RELATED: Bendigo mine lights up for Rio games
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The Rio Olympics start today, but how many Bendigonians are excited by the Games of the 31st Olympiad?
A few of the five people the Bendigo Advertiser chatted to in the city’s central business district earlier in the day.
“The only reason I’m excited because Tessa Lavey is in the Australian basketball team and she’s from Swan Hill,” Chesty Heighway said.
He too hailed from Swan Hill and was visiting Bendigo to do some shopping.
Asked whether he would tune in for the basketball, Mr Heighway responded: “Yeah, my word.”
Several people said they were likely to watch a bit of the swimming, including Bendigonian Brennen Cantwell.
“Whenever it’s on, I tune into it,” he said of the Olympics.
James Padgett was excited for something to watch after he got home from work.
“It’s good wind-down time,” he said.
“Have some wine and watch the Olympics.”
As a chef, he said he was still wired from work when most people would be asleep or going to bed.
“I don’t watch TV – I’m in with the new age,” Samara Clohesy said.
“No Olympics, just Netflix and chill.”
Jim Cowie said times had changed, and with them the fanfare that used to precede the Olympics in the ’80s and ’90s.
Back then, he said Olympic Games were considered major international events.
“We’re so much more global now,” Mr Cowie said.
He said technology had also given people more choice about what they wanted to watch.
“The cost of that is we don’t build that excitement up for one event,” he said.
He said he would probably watch some of the games, but did not get too excited about them.
“There are too many other exciting things to do,” he said.
Central Victoria has several connections to the Rio games, including Bendigo cycling ace Glenn O'Shea, named in the Australian Olympic team; and Bendigo Spirit import Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, who was named in Canada's Olympic team.
The Australian team consists of 418 athletes across 26 sports, more than half of whom are rookies.
The youngest athlete is footballer Ellie Carpenter, 16, and the eldest is Mary Hanna, 61.