Every year our Opera House lights up to showcase an annual two-week light show spectacular called VIVID, that lights up the famous harbourside but like so many major events, the lights of VIVID \u201920 have been switched off.<\/p>\n
But like the Olympics it will return with VIVID \u201921 \u2013 bigger and brighter than ever and that\u2019s just the reaction from a country that is one of only a handful to have attended every Games since 1896.<\/p>\n
That history is embedded in our psyche, every four years, households that turn on to the Olympic Games \u2013 to brighten their lives.<\/p>\n
Athletes young and old and coaches have had their sporting world\u2019s turned upside as they too come to grips with a world that is in a dramatic spin.<\/p>\n
![\"Dean](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Dean-Boxall-and-Ariarne-Titmus--700x500.jpg\")
WORDS OF WISDOM: “They [athletes] can see short-term. It\u2019s not a long-term thing, so that\u2019s close enough for them to see that dream is still alive,” says Dynamic swim coach Dean Boxall (pictured here with 2019 world champion Ariarne Titmus). Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).<\/p><\/div>Coaches who have instilled that hope in their athletes, like Australia\u2019s ASCTA Coach and Youth Coach of the Year, Dean Boxall,<\/strong> who is in charge of Australia\u2019s No 1 team at St Peter\u2019s Western in Brisbane with dual Olympian Mitch Larkin and aspiring Olympians, like Ariarne Titmus, Clyde Lewis and Jack Cartwright in an exciting Tokyo-bound group.<\/p>\n Boxall, himself preparing for his first Games, told the Sydney Morning Herald\u2019s<\/em> Phil Lutton<\/strong>: “The dream is alive mate. The flame is still burning. Tokyo 2021 \u2026 I love that. Doesn\u2019t it sound good? Because 2020, we\u2019ve had droughts, bushfires, it\u2019s been no good at all.<\/p>\n “The good thing is it\u2019s not 2024, it\u2019s 2021. They [athletes] can see short-term. It\u2019s not a long-term thing, so that\u2019s close enough for them to see that dream is still alive. It probably gives them more time to be better.<\/p>\n “None of this is in the play book but isn’t that a good thing? I\u2019m a bit unorthodox anyway. It\u2019s not in the play book so we can map the next steps here. Once things are a bit more normal and they can train, we can be a bit creative, move things around, look towards competition.\u201d<\/p>\n RAINING CHAMPIONS: Olympian and now swim coach Janelle Elford at Cotton Tree on the Queensland Sunshine Coast this week. Photo Courtesy: Jangle Elford Instagram.<\/p><\/div>\n And then 1988 Seoul Olympic finalist Janelle Elford,<\/strong> now Sunshine Coast Swim Coach in a squad that includes her four-time FINA World Junior Champion Lani Pallister,<\/strong> with her sights set on a Tokyo dream.<\/p>\n But for coach Janelle, she is now out of a job for the first time in 35 years.<\/p>\n Monday was her final day at the pool\u2026a day that started out coaching in the rain\u2026and in her own words\u2026\u201d miserable, but still working, still coaching the kids and still smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n But by the afternoon, like so many squads, it was to be their final session and she posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cPool closed tonight. Very surreal, very scary times. I am now stood down, without a job like so many other Australians.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst time in 35 years I haven\u2019t a job to go to.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart goes out to all but we will re-build. We will come back. We will be stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n And saying to her squad\u2026..\u201dGive yourself time to reflect, adjust and move forward best you know how\u2026.Until we come together again..stay safe, keep fit, talk things through and look after each other\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Although life as we know it has changed forever\u2026you can\u2019t help but think that Olympic spirit gives us all a flicker of hope\u2026that\u2019s all we need.<\/p>\n DAWNING OF A NEW ERA: Olympic icon Dawn Fraser with 1988 Olympian Janelle Elford and daughter Lani Pallister, with her eyes on Tokyo 2021. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia\u2019s Olympic family has reacted collectively and positively in the face of enormous adversity to the news that Tokyo 2020 will now become Tokyo 2021 with the Australian Team hash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7938,"featured_media":424431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122075,10],"tags":[65138,127,66807,105529,70409],"class_list":["post-424430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-oceania","category-world","tag-ariarne-titmus","tag-dawn-fraser","tag-dean-boxall","tag-janelle-elford","tag-lani-pallister"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"Janelle](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Janelle-rain-700x500.jpg\")
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