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Let the Games begin Festive mood sweeps Sydney as Olympics near
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- It took 2,500 days or so for the mood Down Under to bounce back up. After the initial buzz in 1993 when Sydney won the right to stage the 2000 Summer Olympics, the euphoria faded amid charges of bungling and nepotism by organizers. Until now. With opening ceremonies barely two weeks away, the feeling again is upbeat, as Australia's biggest city shifts gears to get ready for the 16-day bash. Schoolchildren rehearse songs like "G'day, G'day" to welcome foreign athletes. Taxi drivers and checkout clerks are taking last-minute etiquette lessons to make a better impression on visitors. The excitement rose a notch with the arrival of the Olympic torch relay in Sydney's state of New South Wales. And it's bound to keep building through the opening ceremony on Sept. 15, when a quarter of the city's 4 million people are expected downtown to greet the Olympic flame. Radio and TV shows are cranking up their Olympic coverage. A favorite topic is who will light the Olympic cauldron -- three-time Olympic champion swimmer Dawn Fraser is the odds-on pick. Still, there's little of the Olympic hype and commercial paraphernalia that saturated Atlanta long before the 1996 Games, even while venue construction was way behind schedule. While the demand for tickets is picking up, organizers say they still must sell $62 million more to break even. This attitude is typically Australian, said Hugh Mackay, a psychologist and social researcher in Sydney. Aussies tend not to get excited until the last minute and probably won't go nuts even when the Games start. "We tend to be unfrenzied," Mackay said. "There'll be a celebratory mood, definitely, but it won't be anything like Italian or French exuberance or American hype." Only recently have organizers begun hanging banners and applying the Olympic "look" to the city. They still haven't finished the fifth ring of the massive Olympic logo that will illuminate Sydney's landmark Harbor Bridge and world-famous Opera House at night with 170,000 lights. The seeming indifference is deceptive, said Mackay. He noted that Australians love nothing better than a come-from-behind victory by a local hero -- the famed "Lil' Aussie battler." So if organizers look bad beforehand, Sydney will reap the laurels when it comes through and delivers the "Green Games" as promised. So far, Aussies have found plenty to gripe about. One target was the frequent train derailments on the aging rail network, which will carry an extra 19 million passengers during the competition. Sydney Airport also experienced two mysterious power outages that grounded planes and caused long delays on the eve of the expected arrival of hundreds of thousands of athletes, officials and visitors. IOC Vice President Kevan Gosper of Australia drew a hail of criticism when he allowed his daughter Sophie to be the first Aussie torchbearer of the Olympic flame instead of a local schoolgirl. Gosper reportedly was reprimanded by IOC chief Juan Antonio Samaranch and apologized to the nation for his "mistake." Organizers also were accused of syphoning off 75,000 tickets for the best seats to reserve them for bigwigs. When they relented and put a batch of 30,000 A-category tickets on sale Tuesday, they sold out within hours. The environment is another source of concern. Greenpeace said organizers have failed to deliver fully on promises to protect the environment. Protesters buried themselves in the sand to block construction of a 10,000-seat beach volleyball stadium at Bondi Beach, but police dragged them away and the stadium was finished. Some athletes and visitors are worried about more personal encounters with the environment. Triathletes are afraid of being attacked by sharks during the swimming leg in Sydney Harbor, althoough organizers say divers with sonar signaling devices will keep them away. Others are worried about spiders, insects or allergic reactions at the onset of the Southern Hemisphere's Spring. Ethnic protests also have cast a shadow over the Games. While Aboriginal leaders have called for peaceful demonstrations to draw attention to the injustices of past governments, outrage over recent police raids on indigenous enclaves in Sydney could turn the protests ugly. Thousands of Sydneysiders plan to flee the city before the start of the biggest Games in history, with a record 199 nations, 28 sports and 10,200 athletes. Herb Elliott, a 1,500-meter gold medalist in the 1960 Games and a member of the organizing committee, thinks that's a mistake. "You're really going to miss out on something special," he said. The predicted hotel shortage failed to materialize, organizers say. While downtown hotels are full, dormitory and bed-and-breakfast style accommodations are still available for last-minute visitors without reservations. The negative undercurrent also has baffled the IOC, which lavished praise on Sydney for its $1.92 billion building program, finished on budget and ahead of schedule. Samaranch said the only thing that could mar the games is bad weather. If the weather holds -- September usually is the city's driest month -- the Games could well be a rousing success. Then Australians will really celebrate.
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