Editorial: Win or lose, good luck to them all

Let the Games begin. It is a call that seems as old as Olympus, yet it still brings a thrill to the spirit and a shiver to the spine.

The lighting of the torch last night would have rekindled in many people an interest that perhaps they doubted they still held for the Games.

The Olympic image has taken a battering in recent years from the drugs that infest sports today, the graft that has accompanied some of the bids to hold the pageant, and the comforts of life on the International Olympic Committee.

But even those excesses testify in their own unfortunate way to the fact that the Olympic flame, far from fading, glows ever larger in every way.

The number of competitors and sports included - there are 300 events this time involving 10,000 athletes - the size and cost of facilities, the scale of organisation and, with that, the number of arrangements that can go wrong, all continue to increase with each Olympiad.

Sydney has proved up to the challenge. The pride that all Australians must feel today is richly deserved. There are always Jeremiahs when people take on an ambition as great as the staging of the Olympics, and not everything will live up to the organisers' hopes. But if the opening ceremony alone has not silenced the cynics, the sporting festival will overwhelm all doubts before very long.

When the Games begin, problems recede into the background, at least for those watching comfortably by television. The focus of the spectacle remains, thankfully, the competitors and their events. Over the next 16 days, many of us will become avid followers of sports that ordinarily we would hardly give a passing glance. That is the particular value of the Olympics. It gives many sports their only moment in global limelight.

Possibly those are the only sports that should be admitted if there is a need to reduce the scale of the Games and bring its cost within reach of more nations who might like to host them. But though professional sports such as tennis and basketball do not need the games for exposure, it cannot be said that they have drawn attention from the traditional Olympic events.

The Games have not been as close to New Zealand since 1956 and they were not then on the scale they are today. They may not return to this part of the world for another 50 years. It is surprising that more New Zealanders have not gone to Sydney for the experience. Many last night might have wished they had. Now it's down to the business of competition.

Readers who have been following our build-up with profiles of New Zealand's participants, and particularly the excitement building at the Olympic village this week, will be in the starting blocks with them. There are high hopes for the likes of Hamish Carter in the triathlon this weekend, rower Rob Waddell, the equestrian team in the three-day event, boardsailers Barbara Kendall and Aaron McIntosh, and the women's hockey team.

There will be unexpected achievements, too, along with disappointments. There will be courage and misfortune, ecstasy and tears, flags and anthems and moments that will be enshrined in sports archives. If the performance of host nations holds true, Australia will do particularly well. Let's not begrudge that.

As usual in recent years, we wonder how much higher our prospects if the state helped Olympic sports to the extent that Australia has. Our public priorities are properly elsewhere, but it is gratifying that Peter Snell has now lent his name and interest to the training institute established in Auckland not so long ago. There is a name to inspire the athletes in black at Sydney. Good luck to them. Win or lose, most of them will always treasure their participation in an Olympic Games, and there are not many modern sporting events where that can be said. That is the Olympic spirit. It is something to celebrate.