Olympic city

Question: who/what were the three mascots for Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and what did they symbolise? See below for answer.

Lausanne is the home of the International Olympic Committee and hence my visit to the Olympic Museum, which overlooks Lac Lemac (Lake Geneva). So enthralled was I that my planned quick visit ended up as two and a half hours, as I wallowed in the romance and majesty of the Olympic vision.

The beginnings of the first Olympic Games coincide with the religious festivals of ancient Greece and the cult of Zeus. They were held in 776 BC, but most probably existed before that. The Games were organised in Olympia every four years, with a sacred truce imposing peace for the duration of the competition.
With the spread of Christianity, Emperor Theodosius I accused the Games of spreading paganism and abolished them by decree in 393 AD.

1,500 years later the Games would be revived.

The origin of sporting competitions in ancient Greece is not known for certain.
It is possible that they stemmed - particularly the chariot race - from funeral games organised in honour of warriors killed in combat.

The Olympic Games formed part of the Panhellenic Games. The special feature of these Games was that they reunited the Greek world at a time when Greece
was not yet a country but consisted of city states.
• The Games of Olympia (Olympic Games) in honour of Zeus.
• The Games of Delphi (Pythian Games) in honour of Apollo.
• The Games of the Isthmus of Corinth (Isthmian Games) in honour of Poseidon.
• The Games of Nemea (Nemean Games) in honour of Zeus.

The Games of Olympia, the most important, were the first to be created.
The other three competitions were founded in the 6th century BC.

Every four years, the announcement of the Games of Olympia marked the beginning of the truce throughout the Greek world. People could travel without fear to the city of Elis, where athletes qualified to take part in the Games, before proceeding to the sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. Participants and spectators came from all over Greece and its colonies (Italy, North Africa and Asia Minor).
A common sentiment drove them: that of belonging to one and the same culture and one and the same religion.

During training and competitions, the athletes were always naked. Nudity symbolised the ideal of a harmonious balance between body and mind. Perhaps this is why the church shut it down?

On 23 June 1894, Frenchman Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937), realised his dream of reviving the Olympic Games. The first Games were held in Athens in 1896.

Pierre de Coubertin, an accomplished sportsman, visionary and educator, was the driving force behind the structure of the Olympic Games and the philosophy of Olympism, which seeks to create a way of life based on harmony between body and mind, the joy of effort, the struggle for perfection and respect for others, and which still inspires the Olympic Movement.
In 1992, the IOC decided to re-establish the ancient tradition of the Olympic Truce. In partnership with the UN, the Member States are called upon at the UN General Assembly to respect the Truce during the Games.

On display and tempting to touch is the Sydney Olympic Flame - it reminded me , with some emotion, of our family visit to the games.

Syd, Ollie and Millie: Sydney, Olympics and MillenniumRead more