download - IOA

to understand the philosophy of Olympism and recognised the Games as a
showcase of this philosophy rather than purely a sporting contest. The Greek
philosophy of a balanced education of the mind, body and soul coupled with
Baron Pierre de Coubertin's adaptation and interpretation of this ideal fascinated
me, and I wanted to learn more. I wanted to be involved. I wanted to experience
it on a level more intimate than through the television and newspapers.
So imagine my surprise when one day as I sifted through the
newspapers I saw an advertisement for a position in the Olympic Training
Centre at the Australian Institute of Sport. To cut a long and rather stress-laden
story short, I was offered the job, which I accepted enthusiastically.
The Olympic Training Centre program is a scholarship program for elite
athletes, coaches and sports medicine practitioners from Oceania and eleven
National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from Africa. It was a program also for
Australia's indigenous people - the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Funded
by a variety of organisations including Olympic Solidarity, the Australian Olympic
Committee and the Australian Government, it offered scholarships, three months
on average, to those applicants elected by their NOC to come to Australia to train.
Through this program I was able to work with and meet the most amazing variety
of sportsmen and women from the most diverse cultural, sporting and socioeconomical
backgrounds. I could experience first hand the effect that the Olympic
dream was having on peoples' lives and these scholarships were changing lives.
Working with the developing nations showed me the role that sport plays as a
means of education and personal development. More than a means to stay fit;
sport was proving a tool for social and personal change. It was also the beginning
of my education by Olympism.
It was fascinating to be working with such a diverse group of people, athletes
from sports that you wouldn't normally associate with their country — a gymnast
from Cameroon, cyclists from Uganda, equestrian competitors from Swaziland,
wrestlers from Samoa, an archer from Mauritius-the list goes on. It was interesting
to hear their stories and to tell some others. I always look back and laugh when
I recall how an Ugandan cyclist, complaining of chest pains was rushed to
hospital in the middle of the night-only for the doctors to discover after a myriad
of tests, that nothing was wring with his heart - they were baffled. It wasn't until
the next day that we discovered that earlier that day, he had done weight training
for the first time in his life and what he was experiencing was typical muscle
soreness as a result of his training-that's all. But it was a type of soreness that he
had not experienced before it was strange to him and it scared him. Knowledge
that many of us take for granted, but the opportunities that these people were
receiving through the Olympic movement was teaching theses people something.
They were teaching me something also.
I was learning that sport was more than gold medals. It was more than
world records, sponsorship endorsements and mass marketing. It was about
participating. It was about personal bests, improved times and National records.
It was about the chance to represent their country-an honour bestowed on few
162