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Olympic torch begins world odyssey in Sydney
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-04 15:08
The Olympic torch began its five-continent voyage 70 days before the Athens
Olympics opening ceremony with Cathy Freeman setting off on the Australian leg
of the relay.
Greek community
leader Michael Diamond lights his torch from the Olympic cauldron in
Sydney's Botany Bay June 4, 2004. The Olympic flame is visiting Sydney on
the first leg of its 35-day world tour, visiting 34 cities in 27 countries
before arriving for the opening ceremony in Athens on August 13.
[Reuters] |
Freeman, the 400-metre Olympic
champion and face of the last Olympics in Sydney in 2000, took possession of the
Olympic flame and set off amidst thousands of cheering Sydneysiders at the
landmark Opera House on Sydney Harbour.
Sydney is the first of 33 cities around the world where the symbol of the
Olympic Games will visit in the countdown to the lighting of the flame in the
Olympic cauldron in Athens on August 13.
The torch touched down on a chartered Boeing 747 dubbed Zeus just before dawn
and was taken to the Opera House where an official ceremony featuring Greek
Australian schoolgirls acting as 'goddesses' carrying olive branches and painted
Aboriginal dancers symbolised the union of two ancient civilisations.
A choir sang the Olympic hymn in Greek and New South Wales state Premier Bob
Carr officially welcomed the Olympic flame to Sydney, home of one of the most
successful modern Games four years ago.
"I believe, we all should believe that in the heart of humankind there burns
a flame like this one," Carr told the gathering as the sun rose over Sydney.
"A flame of understanding that wishes no-one ill-will, that meets on equal
ground in honour of contest where no blood is shed and no race is cheated, where
the laurels go to the swift and strong."
Greek flags fluttering among the crowd underlined the sizeable Greek
community in Australia, where according to census figures there are almost
287,000 citizens either born in Greece or with at least one Greece-born parent
among the 20 million population.
There was a reminder of the heightened state of security in the intervening
years since the last Olympics with the presence of a police launch in Sydney
Cove, a number of helicopters hovering overhead and extra police numbers around
the Opera House site.
Freeman, who lit the Olympic flame at the Sydney Games opening ceremony, then
took possession of the torch from an Athens official.
Australia's 31-year-old aboriginal sporting darling proceeded down the steps
of the Opera House and around the Sydney Cove precinct to the first changeover
with former Olympic champion swimmer Susie O'Neill.
O'Neill ran to a Olympic fund-raising breakfast where she in turn passed the
flame on to Paralympic wheelchair champion athlete Louise Sauvage.
" I'm really proud, very proud to be here today carrying the flame and
hopefully uniting the world," Freeman told reporters.
"I'm very proud of my history, my Olympic history, not just because I won a
gold medal in Sydney, just because I'm an Olympian and all of the messages that
the Olympic movement are all about are really special to me."
The torch will be relayed around Sydney throughout Friday between Australian
sporting figures and citizens, including Olympic greats, Dawn Fraser, Raelene
Boyle and Kieren Perkins.
An Olympic canoeist was to sail the flame by dragon boat to Sydney Olympic
Park where the final torchbearers will hand over to former Australian Test
cricket captain and Australian of the Year Steve Waugh for the lighting of the
cauldron just after sunset.
The flame will then be flown by charter jet to Melbourne, home of the 1956
Olympics and said to be the third largest Greek-speaking city in the world
outside of Athens and Thessalonki, for more festivities on Saturday before it
heads to Tokyo and then Beijing, which is to host the 2008 Olympics.
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