Radio Australia Today Editorial

The Olympics Are Coming. Bring ‘em On.

19 June 2008

Olympic Games are strange things.

They are places where many thousands of people are stuck together in a small place, all for the glory of sport and the glory of watching sport.

I worked at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 as a (very) young and naive producer. After all the turmoil of the boycotts of the previous Games in Moscow, it was a relief that things were back to relative normal (although I seem to remember that the USSR did a tit-for-tat boycott).

I walked through the Olympic village only once, and it was with our swimming legend Dawn Fraser, who had been banned from participating in future Olympics after a flag stealing episode in Tokyo in 1964 (she didn’t do it by the way, she just refused to give the real thief up to authorities, and so took the rap herself). Anyway Dawnie and I were walking threough the compound and were met by a jubilant Australian swimming coach Lawrie Lawrence, who leapt about telling us that Australia had just won its first gold medal of the games. It was in the cycling. Dawn and I went (or should I say flew) to the post-event media conference, and saw the cyclists talking to Australia live after the historic win. We had tears in our eyes, The cyclist had tears in his eyes. Even the interviewer had tears in his eyes.

The rush, the feeling of well-being, was something I had rarely experienced. No political election, no job promotion, nothing, could emulate that feeling on that day.

That’s what the Olympics are about.

We’ll be there in Beijing by the way. Not the Breakfast Club as such, but we’ll have a team of reporters telling us what’s happening. We’ll bring you events, the conversies, the tears and the joy.

Can’t wait.
– Phil