Special Olympic Moments # 1

There are many special moments that make up an Olympic Games but what just occurred at the end of the 800 metres final for men, to me defines what the games are about.

To me it said, I am your opposition, but most of all I am your friend.

When Bungei of Kenya just won the 800 metres he used every last bit of energy to remain ahead of Ismael of Sudan. After the race Bungei laid on the track to catch his breath and for a moment seemed quite distressed.

Ismael, gracious in defeat, came over to Bungei to speak with him, then helped Bungei to his feet with his arm wrapped around him. It was almost as if to say, I am sorry I had to push you so hard.

To me that's what the games are all about. Enemies in battle with their own limitations, and with each other, but friends forever.

Volunteers in Beijing

Our wonderful foundation members Laurie and Barbara Smith have been volunteering in Beijing. They were kind enough to drop us a line ...

"
We have a volunteer job with the AOC in the village working with Michael Mercer in admin in the area Jayme will live in. The village is fantastic and there is even a pool for the team to relax in as well as all the usual things.

So far the temperature is better than Athens so that is great.

The people have gone out of there way to make you feel welcome but most volunteers have no idea of what information to tell you and most can't speak English unless they are working in the village.

The taxi drivers are the same. You must have your address written in Chinese and the location of where you want to go as well and then there is a one in three chance you will get to the right location."

May Luncheon Photos

Click on Flipbook to browse through the photos. Click the photos to the left or right to scroll forward or back. Click the centre photo to view the original.

Participation

Today's events reminded me of the importance of the word participation.

No doubt many have read by now the news of a prominent Australian withdrawing from the Beijing Olympic Torch relay in Canberra to be held on Thursday. This post goes beyond the barriers that separate, and dictate the why's and wherefore's of this action. It is a personal thing for someone to make a protest, and for making it in a peaceful manner the person should be congratulated, whether you agree with it or not.

Participation? It's at the heart of sport, and in the heart of the worlds volunteers.

Where would sport, the Olympics and so many other events be without the unbridled enthusiasm of the worlds do-ers, thinkers, and passionate citizens.

Regardless of whether one agrees with the Olympics being held in China or not, it's important to recognise that there are participants, do-ers and achievers, striving to make this event a success. Indeed, it will be a success, because of them and the athletes in this great festival of sport, and fellowship.

It's time to remember what this is all about, the Olympic Games and the glory of sport, not the political machinations of a host nation.

[Peter - Editor]

Beijing 2008 Volunteer Manuals Launched

The volunteer manual for volunteers at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has been made available on-line via the Beijing website. The following links point to the various sections of the manual and make very interesting reading. (Note : You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read these, and I'd recommend a fast internet connection.)

Cover
Contents
Volunteers and Volunteering
Olympic Movement and Volunteers
BEIJING 2008 and Volunteering
Organisation and Administration
Volunteer Positions and Requirements
Volunteering Skills
Olympic Cities

Beijing's Smile Wristband

The "International Version" of Beijing's Volunteer "Smile Wristband" has been launched at the New Year Celebrations on the site of Beijing's Drum Towers.

The wristbands feature the words "Volunteers Smile - Beijing's Image", the logo's of the Olympic and Paralympic games, and a bar code.

FULL STORY

Sydney Olympic Games Volunteers Mark 7th Anniversary

Volunteers from the Spirit of Sydney Group commemorated the 7th Anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with a celebratory lunch at the Noble Dragon Restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown on Saturday 15th September.



The group was honoured to have present, Sandy Hollway, (former CEO of the Sydney Organising Committee - SOCOG), who shared with us his wonderful memories of the best games ever. Sandy also spoke about the business opportunities Australian industry gains from showing the world how we handle large events.

Presentations were also made by Rosemary Mula who spoke about her experiences volunteering at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. In the absence of Daniel Beniston, Rosemary also shared information about accommodation choices and pricing in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games. Rosemary then spoke about London 2012 and the opportunities she has from being associated with teams at the Pan-Am games.

Team poet, Vera Rothwell, came out of retirement to write an inspirational poem that brought back so many memories of the Opening Ceremony. Vera also mentioned that the pen-pal program she started with Atlanta 1996 volunteers, could be restarted with volunteers in London.

Special thanks go out to Mavis Booth, our e-Mail Co-Ordinator and Social Secretary who once again has co-ordinated our lunch and meeting to perfection. Thanks also to our Treasurers and Administration Co-Ordinators, Ralph and Joan Stilgoe who again helped to make the day such a wonderful success.

Finally, to the excellent staff and owners of the Noble Dragon Restaurant, a hearty well done! Your food, and great service continues to make us all happy, content and rolling out the door with big smiles on our faces. The Noble Dragon is in Chinatown, at the corner of Dixon and Little Hay Street, Sydney.

From a personal perspective, I am still amazed and inspired by this wonderful groups of friends, once strangers, but brought together by the Olympic Games in 2000. Each of you, through your volunteer efforts continue to make us all proud, and keep our spirit alive. Let there be many more anniversaries of this great moment in Australian history. (Peter Konnecke).

The next meeting of our group will be held on Saturday 16th February 2008.

Tags: sydney 2000 volunteers, sydney 2000 olympic games, olympic volunteers, australian volunteers, volunteers, sydney volunteers, spirit of sydney, spirit of sydney volunteers, spiritofsydney, peter konnecke, konnecke, spiritofsydney.com, beijing 2008, beijing olympics, 2008 olympic games, beijing 2008 olympic games

Remember Sydney 2000

Our resident poet Vera Rothwell has been at it again writing another excellent poem recapturing the Spirit of Sydney during the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Tags: olympics, paralympics, sydney2000, spirit of sydney, volunteers

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Do you remember that night in September,

When all of our dreams came true,

When the horse reared on high against the night sky

And the world was enthralled - where were you?

Were you part of the crowd, cheering out loud?

Feeling your heart burst with pride?

Or were you watching at home with family around?

Feeling that warm glow inside.

Did your heart skip a beat when the flag was unfurled

To flutter so high in the sky?

When the athletes marched in did you feel that the world

Should always be on the same side?

Did you rise to your feet when the Aussies marched in?

Was there a quiet tear or two?

At what we’d achieved, all the work we’d put in

Did it mean that much to you?

When the crowd roared as one to welcome the Flame

Did you feel it’s warmth in your heart?

When Cathy stepped forward did you shout out her name

Then pray for the damn thing to start?

Do you think back to that time and “remember when?”

People were friendly, trains ran on time

Do you sometimes wish we could go back to then,

And follow along the blue line.

So, do you remember that night in September?

Does your heart still swell with pride?

I’ll never forget, I’ll always remember

It will be with me till I die.

Olympic families Tour Beijing

One of the more unusual promotional activities BOCOG is using to promote the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is an online contest to select ten families to tour the Olympic facilities before the games.

Click here to read the story

Technorati Tags: beijing 2008, olympic games, olympics

50 Olympic Logos from 1924 till 2016

50 Olympic Logos from 1924 till 2016

And now, lets look at the Olympic logo designs from the past (1924) till (2016) alphabetically displayed.It';s an interesting look at the past, the proposed, and the future of Olympic design. The alternative London 2012 design isn't bad either, but there's not a lot you could do with it shape wise. There's no real shape.

Technorati Tags: olympic games, olympics, london2012, peter konnecke, spirit of sydney

Volunteering For The 2010 Olympics

Volunteering for Vancouver 2010

A great story about the people who are willing to devote their time and energies to make the 2010 Olympic Winter Games a success. By 2008, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) will begin recruiting its 25,000 volunteer workforce.

Technorati Tags: vancouver 2010, olympic games, olympics, volunteers, spirit of sydney

Beijing Interns Tour venues

I'm assuming these interns may be used for escorting dignitaries around the venues or as managers for spectator services. The attached story doesn't speak much of their roles however. They are currently assigned to various departments within BOVOG.

Read the story here

Design your our own London 2012 Logo

LOCOG (London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) is giving the pubic a chance to design their own London 2012 Logo with a very clever feature on it's website.

We've incorporated a link to this on the right hand side of this page which randomly displays some of the design's received so far.

Technorati Tags: london2012, olympics, spirit of sydney, peter konnecke

London's New Brand and Logo

I took the opportunity to post a comment on London's Weblog today in support of the new brand and logo. Whilst it might not be all of our "cups o tea" - it's not hard to remember the days when Sydney's logo was thought of as a chook waiting for it's demise.

- Peter

Post to London Weblog as follows -

Congratulations on the logo launch.

Within it, I see a kaleidoscope of colours, shapes and sizes, (representing all of humanity, it’d be pretty boring if we were all the same). I also see stylised shapes of the continents of the world, representing all of the Olympic Movement.

Like most things new and modern it takes time for it to grow on you. In Sydney many initial comments made about our logo said that it resembles a chicken or a cockatoo. Nevertheless it grew on people, and it was hard to see people at the games not wearing it some way or another. Rest assured your logo will grow in popularity and and you’ll wear it with pride, it is but early days in your journey.

Website Updates

Some of you may receive an item update from the site this evening relating to a story about a Ford Falcon selling for a record price. This message was not an attempt to spam you.

This post was an error on my part and was intended for another news service which I run.

I've placed some new code into our site which will prevent accidental cross posting in future.

On another topic .... London's new logo will launch in the next few hours and I look forward to bringing you all the news as it happens then.

Technorati Tags: peter konnecke, website news, volunteers, spirit of sydney, london2012

Olympic lottery games make £150m

Olympic lottery games make £150m

The UK lotteries which raise money to help run the London 2012 Olympic games have already raised 150 million pounds.

Technorati Tags: london2012, spirit of sydney, olympics

Lunch at the Athenian

504188380
Originally uploaded by Peter Konnecke.

The Spirit of Sydney group celebrated another successful lunch today with guest speakers, Rosemary Owens, and Daniel Beniston.

Rosemary spoke of her extensive experience as a technical official and volunteer with Athletics Australia. Rosemary has travelled the world and relayed to us, her wonderful experiences.

Daniel spoke about his recent trip to Beijing and his enthusiasm for all things Olympic.

Our next meeting is on September 15th, the 7th Anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Technorati Tags: website news, spirit of sydney, sydney2000, peter konnecke, london2012, beijing 2008

London reaching out to Communities

The London 2012 weblog had a post recently about the community programs being run to reach out to the Sikh community in London.

Peter Konnecke from spiritofsydney.com posted a comment on his experiences when he spoke to community groups in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Read the full story by clicking here and visiting the London 2012 weblog.

Technorati Tags: spirit of sydney, london 2012, olympics, london olympics, sydney 2000, volunteers, olympic volunteers, olympic games

Sandy Hollway on London 2012

Sandy Hollway gave a brief interview to the London 2012 Weblog recently. He spoke about London's Olympic plans, and the good progress being made towards delivering a successful games in 2012.

Click here to view the video on-line.

Technorati Tags: london 2012, olympics, olympic games, olympic volunteers, volunteers

Beijing Taxi Ride

scan
Originally uploaded by Peter Konnecke.

Recently we discovered some of the more unusual customs of the next Olympic city. I'm sure they'll "be alright on the night". Nobody ever really fails to deliver the games.

Click the image at the right to read more.

Tags: beijing, beijing 2008, olympics, olympic games, olympic games 2008, 2008 olympic games

2008 Beijing Olympics tickets go on sale

BEIJING, April 16 -- More than seven million very affordable tickets are now on sale for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) announced Sunday. About 75% of the tickets will be sold domestically and the rest will be available to the overseas public.



read more | digg story

IOC proposes four new members

Four new members of the International Olympic Committee ? The IOC has announced four news members to join up.



read more | digg story

Beijing flushes out pubic toilets - Lost in Translation

Have a good laugh at some of the comical translated English of signages and restaurant menus in Beijing.Beijing is undergoing a frenetic makeover of citywide proportions. Urban planners seem to have taken the Olympic motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger" to heart, as construction workers toil to complete Olympic infrastructure on schedule.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: beijing 2008, olympics, olympic games, spirit of sydney, peter konnecke

Lasting Legacy for Sydney

The following letter was shared with us recently. It was written by Sandy Hollway, the former CEO of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Organising Committee, in response to a suggestion made by an article which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 31st, 2007. The response was not published by the S.M.H.
- Peter Konnecke (Webmaster)

Dear Sir,

Given the amount that has happened in the past six years, it is hardly plausible to blame the alleged decline in the New South Wales economy on the spending for the Olympic Games (SMH 31 January).

The net cost of the Olympic Games to the New South Wales Government was, for the biggest event on earth, a creditably low $1.3 billion spread over the years of preparation. The event itself was financed largely from around $2.6 billion obtained from broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticket sales and merchandise. The private sector contributed $1.1 billion of the $3 billion of construction costs.

In fact, for this investment, Australia gained an increase to GDP estimated at $6 billion. We acquired the world-class sporting venues which a growing Sydney needed for community use, as well as commercial benefit. The Games stimulated inward investment and export, and Australia has become an impressive supplier of smart services to other events around the world. The Games dramatically elevated Sydney's international brand and recognition as the Anholt-GMI index shows.

In any event, it is recognised these days that the Games need to be evaluated on the basis of a triple bottom line -- economic, social and environmental. The Olympics was the catalyst for large-scale remediation at Sydney Olympic Park, and necessary infrastructure development such as the Eastern Distributor.

What ,I think, is true is that maximising the legacy from the Olympics requires a sustained, aggressive follow-through --in the development of new tourism product, high-quality architecture and building, infrastructure investment, environmental innovation, and so on. We could probably have used a bit more of that since the Games, but the legacy has still been overwhelmingly positive.

People are entitled to feel very good about the Sydney Olympics for cold, hard objective reasons, not just the fact that it was a great party.

Technorati Tags: sydney2000, spirit of sydney, volunteers, peter konnecke, olympic games, olympics

Chinese Advisor wants Bible in Hotel Rooms

Chinese media have reported that a political advisor wants Bibles to
be placed in hotel rooms over the period of the Olympic Games when they
take place in Beijing in 2008.

Liu Banyan, vice-president of the state-sanctioned China Patriotic

Catholic Association, believes placing the Bibles in the hotel rooms
would help repair China’s reputation abroad as a religiously intolerant
country, the Xingu news agency reported.

Read More

Technorati Tags: , beijing 2008, olympic games, olympics, spirit of sydney, peter konnecke

Beijing Olympic Parade

2008 Balloons
Originally uploaded by Sam Proof.

Hollywood hosted a Beijing 2008 Olympic parade this past week, and celebrated the Year of the Pig in style.

Vancouver 2010 News

We've started reporting news from Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Just in case anyone is interested. It's sure to be a wonderful event.

Technorati Tags: vancouver 2010, olympics, olympic games

AOC Announces Funding Increase for AYOF

The Australian Olympic Committee has announced a major funding increase for the 2009 and 2011 Australian Youth Olympics Festivals.
Read More

Team GB hails success at AYOF

Britain's success at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney has been hailed as very encouraging for Team GB's chances at London 2012.

Read More

GB and Australia agree 2012 Deal

Britain and Australia have struck a deal to help both nations compete against the "sporting superstate" of China at the 2012 London Olympics.

The deal will see Australian athletes compete in events in London before 2012 and British youngsters take part in the Australian Youth Olympics.
Read more here

Technorati Tags: beijing 2008, spirit of sydney, peter konnecke, london2012

AOC Appoints Ticket and Travel Partner

Global Sports Consultants LLC, which does business in Australia under the brand name of CoSport, announced today the conclusion of a sponsorship agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee (“AOC”) and the Australian Olympic Team as the official sponsor for hospitality programs, management services, corporate and consumer ticket and travel packages, and individual tickets through the 2012 Olympic Games.
Read more here

Sherpas to carry Olympic torch atop Mt Everest

The unveiling of a plan this week by Beijing to do a rehearsal this Spring for next year’s Olympic torch relay atop Mount Everest, or ‘Qomolangma’ in Chinese, has Nepal’s sports and mountaineering authorities excited.
Read more here

Dive team rebuilds for Beijing

AUSTRALIA head diving coach Hui Tong has described the Melbourne world championships as a stepping stone for the national team as it rebuilds for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Read more here

Beijing edict: Be nice or else!

In preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing is intent on putting on a new face. The city, home to 15.3 million people, is building a 91,000-seat Olympic Stadium and "Water Cube" aquatic center, among other curiosities.
Read More Here

Vancouver Volunteers

According to the Vancouver 2010 website, volunteer applications will open in 2008. Some of our readers might be inclined to look to Vancouver for their fix of Olympic spirit in the time between now and London in 2012.

Technorati Tags: vancouver 2010, volunteers, peter konnecke, spirit of sydney

Australian Youth Olympic Festival

With 11 days to go, the Australian Youth Olympic Festival preparations are in their final stages.

Spirit of Sydney will be there on two fronts. Some of our members are volunteering at the events, whilst Peter Konnecke will be staying in Olympic Park as a spectator taking lots of pictures for our site, and also at the Opening Ceremony on January 17th.

Stay tuned for more updates and posts as the Festival begins.

Technorati Tags: ayof, peter konnecke, spirit of sydney, olympics, olympic games

Hopes rise for a single Korean Team at Beijing

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The IOC said on Friday it was pleased with the progress made by North and South Korea on the prospect of having a joint team for the 2008 Beijing Games.

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Volunteers Rush to London 2012

Organisers of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics have announced that more than 100,000 people have signed up to be volunteers at the event.


Read Full Story

Technorati Tags: london2012, olympic games, olympics, peter konnecke, volunteers, spirit of sydney

2012 Olympic Hopefuls Set for Sydney

Some of Britain's best young athletes are set to get a taste of international competition at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

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