Olympic 2000 Memories: Paul Mathews recalls working as photographic manager at the main stadium

The Gunnedah photographer has been fortunate to have one of the best seats in the house for some of the biggest moments in our sporting history.

There is arguably none bigger than Cathy Freeman winning gold in the 400m at the Sydney Olympics.

Mathews was not just in the stadium on that magical September night 20 years ago, but right there on the centre of it all.

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He was the photographic manager for the main stadium and recalled standing on the infield "virtually between the finish line and the run-up lane for the javelin throw" with about 10 other photographers and fellow Gunnedah native Col Burnes, who was one of a team of 12 volunteers Mathews had taken with him (11 from Gunnedah and one from Tamworth).

"She took off and where we were standing you couldn't help but notice where she ran, up in the grandstand behind her there was a Mexican wave of flash guns for cameras, and it just went all the way around to the corner of the start of the 100m.

"And then it all just stopped, as did the screaming and the yelling and the roaring because everyone didn't know where she was running and they all stopped and looked at the screen," he recounted.

"Momentarily she was behind, but then she hit the front and the roar was just unbelievable and the flashes started again on the western side."

"It was just incredible. They weren't anywhere else, the flashes, just where she ran right behind her people were just taking pictures, it was just spectacular."

He admitted to shedding a tear or two when she won.

"It was so moving," he said.

Another memorable moment is thwarting a potential international incident.

After being alerted by one of another of the local Gunnedah volunteers, Donna Stanford, that Marion Jones' mother was planning to jump the fence and run out onto the track and hug her after the women's 200m, Mathews used his skills honed from years as a publican, and was able to talk her out of it.

Pretty much "go go go", Mathews' role as the photographic manager was No.1 to monitor the photographers, and No.2 "help them get the shot they want to portray the Olympic Games in that city at the time".

On the night of Cathy's race he said they estimated there were close to 700 photographers there.

"That was the event of the Olympics that all the overseas media were interested in," he said.

"Normally it's the 100m, but they indicated to me that Cathy Freeman's race is the story of the Olympics."

One of the interesting things about Sydney from a purely photographic perspective was that it was the first Olympics where digital cameras were in use. With some photographers still using film and others digital, Mathews said they virtually had two operations going.

"We were actually picking up rolls of film from photographers either on the field of play or around the seating bowl and transporting it either to the main press centre or up into the work area up in behind the grandstand so they could scan the photos or have them developed," he said.

"Or we were getting memory cards from them to just put them into computers."

Mathews' second Olympics after being the senior press photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald at Seoul in '88, he said being involved in Sydney was the highlight of his award-winning career.

But it all might not have happened had he not been knocked back for the job he had applied for as a sports journalist at this paper and offered a photography apprenticeship instead.

Initially a bit hesitant, from his experience at school photographers had a bit of a reputation as "nerds", he decided to take it on.

It turned out to be the "best thing I ever did obviously".