Sydney's world party

French fans bring the handball event to life

By Paul Cohen, Sydney

You see every colour of a human rainbow down on Darling Harbour.

The yellow of Brazil, the green of Australia, Dutch orange, Polish red all colliding in a brilliant colour clash as the fans mingle on the quay.

The athletics may have started at the magnificent Stadium Australia out west in Homebush but Darling Harbour, in the Central Business District of Sydney, can confidently claim to be the second Olympic city.

Around this tourist hot-spot of restaurants, bars and waterside walks are the venues for boxing, fencing, judo, volleyball and wrestling and weightlifting.

Aggressive sports in the main but the only boisterous activity on the outside is the banging of drums and the good-humoured chanting of nations.

Behaving

The British are behaving as impeccably as the rest but this is an all together different crowd. For the English thugs who defiled Charleroi and its like, the Olympics, thankfully, ain't their scene.

An estimated two million people are thought to have come into Sydney over the past two weeks, although reports would have you believe that almost as many Sydneysiders have gone the other way to escape the invasion or to make a few bucks from renting out their homes.

But it would be hard to imagine so many Australians turning their back on the best show on earth.

The Aussies love their sport and they are loving their Olympics.

Crowds have been phenomenal. More than 90,000 on the first morning of athletics, the same crowds for football which is way down the pecking order of importance in day-to-day Australia; full houses at the shooting and canoeing even when there has not been home interest, and so the list goes on.

The build up to the Games was a slow burner. One Canadian woman who arrived 10 days before the opening ceremony said it was like getting to a party before the hostess had got out of the bath.

Party

Well the party is in full swing now and the guests are continuing to turn up on Sydney's doorstep in their masses.

Back on Darling Harbour the cacophony of sound and dazzling vision is as engaging as the sport.

Laser shows, jazz bands and street theatre further add to the spectacle and for those without tickets a giant screen relays the action so everyone can enjoy a shared Olympian experience.

There is still a week to go and it is hard to imagine the intensity of this revelry keeping up the pace but then again everyone here has had four years to prepare for this.