Episode list

Post-war prosperity in Australia was accompanied by a golden age of international sporting achievement. Gideon Haigh and Bob Hawke tell us about the genesis of this era in Australian sport. The Melbourne Olympics in 1956 was the big bang in the relationship between sport and Australian culture and identity. Legends were created left, right and centre. This was the classical age in Australian sport, characterised by pure natural talent, supreme physical fitness and mental toughness. Its apotheosis is Herb Elliott. Elliott won every mile and every 1500m race he ever competed in, finishing with a world record victory in the 1500m at the 1960 Rome Olympics. After the triumphs of Herb Elliott and others at the Rome Olympics, Australia cemented an international reputation and generated a national mythology based on geography and sport. But our confidence was accompanied by hubris. Australian sports administration at the time was based on the theory that our sporting talent was God-given and all you had to do was turn up. It was this thinking that ended Dawn Fraser's career after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics. With the Vietnam War at its height, race riots across America and the world becoming a more dangerous place, Ralph Doubell withstood the challenges that beset the Mexico Olympics in 1968 and Shane Gould describes the triumph amidst a terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In the next few years it was clear that the age of innocence was dead and Australian sport was in trouble.

By the mid 70s Australia's capacity to produce regular swarms of amateur talent, although undiminished, was achieving less in a more professional and competitive global sports environment. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics Australia won no events of any kind. The Fraser government established an expensive state-funded institute. If we wanted national prestige from sport, we were going to have to pay for it. In the meantime, the pattern of domestic sport was changing. Television had discovered live cricket and then live football, and it was on for young and old. For migrant kids like Robert DiPierdomenico, playing footie was how you got accepted. Others, like Les Murray wanted to play soccer - the game they brought from Europe. Joy Damousi, Bob Hawke, Hugh Mackay and Roy Masters explain how migration transformed the nation and was more easily accepted when kids with funny names helped our teams win at the football. As team sport expanded and needed more players, the visibility of indigenous Australians in sport also increased dramatically. In 1983 Australia won the Americas Cup with John Bertrand at the helm. It was such a significant moment for Australia that the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, encouraged the entire country to get on the turps. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 the Australian women's hockey team, coached by Ric Charlesworth, exemplified the comeback in Australian team sport and Kieren Perkins delivered one the great underdog performances of all time. We were ready for Sydney. Bring it on.

The Sydney Olympics delivered heroes and unforgettable moments. But there was one event that gathered up the Australian community as one; and made them all feel good at the same time. If you're an Australian, you'll be able to answer this question: where were you when Cathy Freeman ran in the 400 metres final? John asks all of the people interviewed for this series what it meant. And he asks Cathy. Since the 1950s and 60s, the great Australian sports experience has shifted from playing sport to watching it. Television wants live sport and more live sport - with a very strong preference for male team sport. But the healthy, egalitarian society we think all this televised sport is reflecting, is in trouble. And sport is often funded by the problem. Australia still competes at the highest level, but it's more complicated, Cadel Evans is an Italian and French speaking Australian Swiss resident with an American employer. Away from the professional and international arena, community sport, mainly football and netball, is the gathering place, the common ground and the social glue across a lot of rural Australia. Sub-cultural sports in the suburbs provide a sense of connection and community for people who don't find it in traditional sport.