The Paralympic Games (eBook)

2 THE FIRE WITHIN: THE SYDNEY 2000 PARALYMPIC GAMES OPENING CEREMONY

Karen Richards

INTRODUCTION

Over twelve years ago in 1995 I was involved in the initial planning stages of the Sydney Olympic Games ‘Opening and Closing’ Ceremonies. Throughout this time period it seemed as if everyone wanted to be part of the planning of the Olympic Ceremonies and I felt honoured to be a part of the process. The first task of the Olympic Ceremonies team was to produce the Handover Ceremony for Atlanta. However, it was little known in Sydney at the time that there was the need to produce a handover ceremony for the Paralympic Games. Indeed, while planning was well on the way for the Sydney Olympic Handover Ceremony it suddenly become obvious that someone was needed to produce the handover for the Paralympic Ceremonies. As there were so many people wanting to work on the Olympics it was possible for me to add a more creative space onto the footprint of the Paralympic Ceremonies. However, at this time my commitment to the Paralympic Games was only perceived as short term as I intended to produce the ‘Handover Ceremony’ then return to the Olympic Ceremonies team.

Amazingly one event changed my mind. I had a meeting with a photographer who was waiting for me in the middle of the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta. I couldn’t get to him because a race was in progress and consequently I was short of time and found this race to be a major inconvenience to my daily planning. The race was the 800 metres wheelchair race. Louise Savage (an athlete who writes of her experience elsewhere in the beginning of the text) was battling it out with the American contenders. As they sped past me I saw the raw emotion on their faces and I instantly became hypnotised. I suddenly had a burst of patriotic pride overcame me and I found myself cheering for Louise. It was a really close race and the Australian won. I was elated. I suddenly realised that these athletes and this race had moved me in a way that the “normal” Olympians didn’t. It was quite literally at that moment that I decided to focus on getting the job as the Paralympic Games Director of Ceremonies and to forget about the Sydney Olympic Games.

Whether Paralympic athletes are considered elite athletes or not there is little doubt that being selected as part of the Paralympic team is a major milestone in their lives. Once appointed as the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games Director of Ceremonies I was determined that we would produce a memorable opening ceremony for the once in a lifetime Games.

THE TASK

In the modern era the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony is the first event sold out when tickets for the Games go on sale. When planning for the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony began one of the first questions which I was asked was “how would we attract people to the Paralympic Games?” Part of the brief for the opening was that there must be a draw card as people were unlikely to come just for the event in its own right. The success of the Opening Ceremony would determine the success of the overall Games. We had to attract publicity through the planning and through the use of “big name” performers.

Unquestionably, it’s an enormous task for a city to put on two such large international events in the space of just over a month. The Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremony was on the 15th September 2000, the Sydney Paralympic Opening Ceremony on the 18th October 2000. The budget for the Olympic Opening: in excess of $50m, the budget for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony: $5m. Yet both ceremonies really had the same goals – to launch their respective Games towards a successful outcome.

SOCOG AND SPOC

Lessons learnt from the organization of the two events in Atlanta and in previous cities meant that the SOCOG (Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) and SPOC (Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee) ceremonies teams formed some strong relationships. However, this was not always amicable. In a country the size of Australia there are only a few true international stars. Both ceremonies wanted the same names and this could have an adverse affect to ticket sales for the Paralympic Games. The Olympic Ceremonies didn’t need names to sell tickets. Many artists eventually performed in both the Sydney Olympic Closing Ceremony and the Sydney Paralympic Opening Ceremony. Fortunately this didn’t affect the Paralympic ticket sales.

In actuality it appeared that after the Olympics the people of Sydney wanted more entertainment and the Paralympic Games kept the Olympic euphoria going. The opening ceremony was a sell out – as was the closing ceremony. Numerous people commented that the Paralympic Games were friendly. Families who came to the Games could access the athletes and readily have their photos taken with medal winning athletes. As the athletes entered the stadium in the opening ceremony many were obviously overwhelmed by the reaction from the crowd. Many people also commented that during the athletes parade in the Olympic Games huge numbers of people left the stadium for refreshments. During the Paralympic’s athlete parade most people stayed in their seats and enjoyed the reactions and interaction of the athletes.

Having approximately one tenth of the Olympic Ceremony budget yet having to produce an event suitable for the same size performance space meant the team had to be extremely creative and resourceful. Companies such as the lighting and audio suppliers for the Olympic Games agreed to leave most of the equipment in the stadium without hire fees for the time between the ceremonies. This saved large amounts of money, which would have been charged to set up the equipment. However, there were also problems with being so closely associated with the Olympic Games. Before the Olympic Games begun many SOCOG staff would only focus on their jobs for the Olympic Games. The fact that there was very little time between the two Games did not factor into their decisions to postpone work on the Paralympic Games until the Olympics concluded. Then when the Olympics were over, many of the necessary functional staff were exhausted and took sick leave. This lead to the Paralympic Production team having to work extremely long hours in the lead up to the Games completing planning that could have been finished months in advance. Both ceremonies teams were required to report to a Ceremonies Control group frequently before the ceremonies. This was to ensure all safety measures were under control and to ensure that planning was on track. It was amusing to see the Olympic presentations. They had models and drawings, which probably cost them the total amount of the Paralympic Ceremonies budget. We would go to these meetings which the essential diagrams and would frequently end up scribbling diagrams to explain certain concepts.

Working with the SOCOG ceremonies team also meant that we were privy to their most secret planning. Ric Birch shared with me, well in advance, his plans for lighting the cauldron. I remember him telling me all the details. The cost of this effect was literally more than our entire budget. There would be lots of water pumped up to create a waterfall effect down the grandstand and a ring of fire would be lit as the cauldron was revealed from within the stage. The cauldron would then rise up, tracking through the stands to come to rest high above the Stadium. I asked the question “so how does it come down again so we can reach it to reignite it”. He replied, “It doesn’t – all the equipment would be removed after the opening to allow maximum seating for the rest of the Games”. There was no possible way we could have had someone personally light the Cauldron short of dropping them in by helicopter – and that wasn’t possible because the helicopter would not have been allowed to fly that close to an audience. It was nice of Ric to share this though! Hence we had to develop a special effect way of lighting the cauldron. We spend many hours trying to come up with a spectacular means of lighting the cauldron.

Ironically both the Olympics team and our team had exactly the same idea of a way to extinguish the flame. We approached the Australian airforce first with our suggestion. We found out shortly after that the Olympic’s team had approached them with the same idea. The air force was happy to do the effect for both ceremonies. However, once it had been done for the Olympics we felt it was necessary to come up with another idea for the Paralympics. The effect involved an air force plane flying over the cauldron, then starting the back burn effect. Simultaneous the gas would be turned off the Cauldron extinguishing the flame.

There were hundreds of people in the Olympic Ceremonies team. They occupied a huge amount of space in the stadium. We had a small office and a very dedicated, very small staff. We had to work extremely long hours and I often wanted to apologise to the team for making them have to work so hard. However they were all dedicated to the Paralympic Games and took on the task of creating a big show on a small budget.

THE MOST DISAPPOINTING MOMENTS

As part of the Ceremony we had erected a huge projection screen across one end of the stadium. Wonderful projection images had been developed for this screen. The weather had been extremely hot and many of the production crew working on the field were getting exhausted from working in the heat. A southerly change came through and relief was felt. However, as suddenly as the change had hit, the screen started to rip. I stood in the control room watching this expensive, important part of the ceremony self-destructing. The production...