30 years on, is Sydney still the winner from 2000 Olympics
Three decades after Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympics, former bid chief Rod McGeoch reflects on the legacy of a Games dubbed the “best ever” by the world.
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It was the Olympic Games that really should never have happened and, were it not for a last-minute change of plans we would be remembering “Melbourne 2000” today.
Now, 30 years on from the bid that changed Sydney forever, the man who spearheaded the charge for the Games believes the legacy from the greatest show on earth has not lived up to expectations.
While former bid chief Rod McGeogh praises the amazing sporting venues and facilities that the Games left us, he concedes Sydney dropped the ball.
“I think there is now an accepted view that we didn’t plan the legacy as well as we should have,” Mr McGeogh said.
“The critics would say it almost felt like we were celebrating the closing of the previous century as opposed to launching the next one.
“I have made that point pretty strongly to the Queensland government (for the 2036 Games) … we probably could have done a lot better than we did.”
A lot was promised and a lot was delivered – the Olympic stadium, for example, was finished by 1997.
But, looking at Olympic Park today, Mr McGeogh can only imagine what should really be there.
“There should be schools, a police station and a hospital and none of those things are there yet 20 years on,” he said.
“It’s still a sporting precinct with a lot of high rises but it hasn’t (been a success) in my view because it’s not finished yet. I don’t know why.”
One of the selling points for the Games was the boost to tourism. But did that eventuate?
“If I look at tourism when we were in the lead-up to those Games, Australia’s intake was four or five million a year and Thailand was at seven million a year,” he said.
“Today we still have not doubled the number and 30 years later Thailand is at 60 million (tourists a year).
“I keep saying if you think we got the full dividend out of the Olympics, how can you be sure when someone else has done four or five times better than us.
“I think the legacy in sporting terms was phenomenal, in non-sporting matter it’s more problematic.”
Mr McGeogh will be a leading speaker at CapTech2023 next month, telling his story of how he went from leading a law firm to winning the rights to host an Olympics down under.
He has a huge passion for the Olympics. He can name every medal winner at the Melbourne 1956 Games.
At the time what we now call Olympic Park was a cattle yard, where tradies dumped their contaminated waste and where we housed some of the most violent female prisoners in the state.
No wonder Mr McGeogh remembers having realistic expectations back then.
“I knew Beijing, Berlin and Manchester were all up against me,” he recalled.
“Berlin had a chance but it was the time the Berlin Wall came down and it was a lovely feeling there. I realised Germany would run a hugely competitive bid.
“I did feel Sydney, as a place to have an event, it’s very hard to beat visually.”
But there should have been no chance at all for Sydney.
In the late 1980s then prime minister Bob Hawke, Olympic bigwigs and representatives from the country’s three major cities agreed that Melbourne should be the 2000 bid.
But Sydney’s powerbrokers — politicians, business leaders and athletes convinced the members of the Australian Olympic Committee to change their minds.
And the rest is history.
The Sydney Games would go on to rewrite records and the rules governing how a major city should host an event.
The way not just Sydney but Australia stepped up to volunteer to make the games run smoothly was seen as the blueprint for success.
However, Australia picking up the $40 million bill to get athletes to travel down under would never happen again.
Still, taekwondo and the triathlon made their Olympic debuts, winning us six more medals since 2000.
More than 3.7 billion people watched the games on TV and some 112,000 people packed Sydney Olympic Park for the Opening Ceremony.
The world was also introduced to Nikki Webster. Her performance on the night was extraordinary and she looked set for stardom – then she released Strawberry Kisses the following year.
After fears we would show the world a bunch of schoolkids dressed as lamingtons or something equally horrifying, the horse riding display was so popular it inspired a stage show that is still going on the Gold Coast.
After losing out to Sydney for the 2000 Games, Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and had an opportunity to back that up two decades later in 2026 – only to spectacularly announce it would no longer host the event earlier this year.
Not only was this a blow for Victoria, that has dented Australia’s reputation on the world stage, Mr McGeogh said.
“As a result of the decision in Victoria, we will have to provide an even stronger assurance it won’t happen again (if another Australian city hosts it),” he said.
“In my time there was never a thought we that we wouldn’t complete out promises. When you win a Games you have got the key to the city
“Don’t ever bloody think we won’t do what we say we’ll do and that’s what Melbourne has put a dent in.
“That’s what Victoria (and Australia) is now going to face: ‘You bloody well prove to us you’re going to do it when you say you are’.”
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