The Sydney 2000 Olympics bid and its impact on the process of redefining Australian national identity
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 1996
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When in 1993 Sydney was awarded the rights to host the Olympic Games in the year
2000, the Olympic Bid was hailed by the media and governments alike as a milestone in
the development of Australia as a nation. Throughout the Olympic Bid the question of
civic pride and identity (as a culturally diverse nation) seemed to transcend with ease the
traditional boundaries/inhibitions of social and political divisions in Australian society.
Although initially conceived by the New South Wales State Government as a local
venture Sydney's Bid soon developed into a project of national importance boasting the
active involvement of wide cross sections of Australian society, including both major
political parties, unions, industry and commerce, ethnic and indigenous community
groups. In a time of uncertainty and change, the successful Olympic Bid appeared to
offer a reaffirmation of Australia's achievements as a nation and was highlighting the
potential of the Sydney Olympics as an agent for 'national reconciliation and
reconstruction' .
This thesis sets out to examine the phenomenon of the Sydney Olympic Bid within the
current debate on national identity in Australia. How, if at all, did the Olympic Bid
impact on the nation building process in Australia? There are no exact terms of
measurement for the status of a nation's identity hence it is not aimed to quantify
statistically a possible impact of the Bid. The main objectives of the research are twofold.
First to identify and critically analyse the theoretical/philosophical and historical
processes that delineate the phenomenon of the Olympic Bid. Second to establish a
framework of relationships that connect those processes. How do they interact?
It is argued that the concept of national identity as a sense of collectivity is centred upon
an act of imagination within the spheres of subjectivity. Although being an abstract
concept that is often likened to quasi religious observance, the nation is set in and
subjected to the power relations of the socio political framework within a bounded
territory. The imagined community of nation does not occur naturally, it requires an
active process of communication that relies on symbolic representations such as flags,
anthems, a history of heroic acts, and collective experiences. It is within the context of
symbolic representations and imagination that the Olympic Bid operated and ultimately,
however temporarily, impacted on Australian nationhood. Undoubtedly, the Olympic Bid
has given a grand promise of a collective identity that is based on an all inclusive
membership. However, it is argued that the bid operated predominantly through
projections of an idealised future that imposed versions of Australianness, namely
multiculturalism and reconciliation with the indigenous people, which by no means can
be considered as fully developed or resolved within the current process of redefining
Australian identity.
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