Thorpe the king of the kids on 25-year anniversary of Sydney 2000

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The sports houses at Sydney’s Newington Public School are named after four of Australia’s most decorated Olympians and Paralympians.

Freeman, O’Neill, Sauvage and Thorpe.

On Monday morning, there was a buzz among 280 year four, five, and six students as word spread that one of those household names would be making a surprise visit to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

The school, which served as the Games’ medical facility and is a 20-minute walk from Sydney Olympic Park, where Cathy Freeman lit the opening ceremony cauldron, erupted when Ian Thorpe walked into the main hall. None of the students was alive when he became a 17-year-old Olympic champion.

Ian Thorpe visits Newington Public School students as part of the Australian Olympic Committee’s Olympics Unleashed Roadshow.

“Noting the names of the other houses who weren’t here, I think that’s now the preferred house to get in,” Thorpe joked.

“It’s lovely that people are still touched by the accomplishments of what happened.”

It was fitting that the anniversary fell on a cloudless spring day — not unlike the September days a quarter of a century ago when Thorpe, Freeman and a group of Australian athletes helped deliver some of the country’s most cherished sporting events.

Olympians, from left, Kerri Pottharst, Chloe Dalton, Melinda Gainsford Taylor, Tayla Martin, father and son medallists Jackson and Dan Collins visit schoolkids.

Thorpe was joined by fellow Sydney 2000 gold medallist Kerri Pottharst (beach volleyball), sprinter Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, and canoe sprint duo Dan and Jackson Collins – a father-and-son pairing with Olympic medals of their own.

Together, they reflected on the Games that began on September 15, 2000, with an opening ceremony still regarded as one of the finest ever staged.

The “Olympics Unleashed Roadshow” was part nostalgia trip, part recruitment drive for Brisbane 2032.

Nikki Webster, 13, performs in the Aboriginal sequence during the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch’s famous declaration of Sydney 2000 as “the best Olympic Games ever” was replayed on the big screen, followed by Ariarne Titmus’ emotional post-race interview from Paris 2024.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from. If you work hard, you can do anything,” Titmus said.

Host Chloe Dalton, a rugby sevens gold medallist from Rio 2016, asked if anyone knew who Cathy Freeman was. Almost every hand shot up. A second question — who wanted to be an Olympian? — drew fewer takers, but still enough to suggest the dream was alive.

Students at Newington Public School listen to Ian Thorpe and other Olympians on the 25th anniversary of Sydney 2000.

“I thought I was going to be too young for the Sydney Olympics,” Thorpe told the students. “If you’re thinking Brisbane is in seven years’ time, it’s a possibility for people that are 10 or around your age.

“I fell into swimming, and I basically started swimming because my sister did it. I was bored at a swimming carnival.

“People were so happy during the Olympics. This city took its place as one of the great cities in the world.”

Gainsford-Taylor added: “The stadium for the track and field had 110,000 people. I was insanely nervous, but by my third Olympics, I had been there and done that. It was just the most wonderful time.

“Everyone in Sydney was happy. There was no traffic, which was pretty amazing. It was just an incredible experience.”