Sally Pearson: Brisbane 2032 must ‘avoid embarrassing Australia on the world stage’

As Paris 2024 draws to a close, it’s clear Australia has a huge amount of work to do to avoid embarrassment on the world stage, writes Sally Pearson.

The Brisbane Olympics need to lift their game.

COMMENT

Paris is an iconic city, its beautiful scenery is the envy of any other Olympic Games in the past and near future.

How can you beat the setting for the 20km walk? Well you probably won’t in Los Angeles in 2028 and not in Brisbane 2032 either.

The event was a 1km loop along the picturesque Pont d’Alene and under the Eiffel Tower. You can’t get much more special than that.

The in-stadium events for athletics was held in the iconic Stade de France which was famously created for the 1998 football world cup held in France.

Its seating capacity is 80,000 and on the first morning session of the athletics at these Olympics, which was showcased around the world to millions of TV viewers, had a packed-out stadium of 75,000 people, all cheering for their favourite athletes.

The French fans are loud, they’re boisterous and they love their sport.

Nina Kennedy secured Australia’s 18th gold in the Stade de France. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Sally Pearson has concerns about the 2032 Brisbane Olympic stadium.. Pic. Phil Hillyard

Athletics at the Los Angeles Olympics four years from now in 2028 will be held in the famous LA Memorial Coliseum with a capacity crowd of 77,500 people.

What will we see at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, which will also be showcased to millions of TV viewers across the world?

Well, that now-infamous stadium is called Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC for short) located in Mt Gravatt. So far, even the name doesn’t get me excited.

And Brisbane 2032 will have the 40,000 capacity Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, Mount Gravatt.

The Stade de France has been a spectacle for the athletics. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

The Queensland government is determined not to invest billions in new venues for the 2032 Olympics, instead committing funds for cost of living relief measures.

Premier Steven Miles announced he would scrap a $3.4 billion plan to build a new inner-city stadium in Victoria Park in time for the Olympics.

The change in approach, from the same Labor government that successfully backed a bid for the Games, been widely criticised.

It comes after recent calls for there to be a permanent host city for the Olympics, amid growing cost and sustainability concerns.

Bondi Beach has some competition for best beach volleyball venue in Olympic history. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

A general view of the Chateau de Versailles during the show jumping. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

I attended two Olympics. Beijing in 2008 in the outstanding Birds Nest arena where I won a famous silver medal and London in 2012 where I won gold.

Both of these stadiums had the capacity to seat 80,000 people. Now I’m not sure of the exact number of people that were in attendance on those nights but I can tell you the empty seats were hard to spot from the track.

The sound from the crowd was electric, it was deafening and it was exciting, it gave you the lift that you needed to perform at your best.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be the Olympic Stadium in 2028. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images/AFP.

Sally Pearson says Australia’s third Olympics deserves better. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Australians pride themselves on their sporting prowess, we boast that we love our sport, we always enjoy a big event and we always love to support a big event.

The world enjoys Australia, they love our lifestyle, our sunny disposition and that fact that our kids ride kangaroos to school. They also love the fact that we know how to have a good time and love to put on a show.

Brisbane will be hosting the fastest sprinters in the world in the blue riband event, the showmen and women of our sport — the peacocks, as some like to affectionately call them.

And at this stage if nothing changes the finals of the 100m sprint events will be staged in front of packed out crowd of, wait for it, 40,000 spectators ….

The Sydney Olympics, named the best Olympic Games ever, had a record number of 110,000 spectators that excitedly went along to watch Cathy Freeman famously win the women’s 400m final.

Australia needs to set the stage for another Cathy Freeman moment. (Photo by JEFF HAYNES / AFP)

Surely Brisbane 2032 can do better than QSAC. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The aftermath saw a frenzy of little athletes running around wanting to be the next Champion. I was one of them.

Brisbane will have a lot to live up to particularly for the number one Olympic sport to give the athletes what they deserve which is, the crowds electric atmosphere.

That feeling created by the atmosphere is something you can’t bottle and its only felt by the ones who experience it live in the stadium.

It’s hard to beat a home nation athlete when you have 80,000 people against you.

Come on Brisbane let’s give our athletics athletes something to get excited for, and let’s create a whole new generation of champion athletes just like Sydney did.

If Brisbane organisers want to avoid embarrassing Australia on the world stage they have a long way to go.

Sally Pearson is an Olympic gold medallist and one of Australia’s greatest ever track and field athletes. The former world champ is writing exclusively with news.com.au during the Paris Olympics

Originally published as Sally Pearson: Brisbane 2032 must ‘avoid embarrassing Australia on the world stage’