Hemp Olympix

About the MardiGrass Hemp Olympix

Sometime in the mid 90s, Chibo, Bob and Michael walked into the Hemp Bar and decided that Mardigrass needed events which would entertain as well as educate, and the Hemp Olympix were born!

The idea for the Hemp Olympix started in 1996 with Bob, Michael and me being active in different sports in younger years, Sydney was getting refurbished for the Olympics in 2000 and we were all joint smokers. So it began with the artistic joint rolling (10 mins to create a special spliff), then the speed roll (just a quick one in the backlane) and then the blindfolded and adverse condition ones. Bob mentioned the horrible smell of a kicked over bong on the carpet and the bong throw with yell was invented. 1996 was a year were NSW was having a huge herion problem with overdose deaths (that’s why Bob Carr initiated the 1. Drugsummit in 1999) and some people didn’t know much about Cannabis. So we developed the Iron Growers person event for females and males to show what it meant to grow it in the hills with a helicopter above looking for your plants.

In the spirit of Dario Fo, (Italian playwright, Nobel prize in 1997) who said, if people seeing funny things on stage they will talk about them. That’s what we hoped for, because the Hemp Embassy (an activist/volunteer run shop to earn money for our political actions to Legalize Cannabis) started to run the campaign ‘End Prohibition 2000’. So while the visitors of Mardigrass were watching the Hemp Olympix, I could tell them about the druglaws in the Netherlands or the major changes in Portugal etc.

Some of the Highlights of the Hemp Olympix: Graeme Dunstan with his ‘peacebus.com‘ crew went on a prison tour around NSW to count the inmates for Cannabis delicts. He arranged that the tour finished one week before the start of the real Olympics and we were holding the Hemp Olympix in Victoria Park Sydney, which was covered by BBC and other international outlets. He put out a press release saying that there are more bongs in Australian households then javelins and the bong throw should be part of the Sydney Olympics. I got interviewed by ‘Tripple J’ radio to a nationwide audience on that demand. Years earlier we had the local policeman coming to the Embassy on a parliamentry inquest to find out, what these Hippies are putting into the Joints at the rolling competitions. We said Demiana a beautiful herb. The parliament was a bit worried that there was a revolution brewing in Nimbin after people were locking on to the helicopter and ground crew cars in protest. Another highlight was when the comedian S. Soerensen and Alan Glover took over the commentary of the events.

The ‘Kombi Konvoy’, which was invented as a salute to the Aquarius festival pioneers and new settlers, was coming in on Friday late afternoon in the early years, following the Hemp Olympix Torch Bearer bringing in ‘The Eternal Flame For The Victims Of Prohibition’ for the Opening Ceremony of Mardigrass with a minute of passionate silence for the victims of prohibition. Some of the Kombis were so beautiful and old that we moved their arrival to Saturday afternoon before 4.20 so that people could have a good look at them.

Last year was the 30th Hemp Olympix and Kombi Konvoy and the Hemp Olympix committee would like to thank all the volunteers and organisers as well as the participants over the years.

Chibo Mertineit
President of the Hemp Olympix Committee

HEMP OLYMPIX – Sport with meaning                                     

S Sorrensen

It’s difficult to determine exactly when the Hemp Olympix began. We know, of course, the modern Hemp Olympix began in 1896 in Athens, attended by 84 athletes, 600 spectators and 2115 police.

We also know that the modern Hemp Olympix was the relighting of the original classical Hemp Olympix played at the base of Mount Olympus more than 2500 years ago, when the Greeks chucked bongs in the nude, joints were rolled with papyrus and the results recorded on vellum.

Cannabis has always been a key element in the evolution of humanity from tree-dwelling primate to upstanding human.

Some evolutionary biologists speculate that the development of an opposable thumb in Homo habilis 2.3 million years ago was due to joint rolling.

Evolutionary theorist Professor Niger Umber theorises that it was in order to harvest the top heads of Cannabis sativa that caused the early human to stand upright.

Cannabis has been essential part of the human story. And so too has sport. Hence the Hemp Olympix.

In 776 BC, the first official Hemp Olympix was held at Olympia, in Greece. Featuring the three traditional sporting disciplines – Bong Throw & Yell, Iron Growerperson Event and Joint Roll – these games were held every four years in honour of Zeus, the God of Competition, and Cannabi, the Goddess of Pot. The athletes, from all over the known world, performed naked, and the winners were given a wreath of Cannabis leaves as a prize to be enjoyed later.

The first modern Hemp Olympix was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

The International Hemp Olympix Committee (IHOC), formed in 1894, determined that the modern Hemp Olympix would be an event open to all nationalities and genders to celebrate sport, Cannabis and the human body.

The 1896 Athens Hemp Olympix was a huge success.

After that first Hemp Olympix, the Games flourished, being held every four years, as was the ancient custom. But the IHOC decided in 1904 that the Hemp Olympix would be held in different towns and cities around the world.

The Hemp Olympix now attracts teams from around the world, from Portugal (where Cannabis is legal and the Portugese Hemp Olympix team is funded with money saved from dropping the War on Drugs) to Russia (where war and government are funded by the War on Drugs).

In May, 1993, the Hemp Olympix was held for the first time in Australia, in a village called Nimbin, as a sporting resistance to a tyrannical suppression of the burning bush funded by climate change denial and alcoholic dementia.

Since then, 135 countries have hosted the Hemp Olympix.

Nimbin has vowed to host a MardiGrass Hemp Olympix every year until the ridiculous laws of Cannabis prohibition are repealed.

In 2003, two Australian blokes became international Hemp Olympix Officials, having undergone their Integrity Assessment, having passed their Knowledge of the Rules and Etiquette for the Games of the Hemp Olympix Examination, and having received a very positive result in their Drug Test.

Alan Glover and S Sorrensen now spend their time travelling to Hemp Olympix around the world, making sure the rules and ethics of the games are adhered to.

They officiate at the annual Hemp Olympix at the Nimbin MardiGrass where athletes from around the globe compete for prizes, glory and the sheer fun of it.

You too can celebrate all that is good in humanity, make fun of all that is ridiculous (like the marijuana laws), and have stories to tell the kids, by being a athlete in the Hemp Olympix. (Just sign up on the day at the Hemp Olympix Sign Up Table.)

Or you can be a spectator and thrill to a 40-metre Bong Throw & Yell, have your breath taken away at the speed and grace of a sub-20-second Joint Roll or shake your head at the strength and determination of an Irongrower Person.

You can also delve more deeply into the history, the characters, and the rules of the Hemp Olympix by purchasing ‘A Spectator’s Guide to the Hemp Olympix’ from the Nimbin Hemp Embassy.

Throw bong, live long.