Word: atlantae
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...cost of getting Down Under, the organizers of the Sydney Games offered to pay air fares for all athletes and officials who planned to attend. A record number accepted. More than 11,100 athletes are participating in the Sydney Games, up from the 10,310 who showed up in Atlanta in 1996. But the Village was designed to house only 10,200 athletes, so officials had to scramble to add beds, doubling and tripling up people in rooms. But free travel is not the only reason for the growth of the Games. The International Olympic Committee can't resist adding...
...will take more than symbols to rekindle an Olympic spirit dampened in recent times by dishonor and disgrace. And after Atlanta, Sydney was anxious to produce a Games uncluttered by commercialism or catastrophe. If the opening ceremony is anything to go by, it might just succeed. As the helicopters, 47 TV cameras, 110,000 pairs of eyes in the stadium and billions around the world zeroed in on Homebush, it was clear that nothing had been left to chance. "Don't forget to look for your audience leader," the crowd was told before proceedings began, "to know when exactly...
...Compared with Atlanta's handover ceremony four years ago, when inflatable kangaroos bounced on bicycles, Sydney's show was relatively cringe-free. "It was everything we wanted and more," said Sydneysider Heather Georgulis, speaking for many. "It was very Australian and made you proud to be an Australian." With 120 stockmen on horseback, 900 indigenous performers and 100 lawn mowers variously arabesquing across the stage, the mood called to mind a backyard corroboree. Stilt walkers and flaming Ned Kellys added levity, and complex logistics were made to look like child's play. "I wasn't scared," said aerial star Nikki...
...Indeed, the results, in the events and in spectacle, were so good that by Sunday morning the host nation was already declaring victory over the Games of Atlanta. Australia's opening ceremony not only had ceremony but also offered substance in twin dramas of national and international reconciliation. When Aboriginal Cathy Freeman, a favorite in the 400-meter run, crossed a pond of water to light the Olympic flame, she symbolically bridged a racial divide that has tainted and tormented Australia. And during the parade of athletes, the teams of South and North Korea entered as one, two bitter enemies...
...bridge. Restaurants and hotels filled, athletes sprouted in multicolored warm-up suits, photo ops clogged the botanical gardens. The sunny phrase "no worries," a curious affirmation against doomfulness, was heard over and over, as was a new quintessentially Australian sentiment: " 'Ey, all we 'ave to do is beat Atlanta! Not a very...