2000 Olympics: Cauldron lit 20 years after historic Games
The Olympic Cauldron has been lit 20 years after the heart-stopping moment where Cathy Freeman opened the historic Sydney 2000 Games, but she says she was reluctant to do it.
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Twenty years after Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron at the 2000 opening ceremony, Sydney’s Olympic flame has been reignited – and this time it went off without a hitch.
On the 20th anniversary of the “greatest Games ever,” the Australian Olympic Committee re-created the memorable moment yesterday, as best as COVID would allow, at Sydney Olympic Park.
Two decades ago Freeman who had been smuggled into the Olympic stadium under a blanket for rehearsals, was unveiled as the secret final torch bearer after a parade of great Olympians.
But the spellbinding moment was almost derailed by a mechanical malfunction which halted the lit cauldron’s planned ascent to the roof of the stadium. For several excruciating minutes Freeman held the flame aloft and the world held its breath before the hydraulic conveyor finally shuddered to life.
Freeman, who went on to win the 400m gold medal in the defining event of the Games, is in locked down Melbourne and had to be content with sending a video message yesterday as the honours were done by Paralympian Tamsin Colley and Indigenous basketballer Tenayah Logan. Taking no risks, they didn’t even need to touch the torches to the cauldron to induce its flames.
Freeman remembered she was initially a reluctant torch bearer.
“When Coatsey (AOC President John Coates) asked me to do the honours, I was really taken aback. There were a few other people who I thought were so deserving of the honour,” she said.
“At the time, I was also more concerned with my body’s health and making sure I was getting enough rest.
“It wasn’t until I got to Sydney, in those days before the Opening Ceremony that I started to think, ‘OK I have to be in this moment’.”
Freeman said she was proud that her role had been a symbol of hope for young Australians. “It is at times like this that I simply reflect and I wonder at the power of sport and the difference that sport can make in our lives.”
As they did in 2000, friendly Akubra-wearing volunteers were on hand to usher in the small crowd that included Olympic and Paralympic legends Ian Thorpe and Louise Sauvage.
Thorpe recalled watching the ceremony on television, while he stayed home to prepare for the 400m freestyle heats scheduled on day one of the Games.
“It’s amazing that 20 years have passed, for people to have the chance to reminisce at a time when, it was a great time for Sydney and the country, when everyone was celebrating what had been a long build-up to the Games,” Thorpe said. The five-time Olympic gold medallist said he felt for athletes dealing with the postponement of Tokyo 2020 and hopes the Games will go ahead next year.
Sauvage won nine Paralympic gold medals, but still counts lighting the cauldron at Sydney’s Paralympics as one of her greatest achievements. “I’m always going to be extremely biased about Sydney … it really turned the Paralympics Games around,”.