My preparations to the coverage of the Sydney Olympic games in Australia 2000 was done as Emeka Odikpo of VON including even the flight ticket and accreditation, but the content was for the consumption of Radio Nigeria and her audience. Radio Nigeria was assembling a team to be led by Richard Asiegbu for the games but at the 9th hour all negotiations and agreements for sponsorship broke down irretrievably. At that point, FRCN could not raise money to sendeven a reporter as it was just recovering from “bankruptcy”. I travelled just to be bringing reports while awaiting the arrival of the team. When it was obvious that it was not going to be possible, I went to set up my flyaway broadcast kit including Google+ app to aid my commentary in Kunle Solaja’s room in the Olympic games village so we could run live commentaries of the football matches. Mitchel Obi, Kunle Solaja and Pepsie Adiukwu became members of my emergency coverage team. For other sports I used my midget to conduct interviews and my handset to run live races in athletics. The experiment was near perfect that those at home never believed it was our amateur set up that saved the event for FRCN. Amos Adamu was so thrilled that he gave us huge support in all ways possible. We conducted lengthy interviews with the Nigeria contingent, in short, we were commentators sans studio and OB van.

The Summer Olympics in Sydney Australia began with the opening ceremony at Stadium Australia on the 15th of September 2000. The preliminary matches for the football event started on 13th September. The journey for the coverage was arduous, long winding, almost endless, you eat, drink, ease yourself, play, sleep, wake and you check the compass, it appears you were just hanging in the air, you check your time, you are confused because you have passed through several time zones. At one pointit was morning, at some point it was morning again. While in the air your mind is engaged on how to come back. Is there another shorter route? Yes, but only if you go through South Africa so you do a non-stop journey of about 22 hours on top of water. It’s therefore perhaps better to go through Europe, have a stop-over somewhere in Asia to refill, stretch and move around. We came via KLM, made a major stop in Amsterdam, changed our vessel and flew for about 11 hours and made a short stop at Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport. We now went for the over 9 hours stretch to Sydney, Australia. KLM “connived”with Tony Ubani to suffocate me with eatables and drinkables. He mischievously told the crew that I waschief in my place, and they must ensure I lacked nothing, and they lived up to it. Each time they passed across, they would supply as needed. Tony and a few other colleagues helped us to douse boredom. We engaged in playing cards and Abula and making all the noises that are officially allowed. Some other non-Nigerian passengers also joined us including some of the crew members. Australia is not a place to pay casual visits to, no matter where you are. The 2000 Sydney Olympic games featured 10,651 athletes from 199 countries competing in 300 events across 28 sports with Nigeria presented about 83 athletes. Australian athlete, Cathy Freeman lit the Games cauldron demonstrating a reconciliation of the Australian Aboriginal people with the rest of the country. They, the aborigines, loved it and widely celebrated it. The cultural display during the opening ceremony demonstrated a tribute to Australian pastoral heritage with stock horses forming the Olympic rings. Cathy Freeman won the 400m gold medal becoming the first athlete to light the cauldron and later win a gold medal in the same Olympics. Magic Monday produced a remarkable day of competition with Michael Johnson’s 400m gold medal and Jonathan Edwards gold medal in Triple Jump. Ian Thorpe’s record-breaking swim that fetched three gold and two silver medals with a world record in the 400m freestyle was the highest point of the games.

Africa’s performance at the Syndney Olympics was worth taking note of with the Cameroon men football team winning the gold in football at the expense of Spain replicating Nigeria’s triumph in the same event in Atlanta, USA, in 1996. Eric the Eel from Equatorial Guinea captivated the world with his determination and perseverance in winning the 100m free style swimming. Despite swimming alone as other competitors had been disqualified, ‘Eric the Eel’ EricMousambani completed the race in 1: 52.72 setting a new personal best and country’s national record. Nigeria won a total of three medals, 1 gold and 2 silver. The gold was initially reported as silver butupgraded to gold after the American team in the men’s 4 +400 meters relay was disqualified for doping. Equally Nigeria’s silver medal in the women 4+400 meters was first counted as bronze but later upgraded. It was a narrow miss by Gloria Alozie whose partner, Hyginus, got killed by a car in the streets of Sydney. Gloria had vowed to win gold in his memory but had to settle for silver. I couldn’t hold back the tears while on commentary that day, but it was a glorious race that gave hope to Nigeria and Africa.

Kings Cross Sydney provided most of the athletes the muse to forget that one was in far away world “down under”. It was an ever-bubbling night of entertainment and red-light features. It has a reputation of being labelled Sydney’s “Sin City”. Their world-famous King’s Cross Food and Drinks Festival was made to hold within the period, so guests had a lot to eat and drink with free train ride between the Olympic Village and Kings Cross Station

The Sydney Olympic Games restored my mojo as a commentator and wiped my tears of intimidation and subjugation by DG VON, Mr. Taiwo Alimi. My return to FRCN and attendance at the games was a big cover to what would have been a national embarrassment to Radio Nigeria. An elated DG FRCN, Eddie Iroh and his management in CMC issued me a letter of appreciation and a token of $2,500 US Dollars for my “painstaking innovative” excellence. Taiwo Alimi heard about it!