Four words when I was nine shaped my Olympic dream

When it comes to the Olympic Games, my story is similar to many children of the nineties – growing from a fascination to a full blown addiction after Juan Antonio Samaranch uttered those four fateful words: ‘The winner is, Sydney.”

I had just turned nine and, although it was 4.27am when the announcement was made, I was up out of bed with my parents, drinking in the excitement shared across Australia as we were given the keys to an Olympic Games to be held seven years in the future.

By the time Sydney 2000 rolled around, I was 16, finishing year 10 at high school in my home town of Armidale, and a sports nut trying to figure out how to make a dollar stretch as far as it could so I could go to as many events as possible.

I wasn’t in the stadium for Cathy’s moment – I would have blown my budget if I entered the ballot for that epic night in Stadium Australia – but I watched it, glued to the TV at my aunty and uncle’s house in Blacktown in Sydney’s west, and the euphoria, the sense of a nation united as she lifted around the bend and pulled away from her rivals, has never left me.

Cathy Freeman of Australia is elated after winning gold in the 400m final during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Four years later when the Olympic caravan returned to its birthplace in Athens, I was studying a Bachelor of Sports Media at the University of Canberra and delighted in my ability to completely rewire my body clock to Athens time. From the highs of Ian Thorpe’s incredible gold medal swim in ‘The Race of the Century’, besting Pieter van den Hoogenband, Michael Phelps and Grant Hackett, to Anna Meares’ velodrome heroics, to the dramatic lows of the ‘Lay Down Sally’ affair, when Sally Robbins infamously stopped rowing in the final of the women’s eight with the Australian crew chasing a medal, I was sitting up in the wee hours of the chilly Canberra winter watching it all unfold.

Ask me where I was when a famous Olympic moment happened any time since I was a year six kid during Atlanta ’96 and the chances are I’ve got an answer for you (sadly I was in the car being taken to my soccer game when Kieren Perkins won gold from lane eight in the 1500m that year, but I can assure you I was glued to the radio commentary).

Fast forward to 2023 and I experienced another pinch myself Olympics moment when it was announced that Nine had secured the rights to the next decade of Games, summer and winter, in a deal that took in Paris, Los Angeles, and the cherry on top, a home Olympics in Brisbane 2032.

From the moment Mr. Samaranch uttered those famous four words, my life has been set on a path that was intrinsically linked with the Olympics, so I can’t express how much pride I feel to be playing a small role in bringing Paris 2024 to life for all Australians.

We’re now just 100 days away from the opening ceremony, and already Wide World of Sports’ Olympic and Paralympic Games Reporter Zachary Gates is telling some incredible stories about the athletes who will shape the narrative of sport’s most iconic event.

Paris Olympics.

To mark the 100 days milestone, Zac has traced the incredible rise of Mary Fowler, who has rapidly become one of Australia’s most recognisable athletes and will spearhead the Matildas’ quest for a first Olympic medal. He has also spoken to swimming golden girl Emma McKeon’s coach Michael Bohl to find out how much life has changed for her since she became our most decorated Olympian in history with a phenomenal performance in Tokyo.

There’ll be more gold to come for McKeon and a swimming team that is shaping as our greatest of all time, with Nine commentator Giaan Rooney predicting our Dolphins to scale new heights in Paris in a piece, again put together by Zac, who spoke to several experts to pin down the Aussies most likely to win gold medals this year.

At the moment we’re in preview mode but the next 100 days will pass in a flash. Before you know it our athletes will be assembling in Paris, ready to do our nation proud, and we at Nine will be there with them, bursting with pride as we share with you the stories that make kids like my nine-year-old self fall in love with the Olympic Games.