2000 OLYMPICS : Venues, Crowds Ready to Roll in Sydney in One Year

Ian Thorpe broke a world swimming record at the Pan Pacific Championships while Phil Coles watched from a private box, eating sushi and drinking white wine.

Yet the crowds cared much more about Australia’s star athlete than the disgraced Olympics official.

And that’s just fine with organizers of the Sydney Games.

After a year of scandals, serious and petty, officials hope to put the attention back on the athletes who will march in the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics on Sept. 15, 2000.

Sydney Organizing Committee chief executive Sandy Hollway said he never doubted the focus would move away from the International Olympic Committee’s troubles.

“There are always issues which come from left field and need attending to,” Hollway said. “But if you keep your eyes on the main game, if you keep your eye on the big prize, like Australian commitment to the games, like ticketing, like venue construction, then you find we’re in very good shape and these other issues are secondary.”

Early ticket sales have exceeded expectations and the main venues are already open for world-class sporting events.

The Olympic stadium was host to a rugby union world record crowd of 107,042 last month, while at the same time 4,000 watched the PanPac swimming next door. The pool’s capacity will be increased to 17,500 for the Olympics.

The main stadium, although not yet used for track and field, has made fans around the world.

“It’s amazing, this is state of the art, it’s stunning,” said San Diego Chargers star Junior Seau, who played there last month in a preseason game against Denver. “This is something we’re going to remember and treasure.”

While the Olympic movement was hit with accusations of corruption in December and January, Hollway was hoping it would clean up its act in time to sell tickets in May.

Coles was the face Australians put on the IOC scandals. Twice censured by the IOC for accepting excessive hospitality from Salt Lake City and for compiling a secret dossier on his colleagues, Coles was stripped of his central role in the Sydney Games.

John Coates, one of the most influential Olympics officials, was also tainted by the scandal. He admitted paying two African IOC officials $70,000 on the eve of the 1993 vote, which Sydney won.

Coates’ payments were legal under IOC rules, but along with a controversial deal he brokered with Sydney Organizing Committee president Michael Knight, they made him a target of public suspicion. (The deal guarantees the Australian Olympic Committee $65 million profit from the games).

Knight’s image also has been hurt by his Olympic politicking.

He was heavily criticized when he dumped about 1,500 American and Japanese student band members from a seven-minute slot in the opening ceremony. After court action from the band’s organizer, he backed down.

Knight bore the brunt of a public outcry. One newspaper columnist said his handling of the marching band fiasco proved the adage that “the only amateurs left in the Olympics are the officials.”

Of the senior Sydney Olympic leaders, only Hollway has emerged with his reputation untarnished as he continues to have faith in Australia’s support for the Olympic ideal.

Hollway, who has traveled the country and taken every chance to push the games, was rewarded for his persistence when the tickets went on sale in May.

The Sydney Organizing Committee received 317,000 ticket applications, 6,000 more than the previous record for a first-round offer set by Atlanta four years ago. The average application for the 2000 Games was for eight to 10 tickets with the total worth an estimated at $227.5 million, the committee said.

“The recent controversies we’ve seen, and some of the skepticism and cynicism that has come from those, ought not cloud our view of the international idealism that is at the heart of the Olympic Games,” Hollway said.

The IOC, which had considered the ticket target ambitious, was quick to show its relief.

“The public clearly understood the difference between the scandals and the games themselves and still have enthusiasm for the games,” IOC spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said.

For Hollway it was, “a terrific affirmation by Australians of the sentiments that we believed and hoped they felt about the games.”

Hollway, however, understands that a clear run to the Summer Olympics is probably too much to ask for. Potential problems linger.

After years of threatening boycotts, Aboriginal leaders have reportedly decided on a policy of shaming Australia’s governments during the Olympics. Protests are expected during the torch relay, to be begun by Aboriginal athlete Nova Peris-Kneebone.

Residents of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach area are also planning to protest against the games.

Anger over a 10,000-seat volleyball stadium on the sand, which will cut resident access for several months, has already resulted in the cancellation of a test event for the sport.

“We have very big challenges ahead,” Hollway said. “This is very big, complex project, but at this stage we’re traveling satisfactorily.”