Welcome Back! Sydney 2000 Opening Quiz

Answer: None of these choices is correct.

The 1956 Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne. At that time, Australia's quarantine laws were so strict that competing horses could not have been imported without a very lengthy period of isolation. As a result, the equestrian events took place in Stockholm, Sweden and had in fact been completed five months before the Melbourne opening ceremony. Bill Roycroft was a member of Australia's three-day eventing team through five successive Olympiads spanning years 1960 to 1976.

In 1960, suffering concussion, he left his Rome hospital bed against medical advice and rode a perfect round to take his team to a Gold Medal.

Answer: Michael Wenden

Michael Wenden was a swimmer whose unconventional fast flailing stroke meant he could sprint, but not endure over middle or long-distance events. In Mexico City 1968 he won Gold for the 100 and the 200 metre freestyle, beating Mark Spitz and Don Schollander.
The altitude of Mexico City affected his heart rhythm, and after winning the 200m, he became unconscious and sank under the water.

Bob Windle was the team-mate who came to Wenden's aid.
Nick Green was among the Olympic flag bearers, but had been a member of the "Oarsome Foursome" rowing team which won Gold at two Olympics.
Russell was a swimmer in 1968, but competed for the USA.

Michael Wenden was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979.

Answer: The Lithgow Flash

The three incorrect answers are names of towns close to Marjorie's girlhood home of Lithgow.
Marjorie Jackson won individual Gold in the 100 and 200 metres at Helsinki, becoming the first Australian to win an Olympic championship in athletics since the inaugural Games of Athens, 1896.
The women's 4x100 relay team was also highly favoured to win, but a fumbled baton change ruined their prospects.
Marjorie married Olympic cyclist Peter Nelson. After his death in 1977, she launched a Leukaemia Research Fellowship named in his honour.
In 2001, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson was appointed to the post of Governor of South Australia, a post she held for six years.

Answer: Gillian Rolton

Gillian was competing in Atlanta on her horse Peppermint Grove, when they fell. She remounted and continued, unable to use her left arm. At the next obstacle, Gillian was thrown heavily into water. Again she remounted and continued her round, clearing a further fifteen fences. After the race, she was found to have a broken collarbone and ribs.

Lorraine Crapp and Liane Tooth were both in the eight chosen to escort the Olympic flag.
Swimmer Lorraine finished the 1996 100 metres freestyle final in second place behind her friend and rival Dawn Fraser, but reversed the order in the 400 metres.
Liane Tooth played as a forward in "The Hockeyroos", winning Gold for Women's Field Hockey in Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996.
Lucinda Fredericks is also an Olympic Horsewoman, one of the Australian team which won Olympic Silver in 2008.

Answer: Murray Rose

After his success at the Melbourne Olympics, Murray successfully defended his 400 metre title in Rome in 1960. The Australian Swimming Union declared him ineligible to compete at the Tokyo Games because he had not competed in the Australian Championships earlier that year.
Murray moved to the USA to study at the University of Southern California.
He began a career in marketing and was at one time a senior marketing executive with the LA Lakers.
He has been a long-time patron of The Rainbow Club, an Australian organisation which teaches swimming to disabled children.
The other names listed are the remaining members of the winning 4x200 metre relay team of 1956.

Answer: Dawn Fraser

Our Dawnie! One could almost hear the grinding of teeth from Olympic officials as she sat among them: Dawn Fraser and officialdom were never a comfortable combination!
A well-deserved honour, but it seemed a pity that Australia's greatest of all Olympians was not out on the arena with the other legends.
Later, as the Olympic flame was relayed around a darkened stadium, the spotlight revealed the next torchbearer in line ; Our Dawnie again! The roar of the crowd said it all.
On a sad note, the wife of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch was too ill to accompany him to Australia. Immediately after the opening ceremony, he made a rush trip back to Spain, but his wife had died two hours before his arrival.

Answer: Herb Elliot

It is said that Herb Elliot was never beaten over a course of 1500 metres. At the Rome Olympics of 1960 he won the Gold Medal for this event. Retiring from athletics in 1961, Herb became a successful businessman and has received accolades for his support of sporting and charitable organisations. He has been voted among Western Australia's 100 most influential citizens.

Percy Cerutty was Herb Elliot's trainer, known for alternative methods. His athletes trained over sand dunes in preference to the track or the gym.
Edwin Flack was Australia's first Olympic champion. He was the only Australian to participate in the first modern-day Games, entering independently, since Australia did not then have an Olympic Committee.
Ron Clarke was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron in Melbourne 1956. Archival film shows him flinching as the flame scorched his right forearm! He had a career as a middle and long-distance runner, but never achieved Olympic Gold. Ron was elected Mayor of Queensland's Gold Coast in 2004.

Answer: Betty Cuthbert

All of these athletes carried the Olympic Flame in turn.

"Golden Girl", Betty Cuthbert at age 18 won Gold in 1956 for the 100 and 200 metres sprints, also running in the winning 4x100 relay team. Injury forced her from competition in Rome 1960. She announced her retirement, but returned and won Gold in the 400 metres in Tokyo 1964. News photographs show Betty crossing the finish line with her blonde hair flying and her mouth typically wide open. Sadly she developed Multiple Sclerosis in her 30's and is now confined to a wheelchair.

Raelene Boyle was the former sprinter who pushed Betty's wheelchair. She didn't win Olympic Gold, but many wonder if her two Silver medals at Munich might have been surpassed if not for the now-documented use of anabolic steroids by the East German who defeated her. In recent years Raelene developed breast and ovarian cancer, and now uses her public profile to advocate for sufferers of these diseases.

Shirley Strickland-de la Hunty made her Olympic debut in 1948 at the London Games. A Science graduate and lecturer, her athletic career spanned three Olympiads where she won a total of 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze in sprints and hurdles.
Married to geologist Lawrence de la Hunty, she raised four children. She stood unsuccessfully for politics at State level, but was elected to council in City of Melville, W.A. She was a committed environmentalist.
Shirley died in 2004 aged 78, and was given a State funeral.

Debbie Flintoff-King competed in Los Angeles 1984 in the 400 metres hurdles. She reached the finals, but did not win a medal. Returning to Seoul in 1988, she won the event despite just having heard of the sudden death of her sister.
Debbie is married to her coach Phil King, and is a national coach in Olympic Junior Development.

Answer: Shane Gould

Shane Gould married young and left the public eye to live a simple rural lifestyle, during which she raised four children and became Western Australia's State Horse Ploughing Champion in 1993 and 1994.
She has now returned to public life where she is a motivational speaker and researcher of swimming training methods.

Gail Neall and Beverley Whitfield were both Olympic swimmers of the 1970's.
Susie O'Neill (Madam Butterfly) had a successful Olympic career, but was not born until 1973.

Answer: A computer glitch occurred.

Cathy Freeman ran lightly up the steps and into the centre of a circlar pool.
She touched her flame to the water, and a ring of fire appeared around her. The sunken cauldron, now lit, rose slowly and majestically - then stopped about twenty feet above Cathy's head! There it remained, dripping, for the next four minutes or so until the failed computer program could be over-ridden.
Finally it resumed its journey up the waterfall ramp to its place above the stadium.
Cue the fireworks and let The Games begin!
(Could somebody please pass Cathy a towel?)