By all accounts the Sydney Olympic games were a great time. For those of you out there who were fortunate enough to see them, (that is those not relying on American television), please drop us a line. We'd love to know what happened!

Eight athletes were elected to the IOC's Athletes Commission. Throughout the duration of the games all athletes had a chance to vote for a list of 45 high profile athletes that had been nominated by their respective National Olympic Committees. 

Sergei Bubka (Ukraine, athletics), Alexander Popov (Russia, swimming), swimmer Suzie O’Neill (Australia), and volleyball player Robert Ctvrtlik (USA) were elected for eight years. Javelin thrower Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic), 400m runner Charmaine Crooks (Canada), rower Roland Baar (Germany) and water-polo player Manuel Estiarte (Spain) were elected for four years.  All but Estiarte and and O'Neill had been elected in 1996 by the athletes to the Athletes Commission so there was little turnover on the Commission.

These eight join Manuela di Centa (Italy, Nordic Skiing),  Johann Olav Koss (Norway, Speed Skating) and Vladimir Smirnov (Kazakhstan, Nordic Skiing) who were elected in Nagano to the Athletes Commission.

In Sydney Sergei Bubka was the overall top vote getter with 1506 votes. 

Voting took place at the Olympic Village from 16 to 27 September. A total of 5,216 athletes took part in the elections, or 47.26% of the total number participating in the Games.

Gymnastics tour to benefit Special Olympics

The TJ Maxx 2000 Tour of World Gymnastics Champions will begin a 30-city U.S. national tour beginning October 12 in Reno, Nevada, USA, and continuing through 14 December. Special Olympics has been selected as the official charity for the event. Special Olympics athletes in those markets will meet the tour champion performers and take part in the show. For more details about the tour and the performers, go to www.gymnasticstour.com

Money for Medals

So, which athletes scored more than gold?  Here's a partial list in no particular order of which nations rewarded their athletes for their performances at the 2000 Sydney Games. 

Individually the following were the most successful.

Alexie Nemov 2-1-3 Russia $250,000

Dimitri Sautin Russia 1-1-2 $150,000

Yana Klochkove, Ukraine 2-1-0 $130,000

Svetlana Khorkina-Russia 1-2-0 $140,000 

Elena Zamolodtchikova- Russia 2-1-0 $220,000

Remind me again though. Wasn't greed and professionalism one of the downfalls of the ancient Olympic games?

Alexander Karelin welcomed home as champion.

Silver medal winning wrestler Alexander Karelin also took home $20,000, but much more importantly was given a heroes welcome on his return home to Siberia, showing true sportsmanship and the notion that you truly do not have to win a gold medal to be a champion. (Though Karelin has certainly already won his share).

Karelin the nine-time world champion and three-time Olympic champion was defeated for the first time in thirteen years. Upon his arrival at home he apologized, unnecessarily, to the people of Novosibirsk. 

A brass band and military guard of honor met Karelin at the Novosibirsk airport. 

Sydney Defections

At least six Olympic athletes have stayed in Sydney rather than returning home with their teams.

A Tunisian weightlifter and a boxer from Gabon, in separate incidents,  both fled from the airport just before boarding flights home.

Four members of the team from Georgia have also stayed in Sydney.

Australian immigration officials have declined to say whether or not any of the athletes have applied for asylum citing privacy issues.

Former Soviet Union

Combining the 15 former Soviet republics would have produced 48 gold, 48 silver and 67 bronze medals.  (US 39-25-33). These figures are skewed however as the number of entries for the fifteen separate republics was far greater than what would have been allowed as one entity.

More medals

How many nations won medals?

Eighty of the 199 participating delegations won medals in Sydney. Barbados, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam all won medals for the first time. Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan, won the first medals for those nations thought athletes from those regions had won medals previously as parts of  Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. 

Sydney gets a two week break before the Paralympians arrive and the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies on October 18. 

Dr. Robert Steadward of Canada, President of the International Paralympic Committee and a dedicated supporter of disabled sport for thirty years was elected as a new IOC Member at the 111th IOC Session in September in Sydney. Steadward's goal is to enhance and deepen the relations between the Olympic and Paralympic Movements. The International Paralympic Committee is already represented in the IOC Athletes Commission, the Evaluation Commission for Candidature Cities and in the Games Organizing Committees Coordination Commission.

Paralympians will be subject to random out-of-competition drug-testing for the first time ever under the authority of the Australian Sports Drug Agency. Athletes may be selected for drug testing beginning on October 11 in the Olympic Village, or anywhere else as soon as they arrive to train in Australia.

The Paralympic flame was lit in Canberra and will travel to Perth in the west of Australia and back to Sydney on a 14 day tour.

Athens Paralympics

Meanwhile the next Paralympics are in as much trouble as the next Olympics.

The Greeks have still not signed a host city contract for the 2004 edition claiming the International Paralympic Committee is asking for too much money, more than double what Sydney payed.  The IPC is asking for 3 million dollars as opposed to 1.2 million from Sydney.

The IPC has expressed its concern, noting that Greek organizers have shown little interest in the Games. This was the case from the beginning. When Athens won the bid for the 2004 games they expressed surprise when they were told afterwards that this also meant they would host the Paralympic Games.

Athens Olympics

The state of Athens' preparations will be closely reviewed once again when the IOC coordination commission meets in Greece on Nov. 22-24.

Disputes between government officials and the organizing committee have disrupted preparations prompting the president of the Association of European Olympic Committees, Jacques Rogge to call for a "truce" between all parties and to get to work organizing the games.

The Nov. 22-24 meetings will be followed by a two-day meeting between Athens and Sydney organizers to hopefully pass on some experience and wisdom from the Sydney organizers.

The IOC is waiting to see if Athens will appointing a host broadcaster by the end of this month, the deadline for the task, and is insisting that Athens  move up the deadline for completion of sports venues. About 30 percent of the facilities still need to be built.  The Greek government has set March 2004 to complete the venues. The IOC wants the venues ready a year earlier.  

Santo Domingo Pan-American Games organization.

A change in government in the Dominican Republic may force changes for the 2003 Pan American Games.

The government of former President Leonel Fernandez agreed to hold the games, but Fernandez was beaten in May elections by Hipolito Mejia and his Revolutionary Party. Mejia's party now controls both houses of Congress.

Spain and Venezuela have offered loans of $160 million and $40 million to the Dominican Republic, but legislators have not been in favor of accepting the loans. 

"What we're talking about is not whether to organize the Pan American Games, but rather if the country is in a position to go into so much debt to put them on," said Sen. Enrique Lopez of the governing Revolutionary  Party.

Sen. Dario Gomez of the governing party said staging the event would be an "abuse of the conscience of Dominicans, most of all of the youth and the poor."  He said the Senate would not ratify $200 million in loans offered by Spain and Venezuela to build apartments for the athletes, "not even if St. Peter sent it from heaven."  Gomez said the Caribbean country has other priorities, such as schools, housing, hospitals and roads. 

Obituaries

The Olympic family lost two members this past month

Marquesa de Samaranch

On September 16th Maria Teresa Salisachs Rowe, Marquesa de Samaranch, the wife of IOC President Juan Antonia Samaranch, died in Spain. The IOC president, who had presided over the opening of the Sydney games less than 24 hours earlier returned to Spain to attend to his wifes services. He then returned to the Sydney games several days later.
The Olympic flag was lowered to half mast at Stadium Australia on Sunday 17 September 2000. A mass was held on Monday 18 September at St Patrick's Church in Sydney. The Olympic flag was lowered to half mast for three days at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

Pierre Trudeau

The Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, passed away on September 28, 2000. Mr. Trudeau served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1968 until 1979 and from 1980 until 1984, and was Prime Minister while Canada hosted the 1976 Olympic Games, 1978 Commonwealth Games and 1983 Universiade. 

Born October 18, 1919, Mr. Trudeau was 80 years old.

2008 Bidders 

The five remaining bidders for the 2008 Summer Olympic games are trying to show that they have support, by publicizing via their web sites that public opinion is on their side.

Istanbul claims that 95% of the cities citizens support the games.

Toronto's City Council voted 97% in support of the games and  public opinion  shows 78% of Toronto's residents are in favor of  hosting the games.

Osaka has collected  the signatures of more than a million people in support of the games and 7,500 volunteer community groups (with 120,000 members) are supporting the city's bid.

Paris commissioned a survey of its citizens and 80% of those interviewed were in favor of Paris 2008.

Beijing meanwhile has a poll on their website that claims that 98% of respondents think Beijing should hold the games.  

Beijing has also instituted an internet petition throughout China hoping to collect over a million signatures and submit the signatures on CD-ROM to the IOC in October.

If you thought NBC was bad

NBC took heavy criticism for its delayed Olympic coverage, with events being shown 15-18 hours after they had occurred, resulting in ratings that were the worst since 1968.  NBC, and Dick Ebersol in particular, continued to blame other factors; the internet, the fall rather than summer schedule, instead of their own abysmal coverage.

Suddenly though the 18 hour delays aren't looking so bad. CBS has announced a special two hours of coverage on the Paralympic games, to be aired................................................................December 31st.