The Australian Olympic Committee's Chief Executive Officer - Fiona de Jong, presented an Olympic Day Seminar at the UTS Business School hosted by ACOS. Fiona de Jong discussed the role of technology in sport and travel industries, giving examples of adaptation and change. “We can be at the mercy of change or we can drive change,” she said.
As the 15th anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Games nears, Adjunct Professor Richard Cashman looked at the continuing development of the Sydney Olympic Park site in Homebush. “Sydney Olympic Park keeps evolving,” he told the seminar, which drew an audience of sport administrators, former Olympians and researchers. The commercial model developed for the park meant it had become “a vibrant suburb rather than a disused, unloved museum of sport”. Sydney Olympic Park was a great example of an Olympic legacy, he said.
Adjunct Professor Tony Veal considered whether the Sydney Games also meant a legacy of increased participation in sport. Analysis of official data did not provide a clear answer to that question, he said, partly because of gaps in the data collected in the years following the Games. “Nevertheless, the question still has to be whether it is possible to boost participation and, if so, how? Even if we could find more firmly that there has been no legacy to date, how do we know that isn’t because we are not doing things right?"
Olympic Day is marked on June 23 each year. It was on this date in 1894 that Pierre de Coubertin secured the revival of the Olympic Games.
Main photo: Fiona de Jong, chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee, (C) National Olympic Committee