THE OLYMPIC YOUTH CAMP

　　St Josephs College

　　14 September - 1 October 2000

　　搜狐体育讯 "In accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now at Sydney."

　　In Atlanta 1996, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch used these familiar words to remind aspiring athletes that Sydney’s Olympiad began in just a few months. But for a happy few young men and women, the Games themselves were not the direct reason to assemble in Sydney in September 2000. They, on the strength of outstanding achievements in their individual fields and countries, had been selected to take part in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Youth Camp (OYC).

　　The OYC gave these 381 young people, aged 16 to 18 years, from 170 NOCs, speaking 70 different languages, a first-hand experience of the Olympic ideals of peace, enterprise, teamwork, sportsmanship, fair play and participation.

　　They had the chance to interact with their contemporaries and gain an awareness of the global community, develop an understanding of the role of the Olympic Games in modern society, establish an international circle of friends and achieve a sense of empowerment. For many, this was not only their first visit to Australia, but also the first time they had left their home country.

　　The OYC would be a life-changing experience for most campers. New ideas would be explored, new lessons learned. The organisers wanted participants to feel that they could change the world, and this was what most of them took home. The overall theme of the camp was ‘The Environment and the Role of Youth in Its Protection’.

　　All in all, the OYC was an awesome opportunity for experience and leadership development, as well as for the formation of lifelong friendships. It was also an occasion for the participants to discover and enjoy the unexpectedly diverse island continent of Australia.

　　A camp was proposed by Sydney Olympics 2000 Bid Ltd as part of the bid to host the Olympic Games. Although there was not a contractual obligation for SOCOG to hold an OYC, Chapter 5, Section 58 of the Olympic Charter states:

　　"... with the authorisation of the IOC Executive Board, the Organising Commitee for the Olympic Games may, under its own responsibility, organise an international youth camp on the occasion of the Olympic Games."

　　The youth camp concept originated at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, when King Gustav V invited 1500 Boy Scouts to set up their tents near the Olympic Stadium. Although there were no further camps prior to the Second World War, another Scandinavian host city, Helsinki, took up the idea in 1952. The experience proved so successful that an OYC has been held during each subsequent Olympic Games except those of Melbourne (1956) and Los Angeles (1984).

　　Planning

　　SOCOG began preparing for the OYC in November 1997. Close working relationships were established with most NOCs, and in March 1998 they were informed in more detail about dates, location and the plan of activities for the OYC. All were invited to send one male and one female participant. When some NOCs declined to nominate delegates, others were able to increase their representation; the USA sent ten delegates, Canada eight and New Zealand three. Australia would have 20 participants, four of them indigenous youth.

　　The Australian representative at the Atlanta OYC had happy memories and exhorted other young Australians to apply: "I would urge everyone between 16 and 18 years of age to enter. Mixing with young people from other countries is a fantastic experience, you can’t beat it - and you get to go to the Games." Few would argue with his straightforward assessment.

　　1. The Olympic Youth Camp was held at St. Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill - UTE WEGMANN/SOCOG

　　2. Various electives were available for the youth campers. During an art workshop, participants created works on the topics of environment, culture and sport, which were later exhibited - MATTHEW STOCKMAN/ALLSPORT

　　3. Happy campers: participants pose during the official opening day at St. Joseph’s - TONY

　　It was the responsibility of each country’s NOC to select their representatives; many invited applicants to explain in an essay why they should be chosen. While some criteria varied, all applicants had to identify their reasons for wanting to come, and indicate their sporting, academic and community involvement.

　　A total of 187 NOCs indicated their interest in the program. SOCOG and Olympic Solidarity - the IOC arm that provides financial aid to NOCs - would pay the airfares for participants. Team Millennium Olympic Partners sponsor McDonald’s would pay the per diem for one camper from each participating NOC.

　　SOCOG attempted to finalise the number of participating NOCs at the Chefs de Mission Seminar in September 1999, but changes to arrangements, often unannounced, continued even after the camp had opened. The failure of many NOCs to respond to OYC requests, messages and deadlines made overall planning difficult.

　　Sydney

　　The base of the OYC was St Joseph’s College, known locally as Joey’s, a private boys’ school in the suburb of Hunter’s Hill on the lower reaches of the Parramatta River. Joey’s is the largest boarding school in Sydney, with a rich sporting and Olympic tradition - it can count 15 Olympians as old boys. It is set in a magnificent 16-hectare park and has dining and residential facilities, a 50 m swimming pool, computer room, theatre, tennis courts, football pitches, volleyball and basketball courts, a cricket ground and a fully equipped gymnasium. Here the campers experienced the Olympic Games, and life in a cosmopolitan city. Their learning covered the specific objectives of Olympism; cultural diversity; environmentalism; and Australian history, geography and culture.

　　The participants began to arrive at the OYC on September 12, three days before the official opening of the Olympic Games. The Olympic torch relay, which passed Hunter’s Hill on 13 September, was a cause for excitement for the campers, as two OYC delegates had been selected to carry the torch: Jessica McNeill of Australia and Magnus Sveinn Jonsson of Iceland. The entire camp went to watch the torchbearers, to cheer them on and then join with residents of Hunter’s Hill for the community celebrations. On the next day, 14 September 2000, the OYC was officially opened by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane, and an Aboriginal elder from Sydney welcomed the campers to the Aboriginal ancestral lands on which the OYC was located.

　　During the Sydney phase the daily program included such electives as drama, dance, band, choir, website and newsletter. In addition there were Olympic Movement studies, environment projects, including the reforestation of 10 000 trees, the preparation of a paper titled The Youth 2000 Paper on the Environment which was presented to President Samaranch when he visited the OYC, and workshops on cultural diversity and stereotypes. All over St Joseph’s there were groups of campers working together, creating dances and paintings, rehearsing songs and theatre pieces.

　　All OYC participants were given the chance to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, forming an audible and colourful cheering squad while the athletes marched into the arena. They also saw various sport competitions and visited the Olympic Village with their NOCs. The participants learned about Sydney through a ‘Treasures of Sydney’ treasure hunt and witnessed a surf-lifesaving carnival at Collaroy Beach. They hiked through the Blue Mountains and held cultural exchange evenings, during which they showcased examples of art and dance from their respective countries. This is how one of the campers described bushwalking in the Blue Mountains, "On the walks, campers were able to experience beautiful waterfalls, the soothing smell of the eucalyptus trees, and the uniquely Australian flora and fauna." The aroma of gum trees is the ubiquitous scent of the Australian bush.

　　4 - 7. Youth campers from around the world meet on the opening day of the Olympic Youth Camp, a day before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games – UTE WEGMANN/SOCOG

　　In their natural habitat, the creatures of the Australian bush are shy and are often seen only fleetingly, or from a distance. There are, however, numerous wildlife reserves where the inhabitants are tamer, and visiting one of these the campers were able to hug agreeable koalas and consider other less cuddly locals, such as the saltwater crocodile, from a safe distance.

　　Some eminent Olympians gave the campers worthy encouragement and advice. Tapio Korjus, Finnish exponent of the javelin, talked to them about the experience of attending the OYC in Moscow in 1980, winning the gold medal in Seoul in 1988, and now, in Sydney, being a leader of the Finnish athletics team. His own OYC experience, he told the campers, contributed greatly to his continued involvement in sport and the Olympic Movement. Olympic legend Carl Lewis, winner of nine gold medals, who addressed the campers over breakfast one morning, asked them to take home with them what they had seen. "There are not many times when the entire world stops and joins hands. The Olympic Games is one of those times." He advised the participants to set goals, achieve them, then set more. "You obviously all made strong positive decisions in your lives or you wouldn’t be here ... go back to your communities and inspire people."

　　The OYC had a flexible program with ample free time which participants used to catch up on sleep, letters, reading, journal writing and emailing, as email facilities were provided in the computer room. This free time was important as it also provided an opportunity for participants to get together and informally discuss issues that affected them.

　　For the organisers, running the OYC posed some challenges. The number of foreign languages that would be represented at the camp and the varying standard of English amongst the participants had been identified as major issues during the planning phase. Despite SOCOG’s request that all participants have at least enough understanding of English to comprehend basic directions and safety instructions, some NOCs sent young people who understood no English at all. A few spoke only a little-known language or dialect. While every effort was made to have interpreters present, there were instances when communication was difficult. Some NOCs seemed not to have spent much time agonising over their selection process and sent young athletes who thought they would be attending an intensive sports training academy, and had only the vaguest concept of the Olympic Games. Yet the energy, high spirits and happiness of the campers were contagious and not to be denied, and in the beautiful surroundings of St Joseph’s College, all obstacles were overcome.

　　On their final evening at Joey’s a celebration banquet was held. Groups from the cultural electives - the band, choir, dance and drama programs - presented works and demonstrated the success of the cultural exchange.

　　8. St. Joseph’s was conveniently located, close both to Sydney Olympic Park and the city - SOCOG

　　9. A participant performs a dance during the official opening of the camp. While at St. Joseph’s, Cultural Exchange evenings gave participants a chance to demonstrate dances and songs to illustrate their country’s traditions - UTE WEGMANN/SOCOG

　　10. During the days at St. Joseph’s, there was a wide variety of sports on offer - TONY

　　Aussie Adventure

　　On 27 September the campers split into groups of 40 for the first leg of their Aussie Adventure. This was a three-day homestay which provided a taste of small-town Australia for the campers, while they, like the torch relay, brought the Games to regional New South Wales. Ten towns a few hours out of Sydney, including Nowra, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Bathurst, Gosford and Port Stephens, were selected, and families with at least one youth the same age as the delegate billeted the campers. Each of the ten groups travelled to their towns by coach.

　　Four OYC staff deployed in each town to be called upon if needed, but in most case the delegates stayed with their host families throughout their visit. Families developed their own program of activities. The campers’ stay was only three days duration but this was enough time, in many cases, for a strong bond to form and assurances of ‘keeping in touch’ were exchanged as the young delegates bade their hosts good-bye.

　　The campers were reunited on September 30 at Cairns, 2450 km north of Sydney in tropical North Queensland. This part of the camp offered more experiences with indigenous culture, as well as an introduction to the world heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, two of Earth’s most abundant and visually splendid ecosystems.

　　The OYC was split into males and females and housed at two resort hotels in Palm Cove, a small seaside village 30 km north of Cairns, far enough away to ensure that the bright lights of a major tourist city did not pose a distraction. Each day, buses gathered participants for their excursions: to Kuranda to see the rainforest, the butterfly farm and Birdworld; to Yarrabah for a day of activities with the indigenous community of 3000 people from 28 different tribes; and finally, to the sapphire seas of the Great Barrier Reef - the only living thing on Earth visible from space - for snorkelling amidst the remarkable underwater life.

　　Representatives of the Cairns Youth Action Committee joined the campers for a banquet and Olympic Games Closing Ceremony party. Again, OYC delegates had the opportunity to meet with young people from Australia and share information and experiences. Watching the Closing Ceremony on television was an emotional occasion, a reminder that their time in Australia was drawing to an end. Delegates gathered for one final meal together on 4 October. Candles were distributed to all. The two torchbearers, Jessica McNeill and Magnus Sveinn Jonsson, had their candles lit by the Camp Director. They passed the flame on to the rest of the group. As the last candle was lit, the Sydney OYC ended - far too soon, in the opinion of most of the campers.

　　Ultimately the OYC was about new experiences. The campers had plenty of these, due to the number of different environments they encountered. Of course, a big place like Sydney was not entirely new to those from urban centres - although Sydney is more diverse than most cities - but diving in the translucent waters surrounding the coral cays of the Great Barrier Reef provided a thrill few could previously have experienced. Perhaps the young man from the Bahamas was one who had, but then, chewing on a straw and watching black and white cows ambling in to be milked on a Moss Vale, NSW, dairy farm, was certainly new to him.

　　The campers left their marks not only in the sands of tropical North Queensland. While in camp at Joey’s the students created a web-page (www.oyc2000.com). They might have wished for more time to refine it but in it they have left a record of themselves and their time in Australia. They also created a chat room, which they continue to use to communicate with each other, with the easy informality that comes from having shared common experiences and adventures.

　　11. One of the highlights of the activities in Sydney was a Surf Lifesaving demonstration at Collaroy Beach, featuring a rescue, a motorboat relay, sand races, rowing and paddling. After a day of exhausting activities, the campers were treated to a beachside barbecue - SIMON DEAN/THE MANLY DAILY

　　12. A teamleader and campers from the Netherlands, Peru, Angola and Yemen gather for a group shot during their three-day family home stay in the Goulburn area - LOUISE THROWER/THE GOULBURN POST

　　13. A special excursion during the Queensland stay took the youth camp participants to an indigenous community in Yarrabah, where they were, among other things, instructed in the art of boomerang throwing - BEN BLACKETT/THE CAIRNS POST

　　The novelty of the locations and the fact that there were no pre-existing social networks encouraged an ‘all-for-one’ spirit of cooperation among the campers. "It wasn’t hard because you had 381 youths from 170 different countries thrown together without anyone they knew, in the same place," one reflected. "We all had to depend on each other."

　　One young woman, on her return home overseas, reported that she was receiving up to 100 emails a day from her recent camp-mates. "I now have friends in every corner of the world," she told a reporter in her home-town. "That’s great, except now the news [of crises] around the world, really hits home; I think: Yikes, I’ve got friends there!" Yet this new awareness that things happening far away also have consequences is not a bad thing. Olympism is after all an internationalist movement that encourages its adherents to consider issues with a vision that does not dissolve at the boundaries of their own nations.

　　Other participants agreed the camp had changed their outlooks on life. One said, "I want to travel around everywhere now, including Australia. I want to learn different languages … I’d like to major in international studies or international relations. Now I think I’d like to do international law."

　　While over time the initial frenzy of communication will inevitably abate, it is equally certain that many of the friendships cultivated in the happy days of September 2000 will endure for many Olympiads to come.

　　14. Youth campers were able to witness traditional aboriginal dances in Yarrabah - BEN BLACKETT/THE CAIRNS POST

　　15. Friendships grew fast and proved to be one of the most precious memories for participants - UTE WEGMANN/SOCOG

　　16. Two Canadian participants pose with St. Joseph’s College in the background. For many, their first trip to Sydney and Australia left a deep impression - UTE WEGMANN/SOCOG