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| Issue No 71 |  |
15 September 2000 |
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SportStar Spotting at Homebush BayBy Anna Cunningham
The circus has arrived in Sydney, and there is no better place to catch a glimpse of the stars than at the athlete's village in Homebush.
Apart from being the suburb with the most beautiful people per square kilometre in the world, the village is overflowing with sights and sounds of the craziness of Sydney 2000. Working in the Olympic News Service, whose office is above the Athlete's Village Gym, I am far from immune to the excitement of Homebush Bay. A stroll through the Village on a normal day might include some sightings of the stars or a visit from a member of the celebrity motivational team. Whatever's happening, every shift in the Village brings a bus load of Olympic surprises that won't be found anywhere else. The athletes are certainly the main focus of attention. They're the focus of the staff's attention, and even the attention of one another. Thanks to a shortage Olympic buses, every ride through the village wouldn't be complete without being packed tightly into a small compartment full of sporting superstars. Yesterday on the way to the station Pat Rafter joined the hoards in bus 43. But it wasn't the staff or Australians whose admiration for their tennis star turned heads, but a bunch of American Volleyball girls who, tongue-tied, approached their tennis hero for autographs and a smile. But if you really want to see the athletes, the best places to be are in the main dining hall or at the gym. Hundreds of square metres of exercise equipment or buffet dining facilities present onlookers with a vantage point of the athletes doing what they do best: burning and replenishing fuel. At dinner on Monday Kieran Perkins and Michael Klim were the main attraction for a group of female police officers, who wanted to know the details of every kilojoule that went into their mouths. Meanwhile, a contingent of security guards were very eager to settle their debate on whether the female gymnasts ate at all, or if they were just walked through the hall to capture the scents of the menu. It's fortunate that the athlete and staff dining areas are separated by a line of recycling bins, because if they weren't, there would be a lot of famished competitors who never got a chance to eat, but did sign a lot of autographs and posed for many photos. Come night time, the gym becomes a virtual fish bowl for curious onlookers. From the Village Plaza, everyone from Goran Ivanisevic to the Norwegian Handballers can be seen on the rowing or stepping machines preparing themselves for the pursuit of gold. But if athletes don't take your fancy, then SOCOG provide staff with another entertaining diversion to their working day, in the form of a daily celebrity motivational visitor. Everyone from Peter Phelps, to Ernie Dingo and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley have done the rounds, offering autographed photos and words of encouragement to the busy Olympic working bees. They've really thought of everything to keep us amused. It's such a shame that this mini United Nations will only last for a month. Whether it's the Brazilian Men's Football team adding to the atmosphere in the International Zone with a guitar-led singalong, or a wayward golf buggy-driving NOC official trying to work out the correct direction for traffic by means of trial and error, the people in the Olympic Village are all adding their own dose of colour and personality to the Olympic melting pot. Anna Cunningham is a PR Assistant at Lodestar Communications.
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   Interview: Surviving The FirestormAfter several years as the focus of some brutal politics Carmen Lawrence is back on the ALP front bench. She talks to Workers Online about her new portfolio, unions and the ALP and mud slinging in politics. History: Unions, Sport and CommunityRemember when sport was a fun way to relax after arduous labour? The fight for the eight-hour work day was based around a slogan that said, in part, eight hours work, eight hours play. The play was unpaid and unsung, but enjoyable. Politics: Global FailuresSharan Burrow told the World Economic Forum this week that the union movement acknowledges the benefits of globalisation but it's time to address the failures. International: Mobile WorkersA global IT labour shortage is throwing up challenges for both the developed and developing world. Gerd Rohde, from the Geneva-based Union Network International, is working to strike a balance. Unions: Stuffed or Stoned?In a recent dispute at the South Blackwater Coal Mine in Central Queensland CFMEU members resisted the introduction of random drug testing in the absence of a better strategy to test impairment and not just lifestyle. Review: A Perfect Circle- Mer de NomsPeter Zangari believes the music world has moved on from the simplistic chords of Nirvana and Soundgarden and the grunge scene has been obliterated. But like most other things, especially music, it re-invents itself. Satire: Silly 2000Editors demand something happen: �We�ve got 300 Olympic pages to fill and everyone is training�.
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