In 1998, AHEPA NSW created a committee for the erection of a monument at the Olympic Village of Sydney.
The late Tasha Vanos presided over the Hellenic Tribute Committee which gathered $500,000 in two years, with AHEPA NSW as the main sponsor.
The Discobolus monument, created by sculptor Robert Owen, is at Stockroute Park, near Olympic Park Railway Station, however 21 years since its creation it has all but being forgotten and time has taken its toll on the statue with its faded hard-to-read etchings. And despite the efforts of AHEPA NSW to communicate with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, the statue has yet to be freshened up as required by the terms and conditions of the agreement for the construction of the monument in 1999.
When first created, the unique sculpture installation celebrating the Greek origins of the Olympic games shone in its full glory. Full of symbolism, it features a seven-metre diameter, eight-ton stainless steel and glass sculpture, an olive grove, cypress trees and marble architectural fragments.
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Discobolus is based on the original discus thrower, Castor, who has metaphorically thrown the discus from ancient Greece to the 21st Century, to land in Homebush Bay for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The classical discus has transformed into a giant CD-ROM – a modern symbol of information technology and culture. Etched on one side of the sculpture is the CD label, which tells the story of the artwork in both English and Greek. Olive and cypress trees, symbols of peace and immortality frame Discobolus, and the architectural pieces (a circle of stone, stepped podium and five fluted column fragments depicting the five Olympic rings) recall the original Olympia.
Spyros Louis monument
Spyros Louis, the shepherd from the village of Amaroussion, Attiki, was crowned the first winner of the marathon in the first Olympic Games of Athens in 1896.
He became a national hero and an Olympic legend, so much so that the Athens Olympic Stadium created for the 2004 Olympics bears his name.
A statue also stands in his honour at Cook Park, in the southern Sydney suburb of Brighton-le-Sands. Unveiled in September 2000 during the Sydney Olympics, the statue is a gift of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), under the auspices of the Greek-Australian Chamber of Commerce in Athens and the Aktion Group of Companies.
