The final piece in the Sydney Olympic jigsaw was put in place today with the official opening of the second water polo venue. Sydney's Olympic organisers had finished most of their venues last year only to be told they had to build an extra pool after women's water polo was belatedly added to the Olympic programme. Australia's women's team played a major role in persuading the International Olympic Committee to include them in the Sydney Games by protesting, in their swimming costumes, directly to IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch.
"Like most of the things that happen in putting on the Olympic Games, it's not been done without some disturbance, some controversy, some difficulty," Sydney's Olympic minister Michael Knight said at the opening of the new venue. "It was the Australian women waterpolo players who led the struggle to get it included in the Olympic Games. They lobbied, they demonstrated and they adopted a very gutsy approach."
The second Waterpolo arena is the last of the permanent structures to be completed with the Games, which start on September 15, almost five months away. Only the beach volleyball arena on Bondi Beach, a temporary structure, still has to be built.
