2000 Summer Olympics

The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially called the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and known as Sydney 2000, were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from September 15 to October 1, 2000. This was the second time the Summer Olympics took place in Australia and the first time they were held in the Southern Hemisphere. The Games brought together teams from 199 countries, making it one of the largest Olympic events so far.

The United States won the most medals, followed by Russia and China, with Australia finishing fourth. Some countries, like Cameroon, Colombia, Latvia, Mozambique, and Slovenia, won their first gold medals ever. Others, such as Barbados, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam, won their first Olympic medals of any kind.

People around the world praised the Sydney Olympics highly. Writers and reporters said the Games were some of the best ever organized. The way the Games were run, the help from volunteers, and the spirit of fair play received wonderful reviews. Because of this success, the city of London used what worked well in Sydney as a model when it prepared to host the 2012 Olympics.

Host city selection

Main article: Bids for the 2000 Summer Olympics

Sydney was chosen to host the 2000 Summer Olympics on September 24, 1993. It beat out cities like Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul, and Manchester after several rounds of voting.

Later, Beijing went on to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Milan was selected to host the 2026 Winter Olympics together with Cortina d'Ampezzo.

The Games

Costs

The Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimated the cost of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics to be about US$5 billion in 2015 dollars. This includes costs for staging the Games and building venues, but not broader infrastructure like roads or airports. The costs are similar to other recent Olympics, with some being much higher.

In 2000, the Auditor-General of New South Wales reported that the Sydney Games cost around A$6.6 billion, with public money making up part of this. Some funds were shifted from education and health to cover Olympic expenses.

Chronological summary of the 2000 Summer Olympics

Although the Opening Ceremony was not scheduled until 15 September, the football competitions began with preliminary matches on 13 September. Among the pre-ceremony fixtures, host nation Australia lost 1–0 to Italy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was the main stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Day 1: 15 September

Cultural display highlights

The opening ceremony began with a tribute to the pastoral heritage of the Australian stockmen and the importance of the stock horse in Australia’s heritage. It was produced and filmed by the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation and the home nation broadcaster Seven Network. This was introduced by lone rider Steve Jefferys and his rearing Australian stock horse “Ammo”. At the cracking of Jefferys’ stockwhip, a further 120 riders entered the stadium, their stock horses performing intricate steps, including forming the five Olympic Rings.

The Australian National Anthem was sung in the first verse by Human Nature and the second by Julie Anthony.

The cultural segments of the event took place with many aspects of the land and its people: the affinity of the mainly coastal-dwelling Australians with the sea that surrounds the Island Continent. The indigenous inhabitation of the land, the coming of the First Fleet, the continued immigration from many nations, and the rural industry on which the economy of the nation was built, including a display representing the harshness of rural life based on the paintings of Sir Sidney Nolan. Two memorable scenes were the representation of the heart of the country by 200 Aboriginal women from Central Australia who danced up “the mighty spirit of god to protect the Games” and the overwhelmingly noisy representation of the construction industry by hundreds of tap-dancing teenagers.

Because the wife of then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch was seriously ill and unable to accompany her husband to the Olympics, Dawn Fraser, former Australian Olympic Champion swimmer and member of the Parliament of New South Wales, accompanied Samaranch during the Australian cultural segments, explaining to him some of the cultural references that are unfamiliar for the people from outside Australia.

Formal presentation

A record 199 nations entered the stadium, with a record 80 of them winning at least one medal. The only missing IOC member was Afghanistan, which was banned due to the extremist rule of the Taliban's oppression of women and its prohibition of sports. The ceremony featured a unified entrance by the athletes of North and South Korea, using a specially designed unification flag: a white background flag with a blue map of the Korean Peninsula. Four athletes from East Timor also marched in the parade of nations as individual Olympic athletes and marched directly before the host country. Although the country-to-be had no National Olympic Committee then, they were allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag with country code IOA. The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, opened the games.

The Olympic Flag was carried around the arena by eight former Australian Olympic champions: Bill Roycroft, Murray Rose, Liane Tooth, Gillian Rolton, Marjorie Jackson, Lorraine Crapp, Michael Wenden and Nick Green. During the raising of the Olympics Flag, the Olympic Hymn was sung by the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia in Greek. Following this, Tina Arena sang a purpose-written pop song, The Flame.

The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame, which was brought into the stadium by former Australian Olympic champion Herb Elliott. Then, celebrating one hundred years of women’s participation in the Olympic Games, former Australian women Olympic medalists Betty Cuthbert, Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland, Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman, who lit the flame in the cauldron within a circle of fire. The choice of Freeman, an Aboriginal woman, to light the flame was notable given the history of human rights abuses against Aboriginal people in Australia. Following her lighting, Freeman was the subject of racial abuse from some Australians. The planned spectacular climax to the ceremony was delayed by the technical glitch of a computer switch which malfunctioned, causing the sequence to shut down by giving a false reading. This meant that the Olympic flame was suspended in mid-air for about four minutes rather than immediately rising up a water-covered ramp to the top of the stadium. When the cause of the problem was discovered, the program was overridden and the cauldron continued its course, and the ceremony concluded with a fireworks display.

Day 2: 16 September

The first medals of the Games were awarded in the women’s 10-metre air rifle competition, which was won by Nancy Johnson of the United States.

The triathlon made its Olympic debut with the women’s race. Set in the surroundings of the Sydney Opera House, Brigitte McMahon representing Switzerland swam, cycled and ran to the first gold medal in the sport, beating the favoured home athletes such as Michelie Jones who won silver. McMahon only passed Jones in sight of the finish line.

The first star of the Games was 17-year-old Australian Ian Thorpe, who first set a new world record in the 400-metre freestyle final before competing in an exciting 4 × 100 m freestyle final. Swimming the last leg, Thorpe passed the leading American team and arrived in a new world record time, two-tenths of a second ahead of the Americans. In the same event for women, the Americans also broke the world record, finishing ahead of the Netherlands and Sweden.

Samaranch had to leave for home, as his wife was severely ill. Upon arrival, his wife had already died. Samaranch returned to Sydney four days later. The Olympic flag was flown at half-staff during the period as a sign of respect to Samaranch’s wife.

Day 3: 17 September

Canadian Simon Whitfield sprinted away in the last 100 metres of the men’s triathlon, becoming the inaugural winner in the event.

On the cycling track, Robert Bartko beat fellow German Jens Lehmann in the individual pursuit, setting a new Olympic Record. Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel set a world record in the semi-finals the same event for women.

In the swimming pool, American Tom Dolan beat the world record in the 400-metre medley, successfully defending the title he won in Atlanta four years prior. Dutchwoman Inge de Bruijn also clocked a new world record, beating her own time in the 100 m butterfly final to win by more than a second.

Day 4: 18 September

The main event for the Australians on the fourth day of the Games was the 200 m freestyle. Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband had broken the world record in the semi-finals, taking it from the new Australian hero Ian Thorpe, who came close to the world record in his semi-final heat. As the final race finished, Van den Hoogenband’s time was exactly the same as in the semi-finals, finishing ahead of Thorpe by half a second.

China won the gold medal in the men’s team all-around gymnastics competition after being the runner-up in the previous two Olympics. The other medals were taken by Ukraine and Russia, respectively.

Zijlaard-van Moorsel lived up to the expectations set by her world record in cycling in the semis by winning the gold medal.

Day 7: 21 September

During the Women’s Gymnastics All-Around, female athletes suffered damning scores and injuries due to improperly installed gymnastics equipment. Gymnasts performing on the vault gave uncharacteristically poor performances and fell. While athletes were given the opportunity to perform again, for some of them, the damage to their mental or physical health caused by the vault was irreparable.

Day 9: 23 September

By rowing in the winning coxless four, Steve Redgrave of Great Britain became a member of a select group who had won gold medals at five consecutive Olympics.

The swimming 4 x 100-metre medley relay of B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann (Jendrick), Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres became the first women’s relay team to finish in under four minutes, swimming 3:58 and setting a world record, claiming the gold medal for the United States.

Day 10: 24 September

Rulon Gardner, never an NCAA champion or a world medalist, beat Alexander Karelin of Russia to win gold in the super heavyweight class, Greco-Roman wrestling. Karelin had won gold in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta. Before this fight, he had never lost in international competition, had been unbeaten in all competitions in thirteen years, and had not surrendered a point in a decade.

Day 11: 25 September

Australian Cathy Freeman won the 400-metre final in front of a jubilant Sydney crowd at the Olympic Stadium, ahead of Lorraine Graham of Jamaica and Katharine Merry of Great Britain. Freeman’s win made her the first competitor in Olympic Games history to light the Olympic Flame and then go on to win a gold medal. The attendance at the stadium was 112,524 – the largest attendance for any sport in Olympic Games history.

In a men’s basketball pool match between the United States and France, the USA’s Vince Carter made one of the most famous dunks in basketball history. After getting the ball off a steal, the 6’6"/1.98 m Carter drove to the basket, with 7’2"/2.18 m centre Frédéric Weis in his way. Carter jumped, spread his legs in midair, scraped Weis’ head on the way up, and dunked.

Day 14: 28 September

The Canadian flag at the athletes’ village was lowered to half-mast, as Canadian athletes paid tribute to the former prime minister Pierre Trudeau after hearing of his death in Montreal.

Day 16: 30 September

Cameroon won a historic gold medal over Spain in the Men’s Olympic Football Final at the Olympic Stadium. The game went to a penalty shootout, which was won by Cameroon 5–3.

Day 17: 1 October

The last event of the Games was the Men’s Marathon, contested on a course that started in North Sydney. The event was won by Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera, with Kenyan Erick Wainaina second, and Tesfaye Tola, also of Ethiopia, third. It was the first time since the 1968 Olympics that an Ethiopian won the gold medal in this event.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch declared at the Closing Ceremony,

I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever.

Sports

The 2000 Summer Olympic program featured 300 events in the following 28 sports:

Although demonstration sports were abolished following the 1992 Summer Olympics, the Sydney Olympics featured wheelchair racing as exhibition events on the athletics schedule.

Special quarantine conditions were introduced to allow entry of horses into Australia to participate in equestrian events, avoiding the need for such events to take place elsewhere as had happened at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.

Calendar

All dates are in AEDST (UTC+11); the other two cities, Adelaide uses ACST (UTC+9:30) and Brisbane uses AEST (UTC+10)

Participating National Olympic Committees

199 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the Sydney Games, two more than in the 1996 Summer Olympics; in addition, there were four Timorese Individual Olympic Athletes. Eritrea, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau made their Olympic debut this year.

Democratic Republic of the Congo was once again designated under that name, after it participated as Zaire from 1984 to 1996 Summer Olympics.

Afghanistan was the only 1996 participant (and the only existing NOC) that did not participate in the 2000 Olympics, having been banned due to the Taliban’s totalitarian rule in Afghanistan, their oppression of women, and its prohibition of sports.

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committee

10,647 athletes from 199 NOCs participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Medal table

Here are the top ten countries that won medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics. The order of the countries is based on information from the International Olympic Committee. Some other lists might look different because of later changes due to rule breaking.

 ‡  Changes in medal standings (see here)

  *   Host nation (Australia)

Organisation

A number of groups worked together to plan and run the Sydney 2000 Olympics. These included the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC), which were in charge of putting on the Games. Other groups like the Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA) and the Olympic Roads & Transport Authority (ORTA) helped build and manage things. There was also a special security team, and companies like IBM and Telstra provided technology and communication help.

The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee was responsible for the Paralympic Games, but SOCOG helped with many of the plans and operations. The Games included not just the sports events, but also building venues, the Olympic torch relay, and the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival.

Many people helped during the Games. Thousands of volunteers worked at venues and around the city, and they were celebrated with a special parade. The main venues were in Sydney Olympic Park, which had many different places for different sports. Other venues were spread out in Sydney and nearby cities like Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

Main article: Sydney Olympic Park

• Stadium Australia: Ceremonies (opening/closing), Athletics, Football (final)

• Sydney International Aquatic Centre: Diving, Modern Pentathlon (swimming) Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo (medal events)

• State Sports Centre: Table Tennis, Taekwondo

• NSW Tennis Centre: Tennis

• State Hockey Centre: Field Hockey

• The Dome and Exhibition Complex: Badminton, Basketball, Gymnastics (rhythmic), Handball (final), Modern Pentathlon (fencing, shooting), Volleyball (indoor)

• Sydney SuperDome: Gymnastics (artistic, trampoline), Basketball (final)

• Sydney Baseball Stadium: Baseball, Modern Pentathlon (riding, running)

• Sydney International Archery Park: Archery

• Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre: Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

• Sydney Entertainment Centre: Volleyball (indoor final)

• Dunc Gray Velodrome: Cycling (track)

• Sydney International Shooting Centre: Shooting

• Sydney International Equestrian Centre: Equestrian

• Sydney International Regatta Centre: Rowing, Canoeing (sprint)

• Blacktown Olympic Centre: Baseball, Softball

• Western Sydney Parklands: Cycling (mountain biking)

• Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre: Water Polo

• Penrith Whitewater Stadium: Canoeing (slalom)

• Bondi Beach: Volleyball (beach)

• Sydney Football Stadium: Football

• Olympic Sailing Shore Base: Sailing

• Centennial Parklands: Cycling (road)

• Marathon course: Athletics (marathon)

• North Sydney: Athletics (marathon start)

• Sydney Opera House: Triathlon.

• Canberra Stadium, Canberra: Football

• Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide: Football

• Melbourne Cricket Ground: Football

• The Gabba (Brisbane Cricket Ground), Brisbane: Football

Sydney Olympic Arts Festival

Further information: Olympic Arts Festival

The Sydney Olympic Arts Festival was a celebration of art that happened before and during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It was part of a tradition where each Olympic host country holds arts festivals.

The festival included many different types of performances. There were concerts by famous orchestras, dance shows, and plays. Many events took place at the famous Sydney Opera House, but there were also performances at other theaters. The festival began with a special ceremony welcoming people from all over the world and ended on the last day of the Olympic competitions.

Marketing

Emblem

The branding for the Games was created by a design company in Melbourne. The emblem, called the "Millennium Man," shows a stylized runner with arms and legs shaped like boomerangs. The smoke trail behind the runner looks like the roof of the Sydney Opera House. The designers wanted the emblem to be simple enough for a child to draw and to show pride in Australian creativity.

Mascots

Main article: Olly, Syd and Millie

The official Olympic mascots for the 2000 Summer Games were Syd the platypus, Millie the echidna, and Olly the kookaburra. They were designed by artists Matthew Hattan and Jozef Szekeres.

Sponsors

Medals and bouquets

In the 2000 Summer Olympics, athletes from around the world won a total of 750 gold, 750 silver, and 780 bronze medals. The gold and silver medals were made from very pure silver, almost 100% silver. The bronze medals were mostly bronze but also had a little bit of silver. These bronze medals were created by melting down old Australian one-cent and two-cent coins that were no longer used as money.

Winners also received flower bouquets that included leaves from a special plant called the Grevillea baileyana, also known as the white oak.

Awards and commendations

The International Olympic Committee gave Sydney and its people a special award called the "Pierre de Coubertin Trophy" for their great work and friendly spirit during the games. They made everyone feel welcome.

After the games, the New South Wales Police Force received permission to use the Olympic Rings in a new award. This was because they helped make the games very safe for everyone.

Mo Awards

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards, often just called the Mo Awards, were yearly awards in Australia. They celebrated great work in live entertainment from 1975 to 2016.

In popular culture

The 2000 Summer Olympics appeared in many stories and shows. In a book called Toad Rage by Morris Gleitzman, a cane toad tries to become the Olympic mascot. There was also a TV show called The Games that made fun of some problems in the Olympic world.

In a story by Tom Clancy called Rainbow Six and its video game, some characters plan something bad during the Olympics. In the world of the Cyberpunk game, the 2000 Olympics did not happen because of money issues and disagreements about land.