SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Hosting the Olympics is a scary prospect, but delivering a successful games would give the Australian public a huge confidence boost, a Sydney 2000 official said Tuesday.

 Sandy Hollway, chief executive of the Sydney organizing committee, understands why the public is apprehensive, because organizers also are concerned.

 "There's a sense in which we make it up as we go along," Hollway said of the lack of knowledge transfer from one Olympics to the next. "If it scares you, it should. It sometimes scares us."

 Hollway said the Sept. 15-Oct. 1 Olympics would expose Australia's potential to the world.

 "The audiences around the world will like what they see," he said. "They will do business on the basis of what they see. Eyes will open in Australia, too."

 Hollway said Australia had proved itself on the sporting field but some sections of the community lacked confidence in the nation's economic, organizational and technological abilities.

 "Ours is a country suffering somewhat still from a light dusting of self-doubt," he said.

 "My prediction is that the Olympic Games are going to blow into ... Australia and they will sweep away any such self-doubt."

 The games would instill pride and self-esteem in "ourselves as a country," he said.

 "Because if we can bring this project off ... we can in Australia bring anything off. This is no small asset."