Sydney’s Olympic flame has long been extinguished but there is still glory to be found at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Paul Rodger went for gold at his very own weekend-long ‘mini Games’
Dreams don't die at Sydney Olympic Park; they just live on a little more modestly. Athletes no longer come for Olympic gold and the roaring spectators may have gone elsewhere, but in their place you’ll find the personal victories, quiet triumphs and anonymous glories of the amateur sportsperson.
There is plenty on offer at Olympic Park for sportsmen and women of all abilities and why wouldn't there be? Over 40 sports are represented and all the park's sporting venues have been kept to Olympic standard since the Games were brought to a close. What’s more, Olympic Park has benefitted from a huge injection of funds in the intervening years. Over $1 billion in new development has been approved since the 2000 Games with the aim of making it one of the country’s premier entertainment and sporting precincts.
I decided to check out what was on offer by taking a whistlestop tour of some of the venues and facilities in the Olympic Park precinct. What I found was not only world-class sporting facilities but also an area of western Sydney ripe with potential as a commercial and recreational hub.
Having always fancied myself as a marksman, I was keen to check out the Archery Centre first. I’ve often told myself archery would be my sport if I ever competed in the Olympics (and if ever I had talent, that is). The legendary story of Robin Hood splitting an opponent’s arrow with his own did something to fuel my childhood imagination – and as I got older, that fascination never wavered.
Arriving at the Archery Centre I met Tim Cuddihy, bronze medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and all-round archery guru. I was with a group of first-timers and we all listened intently as Tim instructed us how to pick up and handle a bow and arrow. So far, so good. The problems began when I tried to take aim.
Despite willing my body to be precise and unwavering, pulling back on the bow felt awkward and uncomfortable. Whenever I attempted to load up an arrow and take aim at the target, the arrow fell off its rest and onto the ground. Adding injury to insult, whenever I succeeded in firing an arrow in the vicinity of the target, the strings snapped against my fingers.
The girl next to me, meanwhile, made it look easy. She was another novice, yet each of her arrows found the target with a satisfying ‘whump’. I felt like a wimp. Never mind splitting arrows – Robin Hood and his band of merry men would have been splitting their sides watching me.
Luckily, I had Tim on hand to show me the error of my ways and I managed to find some consistency in my shots. When it came time to put down my bow and extract the last of my arrows (mercifully close together) from the target, I was a happy little archer. I was not the sharp-shooter of my imagination, but it had been a fantastic experience nonetheless.
In my own clumsy way, I had re-lived the achievements of all those Olympian and Paralympian archers who competed at Sydney Olympic Park’s Archery Centre in 2000. And you can too. The Centre holds ‘come ’n’ try’ classes designed to teach beginners the necessary skills to shoot a bow and arrow, and anyone keen to try personalised tuition can sign up for one-on-one instruction with Tim. The Centre even holds archery parties, during which people can enjoy a fully supervised one and a half hour session that comprises games and activities. What’s better, the price is entirely reasonable.
Big plans are afoot now the athletes of the 27th Olympiad have moved on and the park has been handed back to the people of Sydney. As I made my way from the Archery Centre over to the Tennis Centre for a hit on centre court, I tried to visualise what the Sydney Olympic Park Authority has in mind for the area.
Central to the blueprint for Olympic Park is a plan to develop the inner section so it becomes the heart of a new, modern town by 2030, complete with low-density commercial and industrial buildings. A network of new streets and local parks will transform it into a lively pedestrian-orientated destination.
$276 million worth of projects have been approved in the last 18 months alone. Among the additions to the park is the Pullman Hotel on Olympic Boulevard, greater Sydney’s first five-star hotel. As well as offering accommodation for visiting sportspeople, the hotel works closely with the park to offer behind-the-scenes tours of venues in the area as well as holding events like mini-Olympics for corporate team building.
The park will remain an important natural habitat too. Encompassing 425 hectares of parkland, 5km of which fronts onto water, it is criss-crossed by 35km of pathways and cycle paths, and contains several important ecological communities of native birds, frogs and plant species. The Sydney Olympic Park Authority says the parkland and improved facilities, together, “will provide opportunities for enhanced quality of life and healthy lifestyle choices” for the residents of western Sydney.
The sporting theme will obviously remain key to the future of the park. But interestingly, very few of the sports played within the park precinct would ever be played at the Olympics. The aim is to provide a ‘sporting hub’ where both elite athletes and those who play for health and fitness can access a variety of sports.
Golf is one sport that has found a home at Olympic Park since the closing ceremony. From the Tennis Centre, it’s only a short walk to the Golf Centre on Olympic Boulevard. The facilities include a driving range with 60 fully covered hitting bays and a short game area that includes a large bunker and three greens. Once again, professionals are on hand to provide coaching if required. You can even have your swing recorded electronically and compared with some of the biggest names in the sport like Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, with access to the results online.
From the traditional to the unusual, you can even try your hand at a trapeze lesson. One and a half hour trapeze workshops are open to everyone over the age of six and the idea is to learn at your own pace. By the time you complete the workshop, you should be able to fly high and be caught in mid-air. To make the experience even more exciting, the trapeze school offers twilight trapeze lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. A lesson is a steal at $45 for 90 minutes.
All the traditional Olympic sports and sports venues remain, of course. One of the success stories of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was diver Matthew Mitcham, who aced his last dive to win Olympic gold. At the Aquatic Centre, I watched as several beginners dived off platforms that Mitcham himself used during training. The centre claims to have the best diving competition facilities in Australia, including a ‘surge bubble’ that breaks the surface of the water and prevents injury. Anyone not wanting to take a plunge can make use of the 33m x 25m pool, scene of many Australian gold medal triumphs during the 2000 Games.
With so many sporting venues, there is ample opportunity for professionals and amateurs alike to further their sporting prowess. Word of warning to the newbies though: you may be competing on hallowed sporting ground, but you’ll need a lot of practice before you can hope to match it with the record setters the world watched in awe eight years ago. Visit the park for a bit of fun and exercise, however, and you might just hit the bullseye.
For more information on what sporting and recreational facilities are available at Sydney Olympic Park, visit sydneyolympicpark.com.au.
Open Road e-zine December 2008
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