This time 25 years ago, Sydney, and Australian officialdom, were exhibiting signs of performance anxiety. The opening of the 2000 Olympic Games was a matter of weeks away. Pre-emptive knocking stories had revelled in the 2 million tickets which remained unsold, a rift in the organising committee and even whether the closing ceremony should feature a troupe of drag queens dressed in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert-style regalia. The city was also about to undergo a mass exodus, with Sydneysiders fleeing town. To advertise out-of-town rental properties, this very masthead used the tagline “Escape the Olympics”.

IllustrationCredit: Joe Benke

Then came the opening ceremony, with its joyous reframing of the national story. Rarely, if ever, had it been rendered in such a playful, soulful, inclusive and rancour-free way. What better prelude for the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” euphoria and per capita pride that followed, during which Ian Thorpe glided through the pool to victory and Cathy Freeman almost levitated above the track. Juan Antonio Samaranch, the then president of the International Olympics Committee, declared Sydney “the best Olympics Games ever.” Australia had not only passed a test but aced it.

In a country in which sport has always been “a prime metaphor for Australian life”, as Robert Hughes put it in the 2000 Olympic souvenir programme, athletic carnivals were freighted with more meaning and thus had the potential to be nation-changing. Almost a half century earlier, that had........

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