The 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney next month "may
go down as the largest in history, and also the drollest and
most self-deprecating," according to Geraldine Brooks &
Horwitz in a front-page report in the WALL STREET JOURNAL,
who write under the sub-header, "Aussies Just Don't Seem Awed
By the Games; Still, There Is Sport in Gigging the IOC."
Brooks & Horwitz: "If Atlanta ... is famed for its
boosterism, Sydney is its temperamental antipodes, an
irreverent, cynical city with a sense of humor as dry and
withering as the outback." In the lead up to the Games, "no
one has captured the public mood better" than Australian
actor John Clarke, the country's "most striking Olympic
success story." Clarke is the co-creator and star of the
SOCOG and IOC TV comedy, "The Games" (see THE DAILY, 5/5).
In the show, Clarke plays the "administrator" for the Sydney
Games, a "sports bureaucrat who climbed through the ranks of
the 'Olympic Network of Allied Nations' -- ONAN for short."
In his role, Clarke "owes much to the support of a crooked
Greek parliamentarian, tellingly identified in a caption as
'The Hon. N. Thetake." Clarke's character faces scandals,
including the construction of a 100-meter track "that turns
out to be only" 94 meters long. Additionally, "poking fun"
at the Olympics is also done on radio, as one Sydney station
has a contest for "the worst advice to offer Games visitors."
Brooks & Horwitz note that "perhaps the clearest sign of
public skepticism is the pending exodus" of Sydneysiders
during the Games. Travel agents report "near- frantic
bookings for outbound flights during September, normally a
quiet month" for travel, and a recent survey estimated that
500,000 of the city's four million people will leave during
the event (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/17).
A TAXING SITUATION: The AP's Rob Gloster writes that
non-Australian Olympic competitors who earn cash bonuses from
their NOCs and IFs for winning medals "will owe taxes in
Australia, even if they receive the money after returning
home." The Australian tax rate ranges from 29-48 1/2% for
such earnings, therefore athletes "making up to the
equivalent of" $100,000 for a gold medal "would face huge tax
bills." Canberra-based Australian Taxation Office Olympics
Project Dir Peter Rowe: "If the performance takes place in
Australia and income is derived from that performance,
regardless of where the contract is entered or where the
bonus is paid, taxes are due." Gloster notes that athletes
"would not be taxed for the medals, but on any money they
directly earn as a result from their visit" to Australia for
the Games (AP, 8/17).
NOTE: USA TODAY's Michael Heistand writes that
Australia's Paralympic team has put out a fund-raising
calendar in which 18 of its athletes "appear in nothing but
body paint and a few sequins." The $18 calendar "offers
sultry images" and can be ordered online at
www.paralympic.org.au (USA TODAY, 8/17).
