Subjects: The success of the Australian Olympic Team at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
E&OE..................
Along with 19 million of my fellow Australians I've had an absolute ball over the last two weeks and I've been filled with pride at what our country and what our people have done. Over the last two weeks everything that Australia is good at came together all at the same time. We displayed to the world our great capacity as a modern sophisticated country. We displayed our great capacity for warmth and friendship towards visitors to our shores. We displayed that great volunteering spirit which has always been part of the Australian way of life.
But above all and the thing that made the last two weeks so memorable was that the men and women who made up this greatest Australian Olympic team ever demonstrated the great capacity of Australians in all forms of sporting endeavour. It is frequently said and how true it is that sport binds Australians together like nothing else. And over the last two weeks we've seen that in ample demonstration. And in the end it was the great achievement of our men and women, the members of our team, that made the last two weeks so memorable. And it was their performance, and on behalf of your 19 million fellow Australians I congratulate every single member of the Australian Olympic team for the absolutely fabulous job you did in the name of our country.
As you may have noticed Janette and I couldn't stay away from the events. We loved it. We loved the exhilaration, we loved the sportsmanship, we loved the skill, we admired the commitment, and we're thankful to the coaches for what they've done. We're also thankful to the parents and the friends and supporters of all the various sports of Australia because we all know that at the grass roots level it's those early mornings for swimming training, it's appearing at weekends, helping people with their athletics meetings. They're the things that begin to build great champions of Australian sport.
I'm very proud to be the Prime Minister of this wonderful country. We've had a fantastic two weeks. We've been an exemplar to the world of decency and friendship and sporting skill and sportsmanship and every last of those 19 million Australians has every right to feel very proud indeed.
I congratulate the organisers of the Games. I congratulate Channel 7 on its magnificent coverage. And I thank everybody on behalf of 19 million Australians from the bottom of my heart for what you've done for our nation over the last two weeks. Thank you.
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