The Australian swim team won 18 medals in Sydney 2000, providing a spark in the first week of competition that would inspire Team Australia to a record medal tally.
The Australian swim team won 18 medals in Sydney 2000, providing a spark in the first week of competition that would inspire Team Australia to a record medal tally.
Among the five swimming gold medallists were veteran Susie O’Neill, competing in her last Olympics, and 17-year-old debutant Ian Thorpe.
“In some ways it feels like it was yesterday, in other ways it feels like an entirely different life,” O’Neill said, 10 years on.
“We were under a lot of pressure going into the Games. I’ve been reading about the English athletes preparing for London 2012 and I can relate to the pressure they’re feeling now. It just builds and builds.”
Despite the pressure, Thorpe made an explosive first Olympic appearance. On night one of the Sydney Olympic Games, Thorpe won the first Australian gold medal in a world record 400m freestyle swim.
Thorpe then combined with Michael Klim, Chris Fydler and Ashley Callus to produce what is arguably the greatest relay in history.
It was the final of the 4x100m freestyle and Thorpe mowed down Gary Hall Jnr in the final 25 metres to beat the USA in the event for the first time ever.
The Aussies had smashed the world record by nearly two seconds and in celebration, infamously acted out playing guitars as a tribute to Hall Jnr’s quip that the Americans would ‘smash them like guitars’.
After an incredible opening night, Thorpe had two gold medals, two world records and had set the stage for the Aussie Team.
“I had to try to dull the level of excitement down so I could produce the best swimming results I could,” Thorpe said.
“It was a very hard thing after the first night of swimming for me. But it was about managing that excitement.”
Thorpe, one of the youngest members of the Australian Team, finished the Sydney Olympics with another gold medal and world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and silver to Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle.
Buoyed by the vocal 17,000-strong crowd, O’Neill won an unexpected gold in the 200m freestyle, and silver in the 200m butterfly, 100m medley relay and 200m freestyle relay. The performances of our swimmers helped pull Australia into fourth place in the final medal tally behind super-powers, USA, Russia and China.
Winning 58 medals overall was an extraordinary result and Australia’s biggest medal tally in Olympic history. But Sydney 2000 was about more than the medal tally.
“It’s almost like we lived in a different time during the Olympics. The enthusiasm everyone had around this event is one of those things in Australian history we all want to live again,” Thorpe said.
“The crowds were amazing. It was a better atmosphere than I imagined. Athletes from other countries still talk about how great the crowds were in Australia, how much support they had in Sydney and how friendly the Aussies were,” O’Neill said.
In her third Olympic campaign, O’Neill tried to support as many Australians as she could.
“The Village was great. I loved meeting athletes of all different shapes and sizes- the tiny gymnasts, the big weightlifters. I really enjoyed having the chance to watch everything. It’s something I didn’t usually do at other Olympics,” she said.
Thorpe, in his first Olympics, was named Australian Flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony.
“I was able to enjoy the city and this country at its very best. If you ask anyone in Australia if they want another Olympic Games they’d jump at the opportunity. I don’t know if I’ll see it in my lifetime but I hope it happens again.”
All 632 Australian Olympians from Sydney 2000 have been invited to return to Sydney Olympic Park on September 15 to relive the magic of the Games.
Taya Conomos
AOC