The host city braces itself against high winds and the tyranny of the sponsors Grant Shimmin in Sydney One of Sydney’s more popular radio stations is running a promotion that starts: “Spring in Sydney is easy; cool nights, clear sunny days, soft city breezes.” Well, I suppose two out of three ain’t bad, because they could hardly be more wrong on the last count. Italian rowers were pictured in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph doing their training on rowing machines in a gymnasium, rather than out on the Olympic course at Penrith. Howling westerly winds have swept across the city, disrupting preparations, like in the meet on the warm-up track, linked by a tunnel to the Olympic Stadium, this week. Seagulls wheeled through the air above the track, carried on the powerful gusts of wind that made life nightmarish for athletes, particularly those entered in the rarely run distance of 300m, whose first 100m, down the track’s back straight, was directly into that wind. Should the wind persist throughout the Olympic fortnight, any new track and field world records are unlikely, the one possible exception being the discus events, provided the competitors are required to throw with it at their backs. The 100m sprints could also produce good times, but they may be rendered illegal by winds that are too strong. And that’s to say nothing of what it might do to the rowers and canoeists at Penrith. Needless to say, organisers have likely been spending a fair bit of time on their knees in earnest supplication ahead of the start of the games. They’ll have other things on their minds on Friday, however, when the opening ceremony takes place in the majestic 110E000-seater stadium.
While the Aussie media seem to have got a bit ahead of themselves in predicting a swag of medals for the host country – the Telegraph plumped for a staggering total of 99, which would be some improvement on the 40 in Atlanta and 27 in Barcelona – one thing that can’t be taken away from them is that it’s their opening ceremony and they get to choose the athletes for the big roles.
There could scarcely have been a better choice to read the oath on behalf of the athletes than veteran Aussie hockey star Rechelle Hawkes, whose tally of caps is well beyond the 250 mark and who is playing in her fourth Olympics, having collected two golds already. Reacting to her selection, the feisty 33- year-old said it was a fairly daunting task “but one I feel I’m equipped for. I was a teacher for six years.” One wonders how her former pupils reacted to Hawkes’s nude shots in The Sydney Dream, a special edition of the magazine Black and White, in which several of the host country’s Olympians shed their clothes. The Matildas, the Australian women’s football team, were advised some time ago that nude was the way to go to raise their non-existent profile and 12 of them ended up getting their kit off for the cameras. The hugely popular calendar featuring the results sold 40 000 copies and attendances at the Matildas matches hit an upward curve. However, they were shocked this week to discover that host broadcaster Channel Seven had scheduled no live coverage of their opening fixture against Germany. Perhaps the channel’s bosses were worried fans wouldn’t recognise them with their kit on.
It seems some of the fans planning trips to games events have had other things on their minds, among them the price of food from the official vendors within the Olympic precinct. There was a suggestion that security personnel would confiscate food from spectators, obliging them to buy their refreshments from the vendors, though it has been announced now that they will be able to take “small amounts” in, but cooler boxes are out of the question. However, as I underwent the security inspection on Wednesday, a family visiting Olympic Park for the day were told they couldn’t take in the cans of Pepsi they were carrying in a backpack, because Coca- Cola was the official soft-drink sponsor. Fans can consider themselves fortunate if they don’t buy at the food court opposite the main media centre. On day one of my Olympic experience, I fancied some fish, and opted for blue-eyed cod at a prohibitive A$14,50 (about R70). I thought this might be justified if the meal was a satisfying one, but a more clapped-out portion of fish you would have to travel a long way to see. It truly was the piece of cod that passed all human understanding.