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Carrow Attends Olympic Games |
A new CBC’er recently took a trip to Sydney to see the Olympic Games. A part work, part pleasure trip, seeing the Games for Capitol Sports Management (CSM) President & CEO Hill Carrow was another step in leaving the old while progressing with the new.
 Hill Carrow
Capitol Sports Management |
Arriving in Sydney on Monday, Sept 18, Carrow spent almost a week Down Under. Carrow traveled to Sydney for a combination of residual job duties from his old job as Director of Corporate Partnerships and Services for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), for contact opportunities for his new job at CSM, and simply to have fun. He met with potential Masters events sponsors & sports leaders and even got to meet the head of Masters swimming about the potential for the proposed aquatics center at the Capital Area Soccer League Complex in Cary. Carrow also did a little reporting while at the Games. He called in reports to |
WRAL-FM every day, several of which MIX aired during its morning show.
Being an integral part of the last nine Olympic Games through his occupation, Carrow said, “It was actually nice to have the flexibility to put my feet up and watch an event or two.” He said his worst Olympic experience was the last one, the winter Olympics in Nagano. Because he was working full-time for the Olympic Committee, he only saw one event in Japan. However, Carrow watched a variety of athletic events while Down Under. He attended several swimming events and saw the first day of events at the Track & Field venue, even watching the very first Track & Field event of the Games. He watched as Americans Marion Jones, Michael Johnson, and Antonio Pettigrew ran in preliminary heats. Carrow also took in beach volleyball and judo and watched the U.S. team defeat Australia in indoor volleyball.
| The biggest crowd day, September 22, during the Olympics was dubbed Super Friday, and Carrow was one of the throng of 500,000 people attending events at Olympic Park. The Olympic Park venue holds 16 of the 28 Olympic sports. Super Friday was next to last day of swimming and the first day of track & field. Each of those venues held two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. The Track & |
 Track inside the main stadium of Sydney 2000 Olympics |
Field stadium itself holds 110,000. Also going on that day were basketball, table tennis, regular tennis and more all at same time.
He saw many athletes at a distance at the different sporting events, but he did get to see some up close at the AT&T Olympic Family Center. He says that AT&T has been great about subsidizing a good portion of the out-of-pocket expenses for families of the athletes that go to the games. One athlete he missed up close was Marion Jones. Understandably, Carrow said she was staying separate from most to stay focused and avoid the media and fan frenzy about her.
With new ideas and a burst of extra energy, Carrow says he came back fired up to work on creating our Olympic-style Masters event. Some Olympians are Masters athletes as well. American swimmer Dara Torres won two individual bronze and two team gold medals at the 2000 Games in Sydney; both of her relay teams broke world records. Commentators and reporters have focused on the fact that Torres had been absent from swimming for seven years before this comeback, but Carrow attests that she actually didn’t disappear. She had been swimming at Masters events during those interim seven years. She joined Olympic coaches to boost her training to qualify for games. Therefore, Carrow says, the CSM event could have current Olympians. The event will definitely be able to boast former Olympians, as many athletes move from the Games to Masters competition. In fact, at least 20 former Olympians were in the last major Masters Swimming event earlier this year. While Masters event is not the Olympics certainly, Carrow enthusiastically states, “it would have some really neat ties.”
Overall, Carrow thoroughly enjoyed his trip to Australia. He says that the Sydney Harbor and Opera House help create one of the “most attractive urban settings you’ve ever seen in your life.” He even traveled to Palm Beach one day, a point on the north edge of Sydney. The bay side is only separate from the ocean separate by a few hundred yards, much like the Outer Banks, and was beautiful. The attitude of Australians also made the trip a pleasure for Carrow. He says the Australians enjoy Americans and are a fun-loving group, never taking anything too seriously.
