Sydney 2000 Olympics

Press Room With some of the 755 work stations for print media. In the centre, behind a column, is a cluster of 12 television monitors.

Stephen Roberts was one of five people from around the world who were selected to be Shift Supervisors in the Press Room of the Main Press Centre (MPC) at the Sydney Olympics. The MPC was located in Olympic Park at Homebush Bay, 17km from Sydney. The Press Room was outfitted with 755 media workstations and almost 200 Info Terminals for print reporters from around the world. The facility was one of six buildings at Olympic Park dedicated to supporting journalists. It was reputed to be the largest of its type in Olympic history. It was housed in a converted cattle barn and was within walking (running) distance of Olympic Stadium and 14 of the 28 sports held at the Olympics. Services provided were state-of-the-art, from the loan of manual typewriters, to access to ISDN lines. An outstanding feature were the Info terminals, they were installed and managed by IBM, and provided one stop shopping for reporters and staff. They provided virtually instant event results from all venues. The system provided biographical information on all athletes and historical information on sports. Also, the venue schedules, training sessions, bus routes, and train timetables. Finally it provided an internal e-mail service for athletes, organizers, broadcasters, reporters, and volunteers.

IBM Info terminals for journalists were located at the end of work station rows.

Services for the media included free film processing by Kodak. Camera repair facilities provided by Canon and Nikon. A research centre. Free computer advice by IBM supported by technical repairs which had to be paid for. Lockers could be rented for $20 so photographers could secure their equipment on site. So that reporters could track events at more than one venue from the Press Room, a 100 television monitors were grouped in clusters throughout the area. Each set could be tuned to a different venue, plus show news broadcasts by the BBC, CNN, and the host broadcaster, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. Radio and television broadcasters were housed in building called the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) located on the other side of the Olympic Park. Again this was the largest facility of its type in the history of the Olympics.

Shift hand over Stephen Roberts with Cheryl Dodd, a Shift Supervisor from the United States.

The role of the Supervisors in the Press Room was to co-ordinate the technical support of teams from IBM, Telstra (telephone company), Big Pond (an Internet provider, a branch of Telstra), and SOCOG (the Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games). A team of interpreters covering 30 languages were also on 24 hours call. The raison d'être for the Press Room Help Desk was to ensure that all print reporters were able to file their stories via the Internet and or by fax. If they, the reporters had a problem, the staff were in place to help provide a solution. To that end manual typewriters in English, French, Spanish and German available for loan. Because it had been anticipated that most reporters would use the Internet to file their stories five fax machines had been installed. Within a couple of days, because of demand, this had to be doubled to 10. A number of reporters filed they stories by hand.

While the games ran for seventeen days, from 15 September to 1 October, the MPC was open for business from 15 August. The momentum of activities on site were ramped up in stages, from 2 September until the games started on 15 September. Roberts flew in from Toronto on 30 August, reported for duty on the 31st and worked at Homebush until 3 October.

At the start of the games a number of reporters had computer problems. At one point it appeared that a new Olympic event was evolving and it could have been called the "Laptop Shuffle". The reporter with a terminally sick laptop would head though a crowd of other reporters looking for technical support. In most cases they had to do it before their battery died so they could show the technician what their particular problem was. The trick was to move in such a way so as not to jar their computer. Moving in a shuffle the journalist would carry their laptop balanced on the palm of one hand, with the other one on the screen that was tipped down at a 45 degree angle. As they moved purposefully towards the desk they would be glancing at the screen to ensure the computer was still on, and up again to make sure that nobody blind sided them, and knocked the laptop on the floor.

Everyone involved with the Olympics had to have accreditation to access Olympic Park. Information on it identified buildings and or the venues that the wearer had clearance to enter. A colour coding system also identified whether the person was an athlete, volunteer, journalist, etc. The accreditation also provided free transport on the Olympic bus system and the Sydney Suburban Railway System. All the 45,682 volunteers were issued a uniform consisting of two golf shirts, two pairs of slacks, two pairs of socks, an overcoat, plastic raincoat, a white hat, and butt-pack with a water bottle. The sleeves and the collars on the shirts and coat were colour coded to identify the various job areas:

Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation	Games Services	Technical Officials	Security	Transport	Medical	Spectator Services

The uniform

During the two week lead up to the games Roberts was housed in the Media Village in Lidcombe about 2.5 kilometres from the Olympic Park. The village had almost 6,000 beds for journalists. Just before the major influx of reporters, he and a number of other staff were moved into the student residence of Cumberland College of the University of Sydney.

Dale Brazao's story

Roberts became involved in a conversation with a reporter from Montreal who was having a problem with his computer. According to the IBM representative, the solution to the problem was to send his file to a file server where it could be downloaded and reformatted. Roberts said he was currently on-line to his son, Evan's, file server in Canada. When he handed over his business card with his e-mail address, the reporter noted that Roberts was from Toronto. A Mr. Dale Brazao was stand behind the reporter, said, "Are you from Toronto? What are you doing here?" After being told, he said, "I am from the Toronto Star, and I want to do a story on you". After being interviewed and having a couple of staged photographs taken, Mr. Brazo filed the story back to Canadian were it was printed on the Toronto Star's front page of the GTA section on 11 September.

CBC Metro Morning Interview

Shortly afterwards, Roberts was interviewed live over the phone by Andy Barrie of Toronto's CBC Radio Metro Morning. The interview took place on Wednesday 27 September at 6:15am Toronto time, or because of the difference in time at 9:15pm that evening, the same day, in Sydney.

Some the statistics surrounding the Sydney 2000 Olympics are staggering, Approximately 5,000 athletes from 119 countries took part. There were some 15,000 officials, roughly 5,000 reporters and technical support, and 45,682 people volunteered. Over 4,500 bus drivers from Australia and New Zealand brought in to drive 3,500 buses to move athletes, media and volunteers, from and between the various venues.

Life is a beach in Queensland

Part way through the games Roberts was scheduled to have a four day break. He used the opportunity to fly to Hamilton Island. From there, took a one hour ride in a water taxi to Shute Harbour on the mainland in Queensland. In Shute Harbour it was R&R and SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Closing Ceremony Ticket

The highlight of the time at the Olympics was getting tickets to the Closing Ceremony. Sitting eight rows from the track, and slightly right of centre field was an unforgettable experience. Here are some photographs from the five roles of film shot:

-30- Main Press Centre Manager, Reg Gratton and Roberts at the post Games reflection held at Homebush.

On 5 October the City of Sydney held a thank you parade for the volunteers, thousands of people marched through the downtown to a park for speeches, entertainment, and a free lunch. The Daily Telegraph (a Sydney daily newspaper) published a special edition with photographs of the parade. It also had a pull out section listing the names of the 45,682 people who worked as volunteers.

Some of the volunteers arriving at Sydney's Hyde Park for the start of the Thank You Parade for volunteers through downtown Sydney.		Somewhere in downtown Sydney during the Thank You Parade for volunteers.		The Sydney 2000 Oylmpic volunteers being entertained after the parade.

After the games it was time to travel. Roberts spent a week on the Northern Island of New Zealand. Flying to Auckland, he took a bus trip to Wellington stopping in Rotorua. From Wellington took the train back to Auckland. From there it was back to Sydney for a couple of days, then a flight to Perth in Western Australia. The next morning boarded a bus for a trip up the west coast to Shark Bay. After returning to Perth took a plane to Darwin. After Darwin flew Alice Springs and a three day bus trip that finished up at Ayers Rock. From the Rock returned to Sydney for a day before leaving for a week in Fiji. He left Fiji on a Monday returning to Sydney for the night, then left for Canada via Brisbane, Honolulu, Vancouver, and Toronto. Because the flight was west to east, and the earth rotates the other way, he returned to Toronto the same day as leaving Sydney.

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