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Reports from Belo Interactive contributors at the Olympics in Sydney, AustraliaMichael E. Young's e-mail home Today, at night 09/20/2000 By Michael E. Young / The Dallas Morning News 
Just when we Americans abroad were beginning to feel pretty darn international, we've had a bit of home plopped right on our doorstep.
NBC's Today Show has set up camp between Sydney Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre at the center of the Olympic Park, roughly 10,000 miles from its usual haunts in New York. Each night at 10 (that's 6 a.m. back home), they set lights up like something from Close Encounters, and people gather like mosquitoes around a bug zapper.
At Monday night's debut, the exuberant crowd could barely contain itself as the final moments 'til show time ticked by. Sure enough, the inevitable "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" chant broke out from one side, followed by "USA, USA, USA."
The two factions battled unrelentingly until Matt Lauer spun around on his stool and calmly encouraged a little silence. It worked, at least until the first camera turned to the crowd. Then, pandemonium erupted. People screamed. Kids yelled. Signs flashed out above the crowd.
Ron Shinault of Atlanta used his to beg for Eggo waffles. "You can't get 'em here," he said. "I've looked everywhere."
Shannon Vinson of Batesville, Ark., painted her sign red, white and blue. It sent her love home to mom and dad, along with a plea for more money "to buy more Olympic tickets."
George Reynolds and Richard Campbell of Austin stayed a while to watch, though neither watches the show back home.
Suzanne Caruso, who lived in Dallas for 27 years before moving recently to Omaha, stopped and stayed, also drawn by all the activity.
"We were just walking back to the train when we saw it. I said, 'Oh, it's the Today Show. It's Katie,' " she said.
Indeed it was – Katie Couric, perky in hot pink, and Matt looking casually elegant in white shirt and blue blazer.
Trouble is, the whole scene was so amazingly strange – the Today Show in the middle of the night – that it only seemed to reinforce the distance between America and Australia.
This Yank never felt so far from home.
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Track star 
1996
swimming gold medalist Ryan Berube 
