Personal is political

With all the political games being played around the Sydney Olympics, it's hard to imagine how anything will get organised. A week of squabbling on the organising committee led to the resignation on Tuesday of Rod McGeoch, the man who led the city's successful bid five years ago to host the event, and the personal and political squabbles look set to continue.

The New South Wales state elections next March will either confirm the current Sydney organising leadership or unleash another battle over who should run the games. Both the current Labour government and its LiberalNational coalition rivals appear increasingly willing to fight the election on the Olympic battleground.

At least the route for the Sydney Olympic torch has been finalised. The flame will island-hop through the tiny nations of the South Pacific en route to Australia from the ancient Olympic site in Greece, visiting 12 island nations including Guam, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, covering nearly 40,000 miles - the longest in the Games' history. It will pass through thatched island villages, along coral-ringed beaches and through tropical forests before reaching Australia on June 8th, 2000. There is, however, no indication yet of who will be carrying the torch into the Olympic Stadium, but Muhamad Ali's entrance into the Atlanta stadium will be a hard act to follow.