Counting the days to the Olympics

Counting the days to the Olympics
PHILIPPE NAUGHTON

ULURU, JUNE 7: When Sydney outsmarted Beijing seven years ago for the right to host the 2000 Olympics, bid leaders knew they had a Herculean task ahead. On Wednesday, they started the 100-Day countdown with most of the hard work well behind them. The marathon is almost over and there is just a dangerous sprint left to the line.

"We're down to things at the margin, things that you've got to be careful that you don't muck up or you can undermine everything else you've done," said organising committee President Michael Knight. "There are many expensive racing cars that have failed to finish because a $10 part's broken."

Knight and other Sydney Games chiefs were gathering in Australia's Red Centre for Thursday's high-profile arrival of the Olympic torch at the monolith Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, when the 100-Day milestone passed.

But the scandals and gaffes of the past two years have taken their toll. Neither of Australia's two IOC members will be present as the torch lands and even Knight has been advised to stay firmly in the background. Organising commitee SOCOG know that a successful relay is crucial if they are to restore public trust in the tarnished "Olympic ideal" before the Games open on September 15.

Defying normal pre-Olympic patterns, public enthusiasm for the Games has continued to decline from the high point reached during and after Sydney's bid. A survey last month showed that only 49 percent of people over the age of 14 said they had any interest in the Sydney Games, down 17 percent on a similar poll a year ago. Only 41 percent expressed an interest even in watching the opening ceremony on television.

The blame for some of that must fall on the International Olympic Committee. The Salt Lake City bribery scandal, in which it was revealed that the 2002 Winter Games hosts spent US$1 million buying the votes of IOC members, set off a chain reaction against all things Olympic. Knight and his lieutenants tried to distance themselves from the wider Olympic morass, disowning Australian IOC member Phil Coles after he was implicated in the Salt Lake scandal.

But they have managed to shoot themselves in the foot with monotonous regularity. Knight was forced into an embarrassing apology after it was revealed last year that the organisers of a public ballot had saved the best tickets for rich individuals and companies. He also had to back down over the composition of an international marching band for the opening ceremony after a threat of legal action by Californian high-school bands.

The silliest, and arguably the most damaging, gaffe was made by IOC Vice-President Kevan Gosper when he allowed his 11-year-old daughter to become the first Australian to carry the torch after it was lit at ancient Olympia on May 10.

The Games still face the threat of large-scale Aboriginal protests, although the torch's passage through Uluru should help avert those. The first runner will be Nova-Peris Kneebone, the first Aboriginal athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, and Uluru's traditional owners will be fully involved in the ceremony.

Sydney can hardly be faulted on its venues. The main Olympic complex at Homebush Bay, West of Sydney, is up and running and must rank as the best Olympic precinct ever. Darling Harbour, in downtown Sydney, will host a clutch of Sports including boxing and provide a natural focus for the Games in the harbour city itself.

And once the fireworks light up Sydney on September 15, given Australians' passion for sport, organisers should have no worries putting the attention back on the athletes as top swimmer Ian Thorpe and sprinter Cathy Freeman try to win gold. "But we won't be judged by how good our preparations were," said Knight. "When the Games start, that's when the pressure will really be on." (Reuters)