Ten years ago - 23 September 2000

From a 2000 listserv post:

I'm now exhausted from watching the latest round of US and Australian triumphs in the pool (I hope you get TV coverage of this final session) followed by the Aussie girls (bronze medal winners in Atlanta) semi-final in beach volleyball against Brazil... the Brasilian supporters met their match with the Aussies chant today.  Have you heard in any of the broadcasts Oi Oi Oi? At the table tennis the other night it was the young German (only in Oz for the games) sitting next to my husband, who started off the chant.  Last night at the tennis the very serious lady from NZ who was sitting in front of me complained to the two young men next to me about the noisy conversation they were having (they didn't bother me I had my radio earphones in listening to other events) - she said she was there to watch tennis not listen to them - that just revved me up - it was with perverse pleasure that my Oi Oi Oi volume was delivered a few decibels louder than normal very close to her ear.  A distant cousin of mine (she doesn't know me) Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is to run in the semi-finals of the 100m in a few minutes.  Many of Australia's first white settlers were convicts transported to Australia from Mother England.  Melinda and I share a convict ancestor.  If she gets to the finals she will be stoked..... A FEW MINUTES LATER .... Melinda missed out on the final so she'll have to now wait for the heats of her favoured event the 200m.  The heat was won by Jamaica's Merline Ottey - the first woman to make 4 Olympic 100m finals.