Yes, I'm an Olympic nut

Hello wanderlusters!

Today I’ve decided to blog about a different kind of wanderlust. Time travelling wanderlust! Sounds weird right? I guess it is, but it’s something I think about occasionally. No I’m not a Back to the Future movie lover, I’m just a really nostalgic person by nature, and while I’ve had an amazing adult life, I had an even better childhood, and often think to myself that if given the opportunity, I would happily go back and do my childhood alllllll over again. Why? Because it was the most simple, idyllic, happiest time of my life. I had a kick ass childhood, and I would be the luckiest person out if I could go back and do it over.

Anyways, but that’s not what I’m going to write about today. As much as I would like to regale you with stories of my childhood (nahhhh I wouldn’t do that to you….much) I wanted to find out from my readers what time periods they would like I go back to. Would you like to go back to just a day last week that was awesome? Would you go back to your high school or university days? Your travelling days? Is there a particular event in time you would like to go back to and relive, or be a part of (because you weren’t actually alive or old enough when it actually happened to enjoy it and be part of it)? Is there a place or a day or a group of people you’d like to be standing amongst again?

I have a couple, one of which I reckon I’ll tell you about today. As an Olympic Games tragic, I would love to go back and be old enough (perhaps 22 or 23 years old) to be in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics. I was only 14 when these Olympics were on, but I distinctly remember the build up all year to that September day when they began. I remember racing home from school to watch the Opening Ceremony. I remember my Dad shaking me awake the morning after the opening and saying ‘We’ve won our first medal! We’ve won our first medal!’. I remember holding my breath as I watched Cathy Freeman run in the rain for her gold medal in the 400m. I watched so much sport during those two weeks that it was scary, and let me tell you, my addiction had begun.

 

 

Now I’m not even a hugely sporty person. In school I played quite a few sports, but as an adult I only occasionally get out my tennis racket for a hit on my lonesome against a wall down at the local courts. But something about Sydney – maybe it wasn’t even really the sport at all – just hooked me in. I loved the excitement that seemed to be radiating all over the city during that time. I loved how many new people came to Sydney for the first time, and discovered my home country with wide eyes. I loved how god damn Aussie proud we all felt during the Olympics. I loved the whole nation getting behind Thorpey and Cathy. I loved how Sydney put on the greatest show on earth from opening to closing ceremony. Heck, I even loved the excited commentary voices of Bruce McAvaney and Sandy Roberts (still do, actually).

 

And ever since those Olympics I have wished that I could’ve lived in Sydney during that time. I wish I could’ve been in my twenties and maybe just doing some waitressing or bar job, but just BEING THERE during the Olympics. To be able to have felt personally swept up in the excitement of the world’s greatest sporting event right in my backyard. To have said hello and given directions on the street to foreign visitors in Sydney for the Games. To have sat at a vantage point in the city and watched the Opening Ceremony on a live screen and then stared in awe at the fireworks spewing out everywhere all over the harbour. To have gotten a cheap ticket to an event – any event – and witnessed the greatest sports men and women in the world battling it out in the greatest moment of their lives.

Yes that's me geeking out during a Stadium
Australia tour on the actual medal
dias used during 2000

I just wish I could’ve been there, in Sydney, for that whole month of September, so that I could’ve been happily swept up in it all. Swept up in all the excitement of this once in a lifetime event. Because dare I say it, it’s going to be a very long time before the Olympics are held in Australia again. I may not even be alive for it.

I recently had my VHS tapes of the Opening Ceremony converted onto DVD. Yes that’s right, fifteen years after the event, I did it. And it cost me $250. But it was worth it to have that glorious beginning moment of our golden era of sport and life – a wonderful, simpler time before September 11, before global financial meltdowns, before SARS and swine flu and wars on terror – on a DVD to be able to watch forever and one day show my own children. Maybe that’s cheesy and lame, but I don’t care. My friends have always said I’m the most patriotic person they’ve ever met, and this proves it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sydney Olympics also made me fall in love with the city of Sydney itself, and played a huge part in my wanting to visit it on holiday for the first time in 2007, then countless times after until I finally moved there in 2013. The first time I ever caught the train to Olympic Park, hired a bike and cycled around the vast area all day long was the closest I’ve ever felt to being at an Olympics. I stopped at an intersection right outside the main stadium on my bike and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to picture what it would’ve been like in 2000. Tried to imagine the sounds of thousands of people milling around from every corner of the globe. Tried to imagine the smell of food for sale and the feeling of a brilliant Sydney spring day on my shoulders and face. Tried to imagine the sight of flags waving in the breeze, sports fanatics dressed up in their finest green and gold, pin traders doing deals with each other, exhilarated faces of fans emerging from venues at the end of gripping matches or races. Tried to imagine the energetic vibe that would’ve been pulsating through the entire area during those seventeen days in September. I wish I could’ve been part of it.

 

Photo cred: Australian Olympic Team Facebook page

 

This Tuesday will be fifteen years since the Sydney games began - and less than one year to go until Rio. This time I'm not going to miss out...I'll be in Rio, waving that green and gold proudly. Details to come!

In the meantime, check out this nostalgic article that is fluffy as hell but made me well up with pride... http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news/sydney-2000-the-time-of-our-lives-15-years-ago

What era do you wish you could go back to? Leave me a comment and let me know! I’d love to hear from you!

Your Olympic nut,

Jorgs

P.S I wrote this entry whilst sitting at a corner desk on the second floor of the City of Sydney Library in Haymarket, and the entire time I typed, I could hear a busker down on the street below playing Waltzing Matilda. Coincidence? I think not.

 

The Boxing Kangaroo is my spirit animal, of course!