AUSTRALIA: SYDNEY OLYMPICS: PRESSER

(15 Sep 2000) English/Nat
XFA
After a thrilling opening ceremony to the 2000 Olympic Games, the organisers and selected performers spoke about the show at a press conference in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The explanation for the slight glitch that delayed the raising of the Olympic flame was hydraulic failure.

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After the first Olympics of the new millennium was formally opened in Sydney , the organisers and selected performers of the Opening Ceremony attended a press conference.

An estimated 4 billion (b) people watching worldwide saw the extravaganza.

The highlight was the lighting of the flame which unfortunately bore the only glitch of the evening.

There was a three minute-delay from the point that the runner, Cathy Freeman, lit the cauldron to it actually being lifted into place atop the Olympic Stadium.

Freeman carried the torch into the middle of the pool and lit a ring of fire around her.

The cauldron was then raised above her by hydraulics where it stuck for a brief time.

Organisers admitted to a hydraulic failure which engineers worked on in the dark to solve.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We're not sure exactly how they solved the problem, there was a connection problem, and as I said it was always designed to stop at that point. Obviously no one had seen it until tonight, but the lift of the cauldron happens in three stages - the release from the pond, then the second stage which is the move through the audience and then the final lift. It was always, and if you looked at the structure, that was the way it was meant to happen. The exchange between the first and second movements was where the delay occured."
SUPER CAPTION: David Atkins, Artistic Director

The procedure of lighting the flame amid a pool and waterfall was an ambitious artistic engineering project that many people worked on to bring to fruition.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The moment people saw it they were so captivated and so excited by the idea that the engineers, the architects, the designers, the hydraulic engineers, the gas engineers, a vast number of people who normally don't work on projects quite as exotic as this, not one of them ever questioned the idea of it and for that we have a huge amount of gratitude."
SUPER CAPTION: Ric Birch, Director of Ceremonies

Thirteen-year-old Nikki Webster played a central role in the ceremony as an Australian 'Alice in Wonderland', who swam through a 3-D underwater world and watched Australia through the ages.

She was able to keep the details of her role in the show secret from her parents.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well they kept asking and I said it won't be a surprise if I tell you. And they were lucky enough to get tickets to watch and I just phoned my Mum and she was crying and so was my Dad, so they were very excited."
SUPER CAPTION: Nikki Webster, performer

Even seasoned performers found the atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium made them nervous.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I was just focusing on not tripping-up on the way down the stairs and just the people that were there, the excitement and the feeling was so amazing in there you couldn't think beyond it. It was fantastic."
SUPER CAPTION: Olivia Newton-John, Singer

Australian crooner John Farnham slapped hands with the athletes as he sang a duet with Newton-John.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: John Farnham, Singer

The ceremony packed with stunning effects and memorable moments from the outset is one the participants and the audience will remember for a long time.

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