Videos of the Week, Part I: 2000 Summer Olympics

With this being just five days before the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Communist China, I’ll give you various videos from the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the last Summer Games in Athens. Then I’ll give you some promos from the Olympic network partners who are getting ready to bring you this year’s Games so the Videos of the Week will be split into three parts.

This particular post will focus on the 2000 Games in Australia which were run very well and were the best organized since Los Angeles in 1984. Because there are a bunch of videos from these games, I’ll be able to provide you with clips from NBC, CBC, BBC Sport and 7 Network which was the host broadcaster.

NBC’s opening was narrated by James Earl Jones and was made to be too melodramatic. I’m happy that the person who put this up won’t allow embedding. At the end, Bob Costas and the always too perky Katie Couric co-hosted the Opening Ceremonies.

For comparison, here’s CBC’s opening for the Games. I actually prefer this one as it’s not as over the top as NBC’s.

And here’s 7 Network’s opening for the games. The host did a pretty decent job introducing the moments leading up to the Opening Ceremony.

You want BBC’s opening of Olympic Grandstand you say? Well, here’s what BBC’s coverage looked like. Steve Rider and Sue Barker co-hosted.

And this is the second part of BBC’s Olympic Grandstand from September 15, 2000 as the Opening Ceremonies begin.

Usually, I’m not a big fan of the Opening Ceremonies, but this is one of my favorite moments from 2000 when James Morrison started this sequence, then the Australian singing group, Human Nature and Julie Anthony sang the Australian National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair. You could say this was the start of a lot of national pride for Australia during the Games. From 7 Network’s coverage.

I find it hard to believe that this is the only clip I can find of this particular moment. From the CBC, here’s Cathy Freeman lighting the Olympic flame. This was a very cool seeing the flame on hydraulics being lifted to its final resting place at Olympic Stadium.

Cathy Freeman was truly one of the great stories of the 2000 Games. She had all of Australia rooting for her and you could see a big weight lift off of her shoulders when she won the 400 meters. And a dramatic moment during her victory lap was when she lifted the Australian and Aboriginal flags side by side. This is the call from the BBC.

Another big moment for Australia was the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay race in swimming which the United States had dominated for years. Gary Hall, Jr. made his infamous comment that the US would smash Australia like guitars. Well, Australia with the team featuring Michael Klim and Ian Thorpe. This is 7 Network’s call of the race with Dennis Cometti and Andrew Baildon behind the mic.

But the US got revenge after it also lost in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay, wnning in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines had the call for NBC.

Continuing with swimming, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands defeated Ian Thorpe of Australia in the 200 meters freestyle as Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines shout through the race.

Back to track, this is the men’s 400 meters won by Michael Johnson of the US as
called by the BBC. He was hoping to repeat his 200-400 double, but went down in the 200 during the Olympic trials.

This is the 4 x 400 meter relay as won by the USA. Michael Johnson ran the anchor leg.

From wrestling, here’s Rulon Gardner conducting the biggest upset in Olympic wrestling history, defeating Alexander Karelin. Ths is NBC’s Bob Costas introducing the match. I don’t know why the size of the video is so small.

Vince Carter for USA Basketball dunks over a 7 foot 2 inch center from France. Pretty good, I’d say.

Just before the Closing Ceremonies were to take place, CBC gave this preamble.

As the 2000 Games drew to a close, CBC gave this review.

And to close out the Games, Australian legend Slim Dusty came out to sing Australia’s unofficial second national anthem, Waltzing Matilda. The Closing Ceremony saw a lot of heavy hitters like Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, Midnight Oil perform, but it was Slim who really gave the Closing Ceremonies its signature moment and seeing everyone in the stadium sing along gave me the feeling at that moment that the Olympics were truly a community. At the end, the CBC’s Ron MacLean and Terri Leibel wrap up coverage.

There you have it for 2000. Videos for the 2004 Olympics are coming up.