Sydney 2000 Olympic Stadium

Tour Of The Olympic Stadium
We went to the 2000 Olympic stadium with Chris, John and Andy. John and Andy were particularly excited as it was also the scene of the 2003 Rugby world cup, when Jonny Wilkinson kicked that last minute drop goal to beat Australia and win the world cup! John and Andy had come prepared. Not only were they wearing their rugby shirts, they also had a huge St George's flag with them!

To get to the stadium we had to catch a train from the central station in Sydney. The trains are all double deckers. We had to change once before we could get to the stadium.

Once at the stadium we booked ourselves on the 3:00 tour, which gave us just enough time to grab something to eat. We were all starving. The only choices seemed to be fast food, but none of us were complaining. We all opted for a Macdonalds.

The tour was to last for about 70mins. It started with a ride through the background area of the stadium, where the athletes enter and where all the opening and closing ceremony participants waited.

We were then able to go into the stadium and look at the stadium from the different seating levels as well as have a look in the corporate areas, the dressing rooms and the TV and radio commentary areas. Whilst looking around the stadium we were also shown lots of photographs, signed shirts and autographs from stars that had competed at the stadium, these included Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson, David Beckham and Kathy Freeman

Whilst walking around the stadium to the exit, I felt something on my arm... it was my worst nightmare, a spider! And to make matters worse, it bit me. I quickly brushed it off and managed to remain calm. I made sure that I told Adam and then we quickly began looking up deadly spiders on his blackberry. "You've got 2hrs to get to hospital if it's a deadly one" Adam said. "Oh, great!" Luckily we managed to discount all the deadly ones fairly quickly and, of course, I'm still here to tell the tale.

The one thing that disappointed me about the stadium was that the athletics track is no longer there and so it looks very different to how I would imagine an Olympic stadium to be. It's now used for cricket, Football (sorry, soccer), rugby and Aussie rules football. A new athletics track has been built near by. The stadium also seemed quite small. Apparently after the games they removed the open air slanted seating and continued the roof all the way round. You can see the difference in the pictures below.