NSW Officials remember Sydney Olympics

Published Sat 19 Sep 2020

19 September 2020

NSW Officials remember Sydney Olympics

Twenty years ago this week, Sydney hosted ‘the best Olympics ever’. On competition day seven, September 22, the long wait for the 200 technical officials in athletics was over as the first events commenced. These numbers included 40 NSW officials – the NSW roll of honour is listed below.

In addition to these 40 technical officials many other members of the Athletics NSW family volunteered for the Games in roles ranging from, sports specific positions at the track to press operations, training site venues and meet presentation.

Some memories, highlights and impacts on their life, as told to Lorraine Morgan in 2010:

Peter Reynolds

“An everlasting memory I have is the men’s long jump final where I was the Chief Judge. In round five, event leader at 8.41m Cuban Ivan Pedrosa, fouled, while Jai Taurima leapt 8.49m. Australia was in the gold medal position with one round to go. The crowd erupted. The officials were excited, trying to concentrate on the job at hand. In Round six, Pedrosa, the champion he was, came out and won the event with 8.55 m. This was the best event I have ever officiated.”

Rob Blackadder

“As a Throws Judge during the Olympics my best memory was the “Best Night of Athletics” when standing in the middle of 110,000 people watching Cathy Freeman and being amused by the sight of female shot putters covering their ears while waiting to be introduced to the crowd; the noise was that intense.”

Jill Huxley

Walk Judge. “One moment which wasn’t one of the best was to be involved in the disqualification of Jane Saville in the walk, but in hindsight, she became a great ambassadress of the sport with the way she handled her disappointment and came back stronger than ever.”

Betty Moore

“My job in the Call Room was to call athletes from the warm-up area underneath the grandstand at the main track and send them to the officials who would take them out onto the track to compete in their event.

“How fascinating to watch the different nationalities as they made their way into the Call Room. You could tell the USA team was on their way by the noise level which preceded them; the Germans were tight-lipped and very stern, the Brits were also quite noisy, but in a much more contained way, although they did rival the Americans in the weight of gold chains around their necks. The Spanish team was brash, rude, and very unwilling to obey any request they were given, mainly they claimed, because they did not understand, despite the many languages we tried to talk to them in. The Russians were focused and unsmiling, many of the athletes were completely overawed, but the pick of the bunch were the African athletes, who were quiet, unassuming, very self-contained and greeted everyone with a shy smile.”

John Morris

“A role of the TIC was to photograph each of the team uniforms. When asked, some of the teams didn’t have a uniform, let alone a pair of spikes. TIC personnel quickly developed our own Sydney data base with the most prominent uniform suppliers heading our list. However, there was one team that ran in Sydney club UTS Norths uniform. What great advertising!!!!

“Sydney 2000 was a real ‘buzz’ and the life-long friendships that I developed over this time encouraged me to continue in the sport of athletics and cross country and challenge myself in nominating for chiefs and referees positions. Of major significance was the enhanced empathy and compassion that I developed for AWD athletes. This also reflected in my job as a principal in schools with children experiencing learning difficulties as a result of a physical disability.”

Ian White

“Best moments - there are so many. One was after midnight at the end of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, a walk down Flinders Street to Federation Square, with the South African Team Manager. A couple of beers before he caught an early morning plane home. He had been a TIC customer in Sydney 2000, at Edmonton in 2001 and in Melbourne - always satisfied with the advice and service he received.”

2000 Sydney Olympics – Technical Officials

Ian White Technical Information Centre - Manager

Janelle Eldridge Call Room Officials - Manager

Bruce Brown Call Room Officials - Judge

Denis Coker Call Room Officials - Judge

Ellen Coker Call Room Officials - Judge

Ross Forster Call Room Officials - Judge

Wendy King Call Room Officials - Judge

Janet Naylon Call Room Officials - Judge

Betty Moore Call Room Officials - Judge

Kim Owens Call Room Officials - Judge

Don Pardy Call Room Officials - Judge