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Sunday 21st July 1996
Sunday 21st July 1996
The man had his greatest moment lighting the Olympic flame at Atlanta.
And what a moment. The man who once had the rumble in the jungle and who "flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee" was forgotten by the world no more.
With all the glamour of the opening ceremony exploding around him and the millions of dollars that had been spent putting it together, there could be no greater contrast than the Ali of yesterday and the Ali of today. A mere shadow of a man fighting Parkinson's Syndrome -yet he exuded pride even in his distress.
He overshadowed the pumped up politicians and royalty sitting in their priviledged positions while the combatants of the twenty first century - the world's finest paraded below them.
Now if Labor had been in power in Australia you would have found the whole of the party's front bench eating, drinking and being merry among the priviledged at the opening ceremony. As it was not even Prime Minister John Howard made it. He was busy fighting the gun lobby.... demonstrating the chasm between leadership and bull****.
Mr Howard told the National Party State Conference in Townsville he would not back down on tough gun laws even though he understood the opposition to his plan.
"I know that there are many people who find the laws that I support so strongly inconvenient. Some even find those laws quite unacceptable."
"I know that. I respect their strength of feeling. I don't brand sporting shooters as Rambos... I have never done that."
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