the torch high, she stood,bathed in a purple, blue and goldlight, surrounded by the circular

waterfall, looking out from behind aspectacular water curtain.The flaming cauldron - eight tonnes ofgleaming stainless steel - then trav-elled up the side of the stadium

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where it was supported by a metalmast, and sat in its place of honouroverlooking Sydney Olympic Park.Fireworks exploded across the city.The Games of the XXVII Olympiadhad begun.The ambitious fire and water lightingwas the brainchild of Australian-bornOlympic ceremonies director RicBirch, a veteran of three previousOlympic ceremonies, and Sydney setdesigner and architect, MichaelScott-Mitchell. Australian OlympicCommittee president John Coateshad made the bold but risky choice ofasking Australia’s most successful

track athlete - and a hopeful goldmedal winner in the same Games - tocarry out the job.The cauldron lighting was a dramaticend to the spectacular opening nightof the Sydney Games which soughtto show to the world a new vision ofmodern Australia - its mix of outbackand sea, its history and its humour, itsNew World melting pot of peoplefrom around the globe and its uniqueAboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderculture.For Australians, debating issues oftheir own future, the ceremony sent aclear message of the importance of‘reconciliation’ between the country’slargely European population, whichbegan arriving by sea two centuriesago, and its indigenous populationwhich have lived on the island conti-nent for thousands of years.

Nikki Webster and Djakapurra Munyarryun.

In the ceremony itself, the theme ofreconciliation was also symbolized inthe picture of the two characters whoappeared in its different segments -13-year-old Sydney schoolgirl NikkiWebster in her pink beach dress, bowand shoes, and her flowing red hairholding hands with Aboriginal tribaldancer Djakapurra Munyarryun.Some commentators likened thenight to a giant Aboriginal corroboree.The ambitious ceremony, whichinvolved a cast of almost 13,000 per-formers, a backstage crew of 4,600and high tech gadgetry using 3.3 mil-lion watts of power, was the culmina-tion of seven years of planning byBirch, who was signed up to do theceremonies during the Sydney bid forthe 2000 Games.From the moment that Sydney waschosen at the International OlympicCommittee Session in Monaco in

September 1993, Birch wanted astriking method of lighting the caul-dron - one which would go down inOlympic history in the same way asthe flaming arrow which lit the one inBarcelona in 1992.The ceremony began with a singlehorseman riding out into the stadium,wearing a brown outback hat andcoat.. The horse and his rider weresoon followed by 120 other Australianstockhorses, each bearing the whiteOlympic flag with its five blue rings.The horsemen rode around a dusty,brown stadium floor which depictedthe brown sweeping plains of theAustralian outback in the biggesthorse quadrille the world has everseen.Their ride epitomized the pioneering,horse riding spirit of famousAustralian poems such as BanjoPatterson’s Man from Snowy River.

The flags were switched to theAustralian flags as Australian bandHuman Nature and Julie Anthonysang a modern version of theAustralian national anthem, ‘AdvanceAustralia Fair’.The scene then shifted to Hero Girl,pretty young schoolgirl - NikkiWebster - who arrived in the centre ofthe stadium, put sun cream on hernose, laid down her beach towel andbegan to dream of the ocean.Her dream came to life as she awak-ened in Australia’s Barrier Reef.Suspended on wires 30 metres in theair - in a scene which exploited allthree dimensions of the stadium,Webster found herself swimming in agiant tropical sea alongside gliding,giant pink jellyfish, brightly colouredtropical fish, stingrays and seaanemones.Australian swimming coach, LaurieLawrence, called at her from giantvideo screens around the stadium,urging her to swim faster.The Aboriginal spirits then carried herto meet tribal dancer Djakapurra, theSongman, who led her into anAboriginal dream time journey. Hecalled up a new generation of spirits,drawn from the heart of the land bythe women of the Central Desert.Indigenous people from Australia andthe Torres Strait Islands were wel-comed to the tune of tribal drumbeats.The stadium was filled with the dis-tinctive Australian smell of burningEucalyptus leaves in what became acorroboree of indigenous dance.Giant stilt walking spirits strodearound as the ancestral creationspirit, Wandjina, a giant ochre andblack face, rose like a sun over the

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people, before falling to the ground.Wanjina started a raging bushfire,with two hundred fire breathers, 20fiery stilt walkers and 40 othersswinging flaming clubs entering thestadium, marching to the sounds ofdrums, recreating scenes of the firesthat Aborigines have traditionally lit inAustralia to regenerate growth intrees and plants.After the fire cleared the earth, therain came and the Australian land-scape burst into life.Children dressed in red and greenleaves rolled on the ground, thebeginning of a segment devoted tocelebrating Australian native plants.Red Sturt’s desert peas, yellow wat-tles, water lilies, banksias and fivegiant red waratahs came together in abrilliant festival of flowers which hadthe crowd gasping.The zany Tin Symphony segment hero, strode the stadium, wearing

depicted the arrival of European set- Kelly’s trademark black body armour.

tlers in the late 18th century, includ- Kelly’s massive 16 metre tin horse -

ing English explorer Captain James looking like a figure out of Salvador

Cook and his sailors, and the devel- Dali painting - lurched around the

opment of Australia with metal and scene, until Nikki Webster tamed it by

machinery. giving him an apple.

Giant figures of Ned Kelly, the famousAustralian outlaw who become a folk

The history of white settlement wasdepicted with the emergence of metal

agricultural machinery and giantmetal wheels, sheep shearers andwoodchoppers.The story ended with a jibe at currentAustralian suburban life, as a team ofpeople push their lawn mowersaround- a reference to the greatAustralian suburban tradition ofspending weekend afternoons mov-ing the lawns.The ‘Arrivals’ segment told the storyof the arrival of different cultures toAustralia - from all five Continents -Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europeand Oceania. They came together toform the five Olympic rings and then amassive mosaic map of Australia asWebster sang ‘Under SouthernSkies’.The final segment, ‘Eternity’, paidtribute to Australian workers, usingsome 700 tap dancers and perform-ers dressed in jeans and workingboots. Directed and choreographedby Nigel Triffitt and Dein Perry, whoproduced the musical Tap Dogs, theworkers danced around a centralmetal construction site. A model ofthe Sydney Harbour bridge lit up withthe words Eternity written across it, areference to a word which was writ-

The delegation from Greece... ... and from Australia.

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ten for many years in white chalk onSydney streets by a reformed alco-holic, Arthur Stace.The Sydney 2000 Olympic Band,made up of 2,000 high school musi-cians from around the world then setthe scene for the arrival of the ath-letes, p lay ing A lso SprachZarathustra, Chariots of Fire, Ode toJoy and Waltzing Matilda.The night then saw a parade of morethan 10,000 athletes and officialsf rom 199 Nat iona l O lymp icCommittees - and individual athletesfrom East Timor - led, in accordancewith tradition, by the Greek team.The parade of athletes broke newdiplomatic ground by having theteams from the two Koreas marchingtogether under the one blue andwhite Peninsula flag, and a smallteam from East Timor marching inwhite behind the Olympic flag.

Betty Cuthbert (in the wheelchair)and Raelene Boyle.

The Australian team marched in last,its team of more than 500 athletes ledby five-time Olympian, basketballerAndrew Gaze, whose family has beenassociated with the Olympics sincethe Melbourne Games of 1956. Theteam wore casual dress of loose fit-ting burnt orange jackets, yellow

shirts and green pants and skirts - asharp break from the conventionalblue blazers they wore in Atlanta.Singers John Farnham and OliviaNewton-John sang ‘Dare to Dream’,walking down through the athletes.His wife ill at home, PresidentSamaranch had invited Australia’sbest known Olympian, swimmer

Dawn Fraser - a gold and silvermedallist in three Olympics - to sitwith him in the official box along withPrime Minister John Howard and hiswife Jeannette, New South WalesPremier Bob Carr and his wifeHelena, Olympics Minister MichaelKnight and his wife Anne. The Gameswere formally opened by GovernorGeneral, Sir William Deane.Vanessa Amorosi sang a haunting‘Heroes Live Forever’ as the Olympicflag was raised.Gold medal hockey player RechelleHawkes read the athletes’ oath whilewater polo official Peter Kerr read thejudges’ oath. Tina Arena sang ‘TheName’ as the audience waited for thesecret of the night - who would lightthe Olympic torch. The seven torchbearers in the stadium were allwomen - deliberately chosen to mark100 years of women’s participation inthe Olympics.They began with Melbourne Olympics‘Golden Girl’, four-time gold medalsprinter, Betty Cuthbert, beingpushed in a wheelchair by three-timesilver medallist sprinter RaeleneBoyle. They passed the torch toDawn Fraser who handed it to Shirley

The Olympic flag arrives in the Stadium. The delegation from Pakistan.

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Sydney 2000

Strickland-Delahunty, who won goldin the 80 metres hurdles and the4x100 metre relay in Melbourne andgold in the hurdles in Helsinki in 1952.Munich Olympic swimming goldmedallist, Shane Gould, took thetorch and then passed it to the goldmedallist in the 400 metres hurdles inSeoul in 1988, Debbie Flintoff-King,who ran up the centre of the athletes.Then the name that everyone hadbeen waiting for was flashed on thescreen as Cathy Freeman emergedfrom a sea of athletes, having done aquick change from her Australianteam outfit into her lycra suit.The crowd roared. An Aboriginalwoman - sprinter Nova Peris-Kneebone (a gold medallist in hockeyin Atlanta) had been the first womanto run with the torch in Australia - atUluru in June - and another AboriginalAustralian woman and fellowOlympian was the final torch bearer.President Samaranch later described

the ceremony as the most beautiful ofhis 20 year presidency, saying he wasdeeply touched by the crowd’s enthu-

siastic reception for the athletes ofNorth and South Korea marchingtogether.One Australian newspaper called itthe ‘Night of Our Lives’, whileSydney’s Daily Telegraph dubbedFreeman’s torch lighting as ‘OurFinest Hour’.The New York Times praised the cer-emony for “a splendidly diverse andinclusive face Australia presented tothe world”, the beginning of anOlympics which would “help shine aspotlight on Aboriginal culture and itshistorical plight.”Commenting on the ceremony, itscreator, Ric Birch said: “Timeschange, but this has to be an expres-sion of the host city and must reflectits culture. It must reflect Sydney in2000. I think we’ve done that.”

*Journalist, Sydney Morning Herald.

The delegations from Fiji... ... and from Brazil.

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Sydney 2000

The joint parade of the athletes from South and North Korea.

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