At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, India unfortunately couldn’t bag any honour, but there was an Indian person who had the rare opportunity of laying hands to the gold medal which was awarded to the Aussie superstar Cathy Freeman for winning the Women’s 400m run. An Indian journalist made a nice story for his well reputed daily on that lucky guy who was none else but me.
Yes, as a Kolkata-born Sydneysider I had a major role to play at the Sydney Olympics. I was one of the volunteering Protocol Managers for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). My duty was to look after and facilitate the protocol and relationship issues of the IOC members, Olympic officials, sporting celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world.
An exciting part of our role was to coordinate the medal presentation ceremonies, myself scheduled for the Women’s 400m sprint. So after Cathy Freeman won, I escorted the presenters from the IOC and the Athletics Federation to Cathy, introduced them and briefed her on the protocol issues. The gold medal to be presented was in my hand then and I felt so close and so far away from an Olympic treasure. Later I briefed this episode to one of the journalists from India who subsequently did the story which made me famous.
Since then two decades have gone past, but the golden memories of my partaking at the mankind’s greatest sporting event still sparkle in my mind as does Cathy Freeman’s gold medal.
These memories struck me deeper right now as 15 September marks the 20 th anniversary of the Sydney Games. On this day twenty years ago in front of almost 90000 spectators Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron at the main stadium while IOC
President Juan Antonio Samaranch declared open officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad.
I was physically present there at the VIP enclosure attired in my Olympic blazer and tie attending to several dignitaries and celebrities. I proudly deem the thrills and the excitement experienced that day and for the next two weeks as the most illustrious fortnight of my life.
My duty was at the main Olympic Stadium. So I was present for all the events that took place there – from the opening and closing ceremonies to all the athletics and the football final but all these years what flickers in my mind more than the sporting excellences are the engagements with several well-known people of high status.
Under normal circumstances, I would perhaps never have been able to stand close to any of them.
Some from the long list are American statesman Henry Kissinger, rock star Kylie Minogue; fashion queen Ellie McPherson; many sporting legends like boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Greg Norman, Cameroon footballer Roger Milla and Kenyan long distance runner Kip Kenyo; and several royals from King Constantine of Greece, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, Princess Anne of Britain, Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Felipe of Spain, Prince Frederic of Denmark who used bring with her Aussie girlfriend Mary Donaldson whom he married four years later in Copenhagen and Prince Dipendra of Nepal who unfortunately executed himself the following year after killing other members of his family.
Perhaps the most precious memory from the Games is my time with 20-year-old Chelsea Clinton who was then representing her father President Bill Clinton. She came to the venue one morning and luckily I was assigned to attend her. She mesmerised me with her down to earth behaviour which I didn’t expect from the American President’s daughter. She kept me busy asking many curious sport-related questions for which I had to run around to find the right answers. One such question was how heavy is the mallet used for the hammer throw competition. After knowing I was born in India, she talked about her visit to India earlier that year with her father.
She was highly excited when telling the story of sighting the Royal Bengal Tigers at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. Reminiscing these moments give me the pleasure, pride and sense of a lifetime achievement. I keep this memory alive by taking the dust off from my blazer, looking at the souvenir pins that I received from the guests, writing memoirs, telling stories to friends and family and at times visiting the Sydney Olympic Park which is pretty close to my home.
Driven by extreme nostalgia, on 15 September I went there dressed exactly the way I was 20 years ago and once again wandered around the stadium arena to recollect the roars and cheers that filled the air on that day.