Michael Pirrie reports from Melbourne on how the 2021 Australian Open succeeded against expectations to bring spectators safely back to a major international sporting event, and outlines the lessons for world sport’s organising committees.
The Australian Open, National Safety & Sovereignty: Sport’s New Frontiers
As the Australian Open is entering its finals weekend, defying the odds after a coronavirus outbreak mid-tournament, Michael Pirrie explores the new politics and priorities of safety that will shape how and where major sporting events could be held in the Covid era.
The world’s leading tennis players have been entertaining crowds again on the courts of the Australian Open after a snap lockdown forced the exit of spectators from the Grand Slam during the middle of the tournament.
This shut-out was part of a wider lockdown of host city Melbourne and the state of Victoria to contain the surge of a wildly infectious coronavirus variant. Many had feared the Asia-Pacific tennis showpiece hosted in Melbourne would be cancelled if the virus continued to spread.
SPORTING VICTORY AGAINST THE VIRUS
The lock out followed a successful first week of the tournament, which featured a return of spectators in numbers to a major international sporting event for the first time since the global shut down.
“The Australian Open has provided a rare and much anticipated look of what sport might look like in a still evolving Covid normal world.”
The Australian Open has provided a rare and much anticipated look of what sport might look like in a still evolving Covid normal world.
After a year of Ghost games behind closed gates and shuttered stadia, the first Grand Slam of the year offered reassuringly familiar sights and sounds.
Cardboard cutout fans and simulated applause were replaced by spectators and cheering crowds, along with socially distant queues for food and alcohol, music bands and merchandise stands.
The return of fans for the finals after containment of the highly transmissible UK variant heralds a landmark in global efforts to keep major international tournaments going during the pandemic.
SPORT’S NEW BATTLE GROUND
Behind the journey back to the future and a pre Covid semblance of normality, the Australian Open has masked a new battle ground over sovereignty and safety of major events in the emerging world of Covid sport.
The battle lines centre on who determines the circumstances and locations of major international sporting events – the powerful international sporting federations and professional governing bodies, player groups and unions, sponsors, broadcasters or governments and public health experts.
As has been the way for many Grand Slams now, the world’s top ranked players including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have offered contrasting visions for tennis on and off the court and now in the pandemic.
Djokovic has questioned quarantine restrictions placed on him and other international players on entering Australia for the tournament. Hebelieves quarantine – acknowledged by public health experts as the gold standard against international spread of infection – is not viable and the season might need to be scrapped if an alternative can’t be found.
Nadal, meanwhile, has offered a wider perspective on the situation, arguing that sport must continue and adapt to prevailing pandemic conditions and play its role in helping to stem infection levels.
The varying positions of the two tennis greats point to how the pandemic is reshaping priorities in how and where major international events are staged.
For decades governments, host cities and sponsors have paid out billions to international sports governing bodies and federations to help market cities as global sports, tourism and international destinations.
PANDEMIC SPORT & POLITICS
That traditional sports business model may be changing as the Covid pandemic continues to infect cities with illness and fear. Of all places, a backlash against sport was evident in the build up to this Australian Open in Melbourne, which markets itself heavily on its suite of major international sporting events.
This followed mounting concern amongst local communities and residents that major international events could lead to further Covid outbreaks and more lockdowns.
The opposition prompted fears that international governing bodies, broadcasters and sponsors may take events away from host cities that impose restrictions considered too burdensome for visiting players or teams.
The State Government of Victoria has constantly emphasised that public safety is non negotiable in the fight against Covid; that a game of golf is not worth a life.
The government defended its decision to proceed with the Grand Slam arguing necessary safeguards to protect the public against the virus were in place, while also conceding that Australia could lose the Grand Slam if it did not go ahead.
Ironically, rival Asian nations for the continental Grand Slam, including China and Japan, have imposed emergency lock down conditions in recent weeks to curb new infection outbreaks. Meanwhile, Australia’s capital cities have some of the lowest and safest levels of Covid in the world for international sport.
Djokovic has suggested an alternative NBA bubble-like system, where all competition, training and accommodation venues are colocated in one site, but the NBA only deemed that viable for the playoffs to finish the previous season.
METICULOUS PLANNING
Meticulous planning by Tennis Australia and the Victorian Government involving extensive Covid testing and contact tracing has so far prevented any spread of infection. The health checks importantly have prevented possible infection cross over between the general community and tennis players and officials.
Complaints by Djokovic and others of fitness concerns, injuries and poor performances due to pre-tournament quarantine have generated little local sympathy for international players holed up in luxury five star hotels and picking up $100k cheques in first round prize money.
Djokovic’s bid to relocate players away from medically safe and secure hotels to private homes with tennis courts during quarantine may have risked the health and safety of players and public, raising questions about whether he may have been in campaign mode for his breakaway players representative group.
His interventions follow his leading role in the doomed Adria exhibition tour last year in which he and other players were infected after flouting public health guidelines, and these comments prompted speculation that Djokovic may still be struggling with the biological realties and restrictions of the virus, along with many other players.
“Little is normal in sport anymore following a year of cancelled tournaments, delayed matches and limited training opportunities which have all contributed to injuries and poor performances.”
Indeed, the tennis legend’s criticism of quarantine as “not normal” hit the mark; the new normal for sport is vastly different to the old quarantine free normal.
Little is normal in sport anymore following a year of cancelled tournaments, delayed matches and limited training opportunities which have all contributed to injuries and poor performances.
Djokovic’s nemesis Rafael Nadal in contrast refused to blame the pandemic induced circumstances of the tournament for his shock loss to rising Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas; a surprise defeat that cost Nadal a chance to eclipse Roger Federer in Grand Slam wins.
“I’m not the guy that’s going to find excuses on that or going to complain about what happened,” Nadal said. “Just accept…”
Nadal also rejected Djokovic’s proposal to scrap the season if further quarantine was required, saying this would impact too many livlihoods.
“We need to think a bit bigger, no?” he asked. “We need to find solutions and we need to adapt to this very tough time that we are facing. Not only us; the world.”
SPORTS LEADERSHIP IN THE AGE OF COVID
In a recent interview with Christine Amanpour on CNN, Nadal provided a compelling personal insight into the challenges of participating at a major sporting event like the of Australian Open during the pandemic, highlighting that tennis was not alone in struggling against the virus.
Commenting on local quarantine conditions in Melbourne, Nadal said: ”It’s a difficult situation but at least we are here. The world is suffering. We can’t complain. We can only thank Tennis Australia and the Australian community to welcome us and to accept us to come so it’s good we can keep playing tennis.
“Its normal to complain in some way…you have to think and say ‘OK’ I’m not happy to be 14 days in my own room …without normal preparation…
“But on the other hand, when you have a little bit wider perspective of whats going on in the world …you see people losing their fathers and their mums without having the chance to say godbye. It’s a real thing that’s happening in my country. Close people to me are suffering these tough situations.
“When you see all of this, you have to stay a little more positive.”
The safety of major sporting events has been particularly sensitive in Melbounre after residents sacrificed their freedom for several months last year to suppress the virus in one of the world’s longest and most restricted home based lockdowns.
The battle over soveriegnty and safety of sport in the Covid era is also being played out in other sporting capitals and nations.
Most notably, these include Japan where the overwhelming majority of the population want the Tokyo Olympic Games to be cancelled or delayed again due to safety concerns following a surge in Covid cases and infections, which is now starting to subside.
A significant number of Japanese businesses also have expressed concerns about the timing of the Oympics during Covid, while one of Japan’s prefectures may withdraw from the Torch Relay, a cornerstone of the Olympics, if the coronvirus situation does not improve.
Speaking at the Australian Open, Japanese tennis superstar, Naomi Osaka, said she would be willing to quarantine for two weeks to compete at the Tokyo Olympics if it helped to ensure the safety of her home country.
“Playing in Tokyo would be very special to me. My concern would be the general safety of everyone else because you’re opening the country,” she said after completing quarantine in Melbourne, even though Olympic organisers do not currently plan for widespread quarantining of athletes in Tokyo.
The new head of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Seiko Hashimoto, an Olympic medallist and recent Olympics Minister, will need Nadal’s wide perspective, empathy and humanity to bring the divided nation together around the Tokyo Games and convince the international community the Games can be staged safely and securely.
CONCLUSION
The pandemic has devastated the world’s leading cities and sports centres, from London to Los Angeles and New York to Moscow.
This could reshape the international sports map based on measures and restrictions adopted by governments to control the virus and protect local communities.
This will set the stage for tense and tough negotiations between host cities and governments and governing bodies and federations as nations begin the long road to recovery, involving new formats for international events to protect local communities.
This will determine how the new Covid normal evolved for sport, based on advances in virus detection, contact tracing and biosecurity technologies and especially the effectiveness of national vaccination programs.
Michael Pirrie is a communications advisor and commentator on major international events including the Olympic Games.
On The Spot: Australian Open Fans Halted But Player Regulations Continue To Succeed
From Melbourne, Michael Pirrie delivers an update on spectators being blocked from attending the Australian Open Grand Slam for the next five days as Melbourne enters a five-day snap lockdown, however the local government’s player measures continue to see success.
Playing For The Games: Tokyo Playbooks Vital To Ensure A Safe Olympics
The first Olympic playbook for the Tokyo Games has been released amid much anticipation and concern about the safety and future of the event. Michael Pirrie, executive adviser to the London 2012 Olympic Games committee, analyses the long awaited blueprint for Tokyo and explains why it may be the most important plans produced for the Games.
A year ago, Tokyo had been preparing to scale the final summit of its ten year expedition to the Mount Everest of sport – the Olympic and Paralympic Games, until the sudden COVID-19 global emergency blocked the final ascent to world sport’s roof.
This followed fears conditions would be too dangerous, forcing Games organisers back to base camp to find an alternative pathway back to the Olympic Games.
It was no thin veil of light rain or mist that was blocking views back to the Olympic peaks; the vision for the Tokyo Games had disappeared in a viral blizzard that blanketed the planet and its sporting landscapes.
“Dark clouds of uncertainty may now be starting to lift with the long awaited release of the first playbook for the Tokyo Games.”
The way ahead was obscure. Organisers could do little but hold out in hope for a miracle cure or sudden drop in infection levels.
London staged the first ‘survival’ Olympics in 1948 following the Second World War, taking the world from war to sport. The circumstances are different for Tokyo with the worldwide battle against the virus far from won.
With no known plan devised to stage a mega international event like the Olympics in a pandemic, there was no clear consensus on how to proceed nor which pathway to take.
Those dark clouds of uncertainty may now be starting to lift with the long awaited release of the first playbook for the Tokyo Games. The playbooks provide directions for Games stakeholders such as athletes and technical officials on how to avoid spreading and developing infection in Tokyo.
With international travel and major events regarded as potential super spreaders, much is riding on playbook protocols.
NEW GAMES PLAN
The Games plan does not rely on a vaccine strategy. Instead, there is a strong focus on screening of Japan-bound athletes and officials pre-departure and on arrival, and on regular testing before, during and after the Games.
The success of the protocols – and the Games – will depend on rigid enforcement and compliance with playbook rules, which will need to be implemented on a vast scale never before attempted.
With billions of dollars of Games revenues for sports riding on Tokyo, along with the safety of Japanese society and integrity of the Olympic brand, the playbooks may be the most important plans ever produced for a world sporting event.
The staging of the Beijing Winter Olympics just six months after Tokyo further highlights the importance of the protocols.
The playbooks are the culmination of extensive consultation with medical, scientific and public health experts, along with months of exhaustive planning work led by IOC executive member and Games strategist, John Coates, Tokyo organisers, Japanese government officials and senior IOC staff, including Christophe Dubi and Pierre Ducrey.
The Olympic Games masterplan is one of the most complex pieces of project management in the world. It is usually at minimum a seven year undertaking involving thousands of contributors and consultants, the Tokyo plan has been reworked around the playbooks in closer to seven months.
While Olympic administrators cautioned Tokyo would be different, the first published playbook gives a glimpse of how different.
Playbook policies have been shaped to the contours of the pandemic, and include proven countermeasures against infection and transmission.
DIFFERENT GAMES
This includes air borne transmission of the virus, which recently prompted French President Macron to request passengers to refrain from speaking while on the metro.
The sounds of silence will also fill Tokyo venues.
Olympic officials must not cheer or sing and must wear masks to minimise the risk of contact with virus particles transmitted from other people.
“Olympic organisers are hoping the playbooks, underpinned by strong scientific and public health principles – and an abundance of caution – will quell doubts about safety of the Games.”
The possible risk from virus-infected air lingering in rooms, hallways and other high use and shared areas of accommodation and competition will have major implications for protocols in the Athletes Village and Games venues.
These will be outlined in a special playbook for athletes along with supporting information to national Olympic committees about air flow and ventilation systems to protect occupants in Games venues.
TURNING POINT
With new infections starting to fall in Tokyo, Olympic organisers are hoping the playbooks, underpinned by strong scientific and public health principles – and an abundance of caution – will quell doubts about safety of the Games.
The lack of information previously available on Games protocols while organisers worked feverishly to reinvent the Olympic model for Tokyo created a massive communications vacuum that led to rampant speculation.
A climate of confusion and uncertainty formed in the wider international community, which Tokyo hopes can be eased by the playbooks.
This uncertainty reached a tipping point recently amid reports – subsequently denied by the Japanese Prime Minister – that the Games may be cancelled.
Olympic organisers were adamant the Games would still go ahead despite the adversity of a new state of emergency and record daily deaths globally.
IOC President Thomas Bach was more circumspect, acknowledging that “at this moment” there was no reason to believe the Olympic Games would not proceed as planned.
The IOC President stressed the focus was on how and not if the Games would happen, but the playbooks provide the How of the Tokyo Games.
Much is riding on the playbooks to help convince the international community, including epidemiologists, as well as Tokyo residents that the Games can be staged safely.
While the massive scale of the Games poses the greatest challenge, shrinking numbers could reduce risks significantly.
LIMITING THE GAMES – LIMITING THE VIRUS
Organisers plan to contain the virus by strictly limiting the numbers, movements, locations and contacts of participants to essential Games areas and limited time in the city.
Limits will be placed on where and how Games participants can travel at the Games. This will restrict virus exposure sites, contact points and potential spread of the virus amongst Olympic athletes, support staff and officials and beyond into local communities.
Playbook protocols may be further adjusted to prevailimg pandemic conditions in order to resolve high impact and high risk public health issues in the countdown to the Games.
These include the presence of spectators, who, if allowed, may be limited in numbers to around 30-40 percent of venue capacity, depending on local infection levels.
This is in line with recommendations by virus safety experts, including US corona czar Dr Anthony Faucci.
Because of the inherent high risk posed by international visitors, it is likely any spectators may be limited primarily to Japanese citizens.
CONCLUSION
Tokyo’s efforts to free the Games from the grip of the pandemic while Japan continues to recover from the devastating earthquake tsuannmi nearly 10 yers ago have been unstoppable like the virus itself.
These efforts, though questioned by some, are perhaps best reflected in the mission statement from the NASA playbook used to salvage the seemingly doomed astronauts in the stricken Apollo 13 moon mission: “Failure is not an option.”
“The new playbooks contain a raft of health policies that may form a vital safety net for the Games.”
Athletes and global communities are now hoping Tokyo’s own playbooks can save the Games.
This virus has challenged many signs of hope, recently claiming the British WW II veteran and pandemic hero, Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Moore’s crusade to help Covid patients raised millions in charity after the centenarian knight, supported by his reliable walker, shuffled 100 laps of his front garden and walked step by step into hearts everywhere.
MOORE IS NEEDED
British Prime Minister and former London Olympic mayor Boris Johnson described Moore as “a beacon of hope for the world.” Moore’s trusty garden walker now stands alone.
If asked for his humble opinion of the situation, legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot might describe the corona virus as “a most cruel and capable enemy.”
More hope is needed, and Tokyo organisers believe the Olympic Games can also be a much needed symbol of optimism, resilience and courage in the Covid devastated world. The new playbooks contain a raft of health policies that may form a vital safety net for the Games.
New and more infectious and deadly variants present a different and more complicated challenge than when the Games was first postponed. But these provide a much needed compass and roadmap out of the darkness that has covered Olympic landscape since the onset of the pandemic
Instead of a blank canvas, organisers now have a plan designed around the health of Games participants and host city and not just hope.
MICHAEL PIRRIE is a communications adviser and commentator on major international events including the Olympic Games.
An Australian Open In Crisis Or A Sign Of Things To Come?
Michael Pirrie reports from Melbourne as Novak Djokovic demands better conditions for tennis stars under quarantine ahead of the Australian Open.
With the Australian Open set to get underway next month, questions are being raised by the public down under as to whether the risk is worth it of having tennis stars arrive from every corner of the world, potentially bringing the virus with them.
Many of these star players have now arrived, some who have even tested positive just beforehand or on arrival, where they are being forced to quarantine in hotels, leading to complaints about services from a number of the athletes.
Is this difficulty the start of things to come for many international sporting events taking place in 2021?
State Of Emergency Heralds State Of Concern For Tokyo Games
Michael Pirrie analyses the impacts of the new state of emergency in Japan and emerging concerns over priority vaccines for athletes on Tokyo Olympic Games preparations.
The New Year state of emergency declared in Tokyo just months out from the Olympic Games increases the atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty surrounding the future of the world’s biggest and most important sporting event.
This latest announcement will be especially unsettling for athletes and National Olympic Committees preparing for the Games.
Tokyo’s organisers will come under further pressure to clarify the status of Olympic preparations and scenario planning as the pandemic worsens. And there will be growing demands for greater clarification from central government and local prefectures of intervention and contingency measures for the city of Tokyo and the pandemic-hit Games.
“This latest announcement will be especially unsettling for athletes and National Olympic Committees preparing for the Games.”
While the state of emergency comes as no surprise following recent surges of infection in the Olympic host city, delays in declaring emergency conditions are surprising, especially given the clear and upward trajectory of Covid illness and deaths over several recent days.
The state of emergency to combat Coronavirus in Tokyo creates a state of deep concern for the organisers.
Almost a year after the first outbreaks in Wuhan, it feels like the world is almost back at the beginning of the pandemic rather than heading towards the end, as Tokyo’s organisers had hoped when the Games was initially postponed.
Japan’s declared Covid emergency may also be risky, with public health experts indicating the voluntary public health restrictions may not be sufficient to contain the virus, which is mutating and spreading more quickly than expected.
It is also surprising given Japan’s apparent relative success at containing the pandemic.
The country’s more relaxed restrictions – in contrast to compulsory hard lockdowns successful in other Asian nations and some world regions – have largely not worked elsewhere and placed Tokyo’s Games preparations at potential risk.
While a hard Tokyo lockdown after initial postponement of the Games last year could have suppressed the virus, the most urgent challenge for Olympic organisers now is to drive down community transmission in order to reduce infection fears.
“The sharp surge of Covid infections in the Olympic host city further complicates the task of delivering the Games in a pandemic that has yet to peak.”
This will help to increase confidence in safety of the Games amongst Olympic athletes; the impact of infection with the virus was described in a recent chilling personal accounts by former world number one golfing great Greg Norman.
“I couldn’t even open the door handle with my hands,” Norman wrote on Instagram.
“I am fit and strong and have a high tolerance for pain but this virus kicked the crap out of me like nothing I have ever experienced before. Muscle and joint pain on another level. Headaches that feel like a chisel going through your head…”
Japanese and Olympic officials have consistently indicated the Games will go ahead with the necessary precautions in place. However, the sharp surge of Covid infections in the Olympic host city further complicates the task of delivering the Games in a pandemic that has yet to peak.
That includes new research pointing to risks of infection while travelling on international flights, the primary means of transport for teams attending the Games..
This, along with mounting concerns about soaring death tolls and hospitalisations from the highly infectious virus, indicates Games crowds will be kept to a minimum and could consist predominantly of local Tokyo residents.
Meanwhile, rising Covid safety concerns could lead to a heated ethical and moral debate about Olympic values and spirit following discussions about possibly providing vaccines to athletes before some other sections of the global community.
While sourcing vaccines for athletes and potentially reducing or delaying inoculations immediately available for others could divide world and sporting communities, Olympic leaders including Thomas Bach and Lord Sebastian Coe say the vulnerable should be given priority.
The New Year has just dawned with a daunting list of unprecedented resolutions required to stage the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Michael Pirrie is an international major events communications and campaign adviser and commentator. Michael has worked in senior positions on some of the world’s biggest events, including the Olympic Games in London and Sydney, and for other host and bid cities.
“While WADA Have Been Boosted With The Support Of The IOC, The Russia Crisis Has Highlighted The Need For Further Reform”
In his final piece of 2020, Michael Pirrie outlines why the controversial Russia doping ban given out this week is a landmark in the fight against drugs in sport.
While the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reduce Russia’s doping ban has been widely criticised, the ruling nonetheless heralds a milestone in world sport and the war on drugs in sport.
The CAS decision is unprecedented and bans Russia from turning out and competing as a recognised nation at the world’s biggest global sports events, such as the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and FIFA Football World Cup.
The CAS decision also bans Russia’s high-ranking officials including President Vladimir Putin from attending the Olympics and sets a precedent in international sporting law, and justifies WADA’s decision to pursue and defend its investigations into the integrity of Russia’s systems.
“Significantly, while this ban is focussed on Russia, the CAS ruling also provides a pathways to tackle other nation states involved in doping operations.”
Significantly, while this ban is focussed on Russia, the CAS ruling also provides a pathways to tackle other nation states involved in doping operations, and also supports the position taken by world governing bodies to exclude Russia from competition while its anti doping protocols fail to comply with international standards and expectations.
This includes the position taken by World Athletics led by President Sebastian Coe, strongly supported by athletes across the international sporting spectrum pushing for stronger doping penalties. While the reduction from four to two years has outraged critics, the ban itself is a major blow to Russian sporting prestige.
It is also a major embarrassment to Russia’s political and sporting leaders, including President Putin, who have constantly denied allegations of doping coverup as part of an anti-Russia conspiracy. A raft of legal, public relations and court battles have been launched by Russia to have any adverse findings or bans declared void and thrown out.
The decision to uphold the ban, although reduced, shows WADA’s case against Russia was justified, and the ban will not be received well by a nation and its leadership which takes enormous pride in sporting success on the world stage.
“While doping violations have been recorded amongst athletes from just about every nation participating in international sport, the magnitude and methods implicated in the Russian doping scandal rocked the world.”
While this ban would not have passed through the UN Security Council due to geopolitical voting blocks, it shows that rogue nations can still be held to account by bodies like CAS for breaches of international sporting conventions, even if this is not always possible in other international sectors.
The CAS ruling is the latest twist in the greatest world sporting scandal of modern times, dating back to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. While doping violations have been recorded amongst athletes from just about every nation participating in international sport, the magnitude and methods implicated in the Russian doping scandal rocked the world.
The doping operation was indicated on a scale that was never contemplated when WADA was initially set up.
While WADA came under heavy geopolitical fire at times over its management of the Russian doping crisis, the diplomatic and collaborative approach nurtured by recently retired WADA president Sir Craig Reedie, created the environment and channels that enabled investigators and informants to uncover critical information on the hidden doping plan.
“The doping cover up and data manipulation strategy triggered a never ending game of claim and counter claim and of guilt and innocence by the offending and offended nations, allies and critics that split elite sport.”
Reedie’s ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ style and strategy played a vital role in keeping the world’s anti doping system from collapsing under the enormous weight of the crisis.
Sport became a weapon of choice for a resurgent Russia and its international operations as Moscow declared war on rival Olympic nations and athletes with a doping plan that cast an enormous shadow of doubt over trust in sport.
The doping cover up and data manipulation strategy triggered a never ending game of claim and counter claim and of guilt and innocence by the offending and offended nations, allies and critics that split elite sport. World sports governing bodies hesitated in their initial response to the crisis, some fearing the loss of Russia, a superpower and major host and benefactor of international sport, would diminish global sport.
The World Athletics executive led by Coe maintained a consistent and coherent position regarding the exclusion of track and field athletes implicated in doping activity.
While the lack of a prompt and universal response to the doping scandal caused mass confusion in international sport, the ‘no surrender’ position adopted by World Athletics has provided much needed certainty, clarity and credibility for clean athletes and sport during the protracted crisis.
“While WADA’s powers and resources have been boosted with the support of the IOC, the Russia crisis has highlighted the need for further reforms, resources and powers for the world’s premier anti doping system.”
The Russia revelations prompted a tense worldwide debate that exposed deep fault lines over doping protocols, privacy, data capture and other links in the chain of governance, evidence and suspension. These divisions, tactfully exploited by Russia with all the diplomatic skills and channels of a veteran UN Security Council member, also divided the Olympic Movement along geopolitical lines.
The crisis demonstrated that a global consensus on anti-doping issues seemed almost as distant as a universal position on reducing poverty, nuclear weapons, or carbon emissions.
While WADA’s powers and resources have been boosted with the support of the IOC, the Russia crisis has highlighted the need for further reforms, resources and powers for the world’s premier anti-doping system as amongst the most urgent challenge facing sport in the decade ahead.
While the doping controversy has become the most discussed topic in world sport, the last word should go to senior IOC member John Coates, who dispensed with diplomatic niceties and once described the Russia anti-doping system as “rotten to the core.”
Michael Pirrie is an international communications consultant and commentator on the Olympics, international sport and major events. Michael led London’s global media campaign against Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid in the British capital’s successful bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, and was Executive Adviser to the Chair of London’s Olympic Organising Committee, Seb Coe.
2020 – The Lost Year Of Sport
As 2020 heads to a close, Michael Pirrie charts the course and impacts of the Coronavirus on the Olympic Games and world of sport, looking at what the pandemic means for the future of sport as well as the highlights of an unforgettable year in sporting and world history.
There were few signs a year ago of the impending doom that was about to engulf the world and its global sectors, including sport; few signs a modern plague of biblical proportions was about to escape from a live animal and seafood market in Asia, plunging the planet into a prolonged period of darkness like a long lunar eclipse.
Nothing seemed outwardly amiss in the countdown to the virus that would invade the world, heralding the biggest crisis in global sport and its showpiece event, the Olympic Games, outside of a world war.
The popular roof top café in down town Athens still offered the same sweeping views of the Acropolis and other majestic ruins in the ancient Olympic city loomed in sharp contrast to the giant digital billboards, teeming subways, and soaring light towers of Tokyo’s mega metropolis, the next in the long line of Olympic host cities to succeed Athens.
Storm clouds however were beginning to form. Tennis players preparing for the Australian Open, the first major international sporting event of 2020, were struggling to breathe after bush fires polluted the air in a sign of dangers ahead.
Meanwhile, deaths from a mysterious influenza-like illness were continuing to rise in Wuhan with little initial international alarm or attention.
Sport’s Brave New World
The planet has changed so quickly and profoundly over the past year that the new world of Covid-19 and sport is almost unrecognisable to the world left behind. The pandemic was the Alpha and Omega of sport. 2020 was a year that resembled the iconic one long day from the Don McLean anthem in which the music died.
Sport, once described by US President-elect Joe Biden as the most unifying activity in the world, became a potentially deadly pursuit. While entertainment, tourism, retail and hospitality were left reeling from the sudden loss of record growth, revenues, and investment prior to the pandemic.
“Instead of cheering Olympic champions from the stands, emergency and essential worker were lauded and loudly clapped and cheered from apartment balconies, front doors and street fronts.”
The impact of the virus, described by the Queen of England as “this horrible new thing” was underestimated at almost every turn.
Sport In Grief And Denial
The early and geographically confined outbreaks resulted initially in denial at the potential scale of the threat. But once outbreaks soon spread rapidly and globally, linked to large gatherings and travel, denial turned to anger at delays in suspending or cancelling international events, including some of the world’s biggest sporting occasions.
Like passages of grief, denial and anger gave way to acceptance of the new rules governing the biology of life and sport in 2020, based on a lethal virus transmitted effortlessly in crowded spaces, including sports venues. The pandemic shattered the basic principles of modern sport, especially the ‘Build It and They Will Come’ philosophy.
After a decade of building for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tokyo was postponed while other international sports events were cancelled or deferred, often indefinitely.
Cities In Ruin
The pandemic devastated the world’s sporting capitals.
Some of the heaviest tolls were in former Olympic host and bid cities where the virus thrived in the crowded conditions of Moscow, New York, Rio and London, highlighting the enormous challenge and risks confronting Tokyo next summer.
The world’s response to the pandemic evoked powerful Olympic overtones, highlighting the role of sport in popular culture and how much the virus has changed the world.
After passing the Olympic Truce for the Tokyo Games last year, the United Nations put forward a new peace resolution for governments to suspend hostilities in conflict zones to help virus victims.
Post-Olympic Heroes
Instead of cheering Olympic champions from the stands, emergency and essential worker were lauded and loudly clapped and cheered from apartment balconies, front doors and street fronts as they began and finished their shifts and kept society functioning.
They led the way through the darkness of the pandemic, and should be acknowledged in Tokyo’s opening ceremony.
Unlikely heroes also emerged, like the 100-year-old former British war veteran Captain Tom Moore, who completed 100 laps of his garden supported by his trusty walker, raising tens of millions of pounds for COVID patients.
“Images of shuttered stadiums and vacant venues helped to define these pandemic times, along with empty city centres and pubic squares.”
The frail former fighter displayed more grit and endurance than many Olympic marathon runners, and brought the world to its feet in applause and admiration. Knighted by the Queen, Captain Sir Tom also deserves a medal from the IOC or World Athletics for services to humanity in the new sport of garden walking.
Images of shuttered stadiums and vacant venues helped to define these pandemic times, along with empty city centres and pubic squares used as prime spaces for BMX riders and skateboarders rolling through silent streets under the cover of curfew, practising for Tokyo.
Sport also formed part of the grim response to the Covid crisis, with venues serving as temporary field hospitals, morgues and testing centres. Some governments likened the threat of asymptomatic foreign visitors to that of terrorists carrying explosives, now a standard feature of Olympic Games crisis planning, unlike pandemics.
The interplay between sport, politics and public health dominated 2020.
Sport Loses Its Swing
Golf featured prominently on evening news bulletins like never before as an outgoing and out of touch US President escaped to the fairways while the corona crisis raged out of control.
Some of the world’s best athletes also struggled to comprehend COVID-19. Men’s world tennis number one Novak Djokovic tested positive along with other top players who proved no match for the virus after flouting infection control measures at the infamous exhibition Adria Tour.
A New Approach To Sport
Rafael Nadal, the racquet warrior from Spain, one of the nations hardest hit by the pandemic, adopted a different approach and constantly placed Covid-19 ahead of the rituals of professional sport.
Nadal would produce arguably the single most impressive sports performance of 2020, defeating Djokovic in a straight sets blow out to win his 13th French Open title. The win levelled Nadal with Rodger Federer on 20 grand slam tournament victories, the most in men’s tennis history.
Lewis Hamilton also kept himself safe and ahead of the virus long enough to overtake Michael Schumacher’s legendary 91 Formula 1 wins, regarded by many as once unassailable.
While the full impact of the pandemic on the estimated $600 billion global sports industry currently remains unknown, Covid lockdowns have fast tracked the transition of traditional sports revenue models from stadiums and spectators to screens and online digital devices of all kinds.
Covid exposed sport’s addiction to broadcast rights deals which are being renegotiated at lower levels, reducing revenues to governing bodies and making sport more dependent on government handouts in the immediate post Covid period.
Entire seasons, leagues, competitions, careers, and multi million dollar strikers, quarterbacks, goalies, teams, management committees and executives were sidelined by the pandemic and the virus.
These included FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was infected despite teaming up with World Health Organisation to raise awareness of infection.
Kobe Bryant’s mantra: “The moment you give up is the moment you let someone else win,” is a legacy in the life and death struggle against a virus that has often appeared unstoppable.
The virus was also an occupational hazard for England Football Manager, Gareth Southgate, who too tested positive. Thankfully recovering quickly and ensuring he will lead England’s never-ending quest for a second major title next summer – the most sought after prize in sport along with Olympic gold.
While 2020 was not a World Cup year, football’s position as the world’s most popular sport was further indicated by the global outpouring of grief that followed the death of Diego Maradona, the Jimmy Hendrix of football and George Best of his generation.
The sudden death of global NBA hero Kobe Bryant, a giant of modern sport in stature and influence and a voice of inspiration to youth and wider society, also shocked.
Bryant’s mantra: “The moment you give up is the moment you let someone else win,” is a legacy in the life and death struggle against a virus that has often appeared unstoppable.
The EPL NBA and IPL ranked prominently in top Google sports searches, and confirmed the universal appeal of round ball sports. Football’s, basketball’s and cricket balls were among the most popular items on the planet, found in backyards, schoolyards, storage cupboards homes, community centres and just about anywhere there was enough space to throw, kick or pass a ball.
The Kansas City Chiefs were the champions of American football winning the Super Bowl in historic fashion – the team’s first title in 50 years and one of the last major sporting events played before a full pre-pandemic stadium.
Bayern Munich by contrast was in a league of its after winning the UEFA final six months later behind closed doors. The physicality of the football codes continued to drive another epidemic in sport, as the human cost of head and brain injuries to players and the financial costs to clubs and governing bodies increased due to greater awareness, detection and diagnosis.
Sport in 2020 was a series of stops and starts as the virus relentlessly broke down biosecurity bubbles and hubs, forcing athletes and sports to review priorities.
“The health and well-being of my family and my team will always be my priority,” said Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, women’s tennis world number one.
Barty finished the topsy-turvy 2020 season as the best ranked player despite missing the French and US opens, citing travel and preparation concerns which are also weighing heavily on Olympians preparing for Tokyo.
Making Sport Count
While missteps, misinformation and denial of the virus created chaos and confusion in government and industry sectors across the world, the leaders of the world’s two biggest sporting organisations helped to stabilise the foundations of the Olympic movement and international sport with strong crisis management.
“The deaths from Covid of the mother and six other family members of NBA Timberwolves star and former number one draft pick Karl-Anthony Towns, shocked and highlighted the dangers of the virus closer to home.”
IOC President Thomas Bach and Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, set the tone, warning that without sacrifices there would be dire consequences.
The deaths from Covid of the mother and six other family members of NBA Timberwolves star and former number one draft pick Karl-Anthony Towns, shocked and highlighted the dangers of the virus closer to home.
“I’m the one looking for answers to try to keep my family well informed and make all the moves necessary to keep them alive,” Towns said.
Bach and Coe highlighted the relevance of sport in wider society and times of crisis. Coe helped to quell any early tensions over access to new vaccines, indicating that emergency services and essential workers should be given priority ahead of athletes.
The IOC provided a financial lifeline to Olympic sports, and Bach was awarded the Seoul 2020 international Peace Prize for helping to bring the Korean Peninsula – divided politically and by nuclear missiles – closer through Olympic sport and contact.
An Olympic Game Changer
After successfully negotiating and staging the Pyeongchang Olympics in the shadows of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Covid now looms as another potential weapon of mass destruction.
The tragic death of young Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili while training on the eve of competition for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games shocked the world and placed a renewed focus on sports safety.
The threat of an airborne virus that can attack the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys and blood system of victims has taken safety and security scenarios planning into a whole new galaxy for the Games.
“The increasing poise, profile and confidence of young Japanese tennis star and youth role model Naomi Osaka – a champion for racial justice as well as sport – marked her as a leading candidate to light the Games cauldron in Tokyo.”
Nike’s ‘You Cant Stop Sport’ commercials became the unlikely soundtrack to the year as sport became more resilient against the virus.
The Spirit Of Sport
While sport went into lockdown, stronger and safer systems were trialled and implemented, with ‘Ghost Games’ emerging in largely empty venues as the first new sporting phenomenon of the Covid era.
The ghost protocols produced spirited sporting performances and moments of global interest made even more visible without crowds.
These included Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei who recently smashed the men’s 10,000 metres world record after breaking the 5,000m world record earlier in the year, and establishing himself as the world’s premier long distance runner.
Meanwhile, the search for the next Usain Bolt continues after the recent 100m sprint world champion and US heir apparent, Christian Coleman, was banned for two years after missing a doping test.
British swimming sensation Adam Peaty established himself as a powerhouse of the sport, breaking the world 100m record for the short course at the International Swimming League meet in Budapest and will undoubtedly impress once again in Tokyo.
Lighting A Flame
The increasing poise, profile and confidence of young Japanese tennis star and youth role model Naomi Osaka – a champion for racial justice as well as sport – marked her as a leading candidate to light the Games cauldron in Tokyo.
Coe’s Diamond League meet in Monaco was the most diverse, complex and important global sporting event of 2020. Track and field’s return marked a potential turning point for Tokyo, with athletics the foundation Olympic sport, driving key Games time broadcast and digital engagement for viewers, sponsors, ratings and revenues.
Kneeling For Justice
As well as ghost venues, another new normal for sport in 2020: athletes and sports supporting Black Lives Matter. While the Coronavirus had the world on its knees, players across the sporting spectrum were kneeling in solidarity to stamp out a virus of injustice and racism.
Kneeling for racial equality has featured at a growing number of the sporting events globally, and is likely to be popular at the Tokyo Olympics, invoking also the legacy of the iconic 1968 Mexico Games Black Power salute.
Kneeling has been widely embraced by young people – a key IOC audience – as well as numerous sporting codes in support of black communities and black athletes, who have provided many of the Olympic Movement’s most inspirational and defining moments.
A Conclusion – Sport’s New Reality
The pandemic has forced major sporting events, tournaments and organisers back to base camp to find another pathway back to the pinnacle of their sport.
The way forward in 2021 is still not clear even with a vaccine, due to uncertainties over the effectiveness, time, and logistics inherent in new global immunisation.
“The best organisers can hope and plan for in the immediate months ahead is for Covid safe events rather than Covid free sport. Organisers must be prepared for the virus to exploit any weakness in biosecurity protocols or public health measures and to contain outbreaks immediately.”
The Tokyo Olympic Torch Relay is now due to resume towards the end of March in a demonstration of confidence in the Games, but the assumptions underlying major sport are still uncertain and changing and nothing can be guaranteed.
The serious risks posed by Covid still remain and must be acknowledged.
Sport must be redesigned on the premise that potentially infections will occur in major international sporting environments and local host city populations.
The best organisers can hope and plan for in the immediate months ahead is for Covid safe events rather than Covid free sport. Organisers must be prepared for the virus to exploit any weakness in biosecurity protocols or public health measures and to contain outbreaks immediately.
More has been written and said about sport this year than ever before due to Covid. While Rafael Nadal normally lets his racquet do the talking, but for me his message after winning the French Open title was also a highlight of 2020.
Nadal’s comments provided reassurance and optimism in the face of adversity for sport and society with its ‘We’ll Meet Again’ overtones:
“I want to send a message to everyone around the world. We are facing one of the worst moments that we remember, facing and fighting against this virus. Just keep going, stay positive and together we will win [against] the virus soon.”
Michael Pirrie is an international communications consultant and commentator on the Olympics, international sport and major events. Michael led London’s global media campaign against Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid in the British capital’s successful bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, and was Executive Adviser to the Chair of London’s Olympic Organising Committee, Seb Coe.
Special Analysis: Joe Biden’s Long Run To the Oval Office – Sport and the Making Of A US President
“As much as I lacked confidence in my ability to communicate verbally, I always had confidence in my athletic ability,” Joe Biden.
As Joe Biden’s transition to power formally begins, Michael Pirrie explores how sport helped the President-elect to find his confidence and his voice, and says Biden’s agenda will have a major impact on sport in America and internationally, including the Olympic Games.
“There is often a time, tide and rhythm to human affairs and events, when small things can mean a lot and help to connect the past, present and future – on and off the sporting field. Just ask Joe Biden.”
When travelling with Seb Coe while promoting the London 2012 Olympic Games, paths crossed with then US Vice President, Biden, who, in a warm exchange with Coe quipped he might be president if he had the British running legend’s ample head of hair.
Coe, the multiple British Olympic medallist, world record holder and President of World Athletics, has now been joined in presidential standing by Biden following the most consequential US election of modern times – an epic hair raising victory with a personal backstory full of telling sporting connections, turning points, and overtones.
As well as sharing presidential titles, Biden and Coe share a deep belief in sport and the values and psychology of sport, which has helped to guide their life journeys and who they are as people and leaders.
SPEAKING OF SPORT
Sport has been a constant background theme in Joe Biden’s life, helping to anchor and connect Biden in his youth; find his voice; give him something to say and courage to say it. His sport-inspired belief in himself would ultimately help to deliver his presidential destiny.
“The strength and confidence Biden found from sport in his early life enabled the President-Elect to speak to America and the world with firm eloquence.”
Indeed, the strength and confidence Biden found from sport in his early life enabled the President-Elect to speak to America and the world with firm eloquence about the need to heal and unite in his powerful presidential acceptance presentation.
“As much as I lacked confidence in my ability to communicate verbally, I always had confidence in my athletic ability,” Biden recalls in his memoir.
“Sports were as natural to me as speaking was unnatural. And sports turned out to be my ticket to acceptance – and more.”
That confidence from sport would turn a full circle for Biden decades later when he addressed the Association of National Olympic Committees in the US political capital in 2015; his remarks striking a strong chord with IOC members, contributing to the eventual return of the world’s premier sporting event, the Olympic Games, back to Los Angeles in 2028.
Biden and Coe, a prominent British Parliamentary figure after his stellar sporting career, also share a similar consensus building approach to politics, sport, management, and reform, along with an understated humour in dealing with adversity and success.
BIDEN’S LONG HOME RUN
The tumultuous US election aftermath has overshadowed Biden’s monumental Lazarus-like comeback, as compelling as any sporting triumph over hardship and adversity. Biden approached his presidential campaign like sport.
A keen MLB, NFL and NBA fan, who played football and baseball in his youth, Biden smashed a series of campaign curve balls out of the election ball park – and out of the courts – knocking out light towers along the way and plunging the Trump team into darkness.
Biden’s come-from-behind victory was a slow but steady marathon to the Oval Office. After striking out in two previous campaigns Biden came out swinging, hitting more than 270 golden Electoral College home runs needed to win the presidential season decider.
While Biden may have lacked Coe’s full head of hair, the ageing political warrior kept his head at critical stages. Drawing on inner reserves of resilience and discipline developed while playing sport in his youth, Biden was able to absorb a series of political body blows and personal attacks that many observers thought might have overwhelmed the ageing presidential contender.
After a lifetime of public service and campaigning, Biden stuck to his game plan and made the winning touchdown – just like he did in high school.
TRUE BELIEVER
The lean, rangy and bolt upright athlete’s physique from Biden’s youth was still apparent in his sprint to the podium finish line for his acceptance speech – a lingering legacy from his high school days as a talented football half back and wide receiver.
While an association with sport has become traditional for presidential candidates, sport has been more than a political prop for Biden on his long journey from youngest senator to oldest president.
Biden seems almost as comfortable at the Football World Cup, Olympics and major international, domestic and local league events as in a United States Senate committee hearing.
While never reaching Coe’s Olympic gold medal heights, which Coe set for himself as a 12 year old, sport was also a powerful presence in Biden’s formative years.
“Biden’s early football success gave him the confidence and reassurance to tackle his stuttering with determination and therapy.”
Blessed with a good turn of speed and spatial awareness, Biden was a key player in his undefeated senior year football season where he learnt the power of working in a team operation and environment. This would prove vital to Biden’s future career and a hallmark of his political instincts and style, seeking common ground, goals and compromise.
While Biden called time on a promising football career to concentrate on his legal studies, sport helped to shape his character and approach to life. Faced with a childhood speaking disability, a young Biden learnt that actions could speak louder than words on the sports field.
Biden’s early football success gave him the confidence and reassurance to tackle his stuttering with determination and therapy, which involved many hours of reciting poetry in front of a mirror.
INNER ATHLETE
The confidence Biden found from sport was a turning point in his life. “I wasn’t easily intimidated in a game, so even when I stuttered, I was always the kid who said ‘give me the ball,’” according to the memoir.
Biden scored the most touchdowns in his conference winning team, and has remained connected to his high football glory days through team reunions and other personal contact. Speaking at the induction of his former coach into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 2012, Biden, then US Vice-President to President Obama, recalled the enduring influence of sport and his former coach.
“(He) urged us to play the game the same way you lived your life, with passion and integrity.”
“Biden understands the unique role sport can play as a hidden social worker and teacher in struggling communities as well as improving health outcomes and rebuilding neighbourhoods and race relations.”
“No matter how good you were, coach always stressed that you were a teammate first.”
Like Coe, Biden understands the unique role sport can play as a hidden social worker and teacher in struggling communities as well as improving health outcomes and rebuilding neighbourhoods and race relations.
STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA
These areas were reflected in Biden’s campaign policies, including affordable health care and education along with racial equality and justice, and attracted strong support from across the sporting spectrum.
This included several global US household sports stars and brands, from NBL legends Magic Johnson and LeBron James to veteran tennis icon Billie Jean King and Olympic figure skating champion Michelle Kwan and legions of their fans.
Biden found his political calling and presidential future fighting for improved conditions and opportunities for families, residents and communities in his home state of Delaware and beyond, including Pennsylvania, his birth state, where he secured his historic presidential victory.
The Pennsylvania count included Philadelphia, where, more than 25 years after the highly acclaimed movie of the same name depicted the devastation caused by the HIV-AIDS virus, the screaming spread of the corona virus across America is now Biden’s most urgent task.
RESETTING SPORT
While the primary duty of a nation’s leader is to protect its citizens, Biden’s battle against COVID, if successful, will save lives and reduce crippling levels of death, disease and hospitalisation. This will help to revive key sectors of the US economy and society, including sport.
Curbing the virus will enhance biosecurity at sporting venues, events and competition protocols.
“Hopes remain high that the White House under Biden will help to calm the political, social and economic turbulence triggered by Covid and political uncertainty in global sectors.”
Essential infrastructure and services for sport such as air travel, ground transport, training facilities, accommodation and hospitality will be less dangerous for athletes, staff and fans.
Containing the COVID pandemic in America will also enhance the confidence of visiting athletes, international sports federations and local host city communities in the safety of planning and operations for major global events scheduled for the US in coming years.
These include some of the world’s biggest sporting spectacles such as the 2026 FIFA Football World Cup, which America will co-host with Canada and Mexico, and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, where COVID infections have soared in recent weeks.
WORLD POLITICS, SPORT & OLYMPIC BOYCOTTS
Hopes remain high that the White House under Biden will help to calm the political, social and economic turbulence triggered by Covid and political uncertainty in global sectors, including international sport.
Biden’s election will be welcomed by world sports leaders like Coe, IOC President Thomas Bach, who Biden has previously met, and the wider international sports movement.
While Biden has said little about his position on US-China relations, the new American president is unlikely to support calls for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, despite rising trade, security and human rights tensions amongst the US and its allies, which include several the world’s strongest Olympic nations.
Biden is an internationalist by temperament and respects international conventions, institutions, and organisations, like the IOC and Olympic Movement.
Olympic sport also offers Biden rare potential common ground for cooperation and engagement with China, while a Beijing Games boycott could rebound on the 2028 LA Games, which Biden supported as former Vice President.
“Biden understands the international language and influence of sport in foreign relations and in rebuilding US alliances.”
I recall witnessing Biden’s trusted mentor, former US President Barak Obama, and First Lady, Michelle Obama, lobby IOC members in Copenhagen to bring the 2016 Olympic Games in Chicago.
It was a strong and impressive pitch reinforced by Obama’s presence in the first year of his historic presidency, which proved a security nightmare as IOC members rushed the presidential couple for personal signatures and photos.
The experience for athletes and the technical, commercial and media benefits offered by the Chicago bid were also impressive and deserved much better than a first round knock out, with Obama later casting doubt on the integrity of the selection process and senior members of the successful Rio de Janeiro bid faced corruption and bribery charges, some still before the courts.
While the IOC’s Olympic host city election process may have been harder for Obama to win than US presidential elections, the failure of his adopted home city of Chicago, following New York’s unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, led to deep introspection in US-IOC relations, which Biden has helped to heal.
Looking beyond the disappointment of the New York and Chicago defeats, Biden, when addressing the 2015 meeting of national Olympic committees and leaders, praised IOC members for their dedication to sport, which he described as “the single unifying principle in the world.”
Biden understands the international language and influence of sport in foreign relations and in rebuilding US alliances, another key focus for his administration, and is likely to support new bids for major international events in America when the pandemic begins to subside.
INVICTUS
These are likely to include the Olympic style Invictus Games for war-injured athletes and personnel from nations involved in modern theatres of war. Invictus is the sporting event that Biden and the next First Lady Jill Biden have been most visibly associated in recent times, and the event and community the next first couple feel closest.
While working on the 2016 Invictus Games in Florida, a year after Biden’s eldest son and Iraq war veteran Beau Biden died of cancer, I also witnessed the genuine personal warmth and affection with which the Bidens embraced the event and participants.
The Bidens passionately support the Invictus vision to use sport to help the recovery of war injured men and women and heal nations injured by war.
“Biden will also support better treatment of athletes by national sports governing bodies and strong action by world governing organisations in the fight against doping and other scourges in sport.”
The patron of the Invictus Games, Prince Harry of England, who now lives in California, has formed a close relationship with the Bidens, along with Sir Keith Mills, a leading figure in the London 2012 Olympic Games and architect of Invictus.
The Prince and Mills could be among the first foreign guests invited to the new Biden White House to discuss another Invictus Games, which was originally based on US Warrior Games.
Biden will also support better treatment of athletes by national sports governing bodies and strong action by world governing organisations in the fight against doping and other scourges in sport – the Beau Biden Foundation is helping to raise awareness of the epidemic of sexual abuse of young people in sport at all levels.
UNCONQUORED
In these turbulent times, Biden’s victory on a unity ticket provides hope. Biden gave rise and voice to much of that hope himself, through his own self belief and belief in sport to help overcome personal challenges.
Like the Invictus Games motto itself, Biden remains unconquered; the captain of his soul and master of his fate.
And like Coe, Biden now knows what it feels like to win Olympic gold. In these desperate COVID times, Biden’s special edition gold medal, coloured blue, was delivered in the post, along with the presidency.
Michael Pirrie is an international communications, campaign and media relations specialist who led London’s global media campaign against New York, Paris, Moscow and Madrid to host the Olympic Games in 2012. Michael has worked on several major international events, including the 2016 Invictus Games in Florida, hosted by former First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and was Executive Adviser to London Olympic Committee Chairman, Seb Coe.
Picture: Stratos Brilakis/Shutterstock
Special Report: 20 Years On – How Sydney 2000 Enhanced The Image Of The Olympic Games As The Pinnacle Of World Sport
The Sydney Olympic Games is regarded as one of the best organised and most exciting sporting events of modern times. MICHAEL PIRRIE, media adviser with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, provides an insider’s account of why the Sydney Games was so successful.
The Games insider explains why Sydney marked a major turning point for the Olympic Movement, with innovations in sports competition and organisation and that remain relevant in today’s highly uncertain corona pandemic times.
OLYMPIC MOVEMENT CELEBRATES SYDNEY’S ‘ONCE & FUTURE’ OLYMPIC GAMES
Twenty years ago Australia was staging the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games, beginning with an innovative and joyful Opening Ceremony that would set the stage for the Games, regarded by many as the best sporting event ever staged.
Ric Birch’s opening had the world literally at hello, from the moment his giant ‘G’day’ drop down was released from the ceiling inside the 113,000 capacity Olympic stadium, the biggest in Games history.
“What is really important to me was the spirit of the Games in Sydney,” said Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director.
Pioneering aerial choreography, flying performers and dramatic lighting transformed the stadium into the world’s biggest live theatre production, as an Aboriginal elder accompanied by a local schoolgirl led audiences on a journey of reconciliation, showcasing the indigenous culture and development of the island nation through soaring land and seascapes telling Australia’s story.
Its sequel, in which the ceremony’s cauldron lighting star becomes the sports star of the Games, would be even more compelling. The Olympic Movement, founded on the dreams of athletes, had returned to the original land of dreamtime.
A DREAM COMES TRUE
The Sydney games was a sports utopia with dream scenarios that could have been conjured from the imagination of a Steven Spielberg sports science-fiction script.
In the IOC’s Year of Women, with the Olympic Games in Australia and the host nation on a journey of reconciliation with its indigenous people, the Games would belong to an Aboriginal female athlete with her own dreams.
Sydney was Freeman’s dream and destiny. When Catherine Freeman won, every Australian took home gold. Her famous 400 metres victory bridged the country, stretching across the host city harbour like the iconic bridge itself, and from coast to coast across black and white Australia in a national celebration that united all colours, creeds, faiths, and backgrounds.
Rarely has a sporting event had such an impact.
“For me it was a dream come true; a dream that I had carried with me since I was a little girl,” Freeman said.
“If the Olympics is a symphony of sport in pursuit of perfection, Sydney’s was also a boom, crash opera.”
“Running for me was like breathing. I was born to run, and I had people around me who believed in me and in what I could do.”
HIGHER, FASTER, STRONGER
The late former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch declared Birch’s uplifting ceremony the most beautiful and the Sydney Games the best ever, a view many shared. The influential London Times also agreed and said: “I invite you to suggest a more successful event anywhere in the peacetime history of mankind.”
Sydney’s glowing report card set the Games apart. The 2000 Olympics has become one of the most studied, scrutinised and celebrated major events of modern times.
THE PARTY OLYMPICS
While the Olympic Games produces great sport, Sydney produced a great party. This was a happy games with the lot. The venues had never seen such an audience, the sport so exciting or the city so inviting.
“What is really important to me was the spirit of the Games in Sydney,” said Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director.
“The party atmosphere, the multiple live sites throughout the city which was really bringing the Games to the people,” he said.
If the Olympics is a symphony of sport in pursuit of perfection, Sydney’s was also a boom, crash opera.
Olympic fans, friends, tourists, and strangers celebrated in city squares, streets and suburbs until the early hours. They partied at Live sites; on Central Station platforms; at Circular Quay ferry terminals; and in Darling Harbour bars. No-one wanted to leave or go home.
Some unsuspecting observers might have questioned whether Australia’s water supplies may have been spiked with a mysterious Olympic euphoria-inducing substance.
“Sydney produced a new template for the Games, based around sequential phases in planning of infrastructure and functional area development and integration of operations for venues, the DNA of the Olympics.”
Sydney’s fever pitch atmosphere also highlighted the importance of funding and training pathways for home teams to peak at Games time as the 2010 Vancouver and London 2012 Games also showed.
The party started early in the pool, when the Australian team, with new national swimming hero Ian Thorpe, narrowly overhauled the previously undefeated American Olympic team, with Gary Hall, in the 4×100 metres freestyle final, smashing records and guitars.
Those piercing sound levels in the Aquatics Centre were more like a jet taking off or a Kylie Minogue concert than a sporting event. Fans would have to wait for the closing ceremony to see the pop princess.
“For me, Sydney is really the first time the Games were brought to the people, out in the streets for them to enjoy and party,” Dubi said about Sydney, his first Summer Games.
MONUMENTAL GAMES
Like the athletes, the organisers also had dreams.
We looked to the heavens as a US shuttle carried the Olympic torch to the International Space Station, praying the torch would survive the pressure of gravity forces at lift off.
Sydney was dressed up to party, with a giant installation of the rings on the Harbour Bridge, the first time Olympic symbols had been attached to a host city monument.
This provided an iconic Games backdrop for the Games, aligning Sydney with the Olympic Movement and sport, and led to similar treatments of the rings on other landmarks at future Games, including London’s Tower Bridge for the 2012 Olympics.
Like Sydney’s Opera House, the Games captured the imagination of the world, and sparked the biggest contest amongst major cities to host the Games. The bid cycle that followed Sydney included London, Paris, New York, Moscow, Madrid, Rio, and others, all hoping to emulate Sydney’s success.
NEW OLYMPIC BIBLE
Sydney produced a new template for the Games, based around sequential phases in planning of infrastructure and functional area development and integration of operations for venues, the DNA of the Olympics.
The new model for planning and operating Games venues enhanced the experience for athletes, officials, spectators, broadcasters and others, and formed the basis of the IOCs inaugural Transfer of Knowledge program, now essential for organising and bid committees.
“So for the organisation, the way we approach it with the various sequences and the overarching structure of Games organisation is still based on Sydney,” the Olympic Games Executive Director said.
“The first capitalisation on a Games to help the next Games was built in Sydney,” Dubi explained.
“It was a complete philosophical and managerial change.”
SPORTING UTOPIA
The forensic attention to detail by Australian Olympic Committee president and Sydney Games ringmaster, John Coates, on conditions for athletes from all participating nations was fundamental to Sydney’s success.
“A senior Sydney media executive called a meeting of editorial staff in the early stages of the Games and demanded to know why the Games was going so well.”
The focus by Coates (now the IOC senior member overseeing Tokyo’s preparations) on competition, training, and accommodation facilities along with transport and other key support services, was paramount.
This enabled the world’s best athletes to perform at their best in Sydney.
The athletes produced a plethora of world, Olympic, continental, national and individual records and iconic sporting moments and performances.
This created an electrifying atmosphere in the venues that radiated out to Live sites, parties and celebrations across the host city and nation, which defined Sydney, and enhanced the image of the Olympic Games as the pinnacle of world sport.
The landmark performances included Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselaisse’s epic gold medal victory, sprinting to the finish line after 25 gruelling laps around the track, and winning by a fraction of a second.
This was one of many electrifying performances by athletes from across the globe in what many believe may have been the best night of competition in Olympic history, known as Magic Monday, in front of almost 110,000 spectators, the biggest ever Olympic Games crowd. Other ‘Magic Monday’ medallists included USA’s Michael Johnson, and Jonathan Edwards and Denise Lewis from Great Britain, along with Australia’s Freeman.
OLYMPIC OBSESSION
As the Games got closer, a national obsession developed over Australia’s readiness to deliver hundreds of Olympic sporting and cultural events simultaneously across dozens of Games venues and locations in Sydney and around Australia, all dependent on the immediate resolution of every operational issue that might arise, with the whole world watching and Australia’s international reputation on the line.
Indeed, the international travel writer Bill Bryson observed that “it is literally not possible to name a catastrophic contingency, short of asteroid impact or nuclear attack, that hasn’t been mooted and exhaustively analysed in the nation’s press in the lead up to the Games.”
Too much attention had been focussed on the potential for things to go wrong, until a senior Sydney media executive called a meeting of editorial staff in the early stages of the Games and demanded to know why the Games was going so well.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
Sydney’s unprecedented success was driven by intensive planning, integration and testing of operations and communications across all Games sites, systems, services and facilities, along with well rehearsed teams and dynamic leadership in Sydney’s Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Socog).
“This was a model for the Olympic Movement’s focus on legacy and sustainable community and environmental change linked to the Games, providing a template for the regeneration of east London through the London 2012 Games.”
This included CEO Sandy Holway, COO Jim Sloman, Communications Chief Milton Cockburn, and Sports Director Bob Elphinstone, who were all vital to Sydney’s success.
These, and other Sydney Games executives and staff – many of whom have since worked as Olympic and international sports and major events specialists, including Craig McLatchey, Simon Balderstone, Karen Webb, Neil Fergus, Di Henry, Anthony Scanlan, Jackie Brock-Doyle, David Higgins and others – highlighted the need for world class organising committees to deliver the Games.
The strong partnership the IOC’s Sydney Games team was supremely important.
This included Dr Jacques Rogge, who oversaw the IOC’s successful Games preparations and succeeded Samaranch as president, along with the IOC’s now retired and highly regarded Olympic Games strategy and planning director Gilbert Felli, who played a crucial role in coordinating efforts for Sydney; marketer of the rings, Michael Payne; and emerging senior executives and leaders including Dubi and Philippe Furrer.
OLYMPIC FRIENDS
We also had a lot of help from a lot of friends along the way.
These included the Hollywood actor and advocate, Geena Davis, who pitched in to help publicise archery, an unfamiliar sport in Australia. The highly acclaimed Davis, who almost qualified for the US Olympic archery team, was in a league of her own.
Ticket sales soared, much to the relief of our ticket communications manager John O’Neill, and Davis gave archery its biggest profile since Robin Hood.
The Australian public and volunteers were our best friends, filling the venues and supporting and celebrating the Games like never before. They, and many hundreds of thousands of others, each played important roles and made the Games possible.
CONCLUSION: SYDNEY’S ‘ONCE & FUTURE’ OLYMPIC GAMES
Sydney’s party atmosphere created a new sports and entertainment experience and model for the Olympic movement.
Venues were designed as high performing entertainment centres for sport with relevant and integrated functions and services for athletes, spectators, broadcasters, officials, and support teams.
Sydney’s Olympic venues went beyond sport, reducing carbon emissions and traditional energy requirements through recycled water and solar power to reduce environmental impact.
BEYOND SPORT
The Sydney Olympic Park and Village was one of the biggest solar powered communities in the southern hemisphere.
New Olympic-related infrastructure for the Games, including road and rail connections, has provided commercial and community services for a new suburb to help met Sydney’s expanding population.
This was a model for the Olympic Movement’s focus on legacy and sustainable community and environmental change linked to the Games, providing a template for the regeneration of east London through the London 2012 Games.
Along with great sport and a great party, the Sydney Games also had great humanity, pointing to possibilities for progress in wider society.
This included North and South Korea delegations united behind the Olympic flag, and former US President Bill Clinton using Sydney’s reconciliation theme as motivation for Middle East Peace talks.
The bravery of East Timor athletes who emerged from a deadly civil war to proudly represent their devastated nation in Sydney touched the world. Sports equipment, clothing and other assistance was organised by former Australian IOC executive Kevan Gosper to support athletes from the impoverished nation.
“The achievements and symbols of hope and progress from the Sydney Olympic Games are needed now more than ever.”
Some East Timor athletes had trained in bare feet or street shoes to get to the Games, which marked a significant step in the newly independent nation’s important relationships within the international community.
The Sydney Games was attended by the late Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Peter Norman, the white Olympic sliver medal sprinter from Australia in the famous Mexico Games Black Power Salute. The trio dreamed of equality and peace and they believed that the Olympic values and sport mattered and that black lives most certainly matter.
Sydney’s Games helped to highlight the heritage, culture, and achievements of Australia’s indigenous people in key Olympic programs and moments, showed that black lives matter, and the programs illustrated how Olympic sport, human rights and the environment matter.
FROM SYDNEY TO TOKYO
The Sydney Games, its reconciliation ceremonies, and Cathy Freeman’s win remain among Australia’s proudest moments. The impact and influence spans the sporting, political and social culture of the host nation.
Momentum gained from Freeman’s victory has helped to pave the way for a new generation of indigenous and non-indigenous athletes.
These include Australia’s proudly indigenous new women’s world tennis number one, Ashleigh Barty, and the captain of the Australian national women’s soccer team, Samantha Kerr.
“I am still inspired by Cathy Freeman at the 2000 Olympics,” Kerr said after Australia and New Zealand were selected earlier this year to co-host the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
The FIFA final, arguably the biggest sporting event in Australia since the 2000 Olympics, alongside the 2015 Men’s Cricket World Cup, will be held in the same stadium where Freeman won her medal in Sydney Olympic Park.
But the world has changed dramatically on the journey from Sydney to Tokyo. The Sydney Olympics could not have happened in the current pandemic – opening ceremony audience participation kits would contain a face mask and sanitiser instead of a glow torch.
In a world broken by coronavirus, race relations and environmental degradation, the achievements and symbols of hope and progress from the Sydney Olympic Games are needed now more than ever.
Michael Pirrie is an international media and communications advisor and commentator on major events. Michael was media adviser with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and led the global media campaign for the successful London 2012 Olympic Games Bid against New York, Paris, Moscow and Madrid.