Sydney (2000)
The 2000 Games took place in Sydney, Australia. It was the second time that the Summer Olympics were held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first one being in Melbourne (1956).
The Sydney 2000 Games were the largest yet, with 10,651 athletes competing in 300 events. Despite their size, they were well organised, renewing faith in the Olympic Movement.
Interesting Facts
- Birgit Fischer earned two gold medals in Kayak to become the first woman in any sport to win medals 20 years apart.
- Steven Redgrave became the first rower to win gold medals at five consecutive Olympics.
- The US softball team won in stirring fashion, losing three games in a row and then coming back to defeat each of the teams they had lost to.
- Cathy Freeman had the honour to light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Games. She symbolized the desire to reconcile the white and Aboriginal populations of Australia and was the aborigine medal hopeful. Ten days later, Cathy Freeman won the 400m final which was a clear victory before an ecstatic crowd.
- Korea (South Korea) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) marched together under the same flag.
- Four athletes from East Timor took part under the Olympic flag as individual athletes.
- Maria Isabel Urrutia, won the first gold medal for Colombia in weightlifting
- The first medal ever won by Vietnam was won by Hieu Ngan Tran who was a silver medallist in taekwondo
- Susanthika Jayasinghe became the first Sri Lankan woman to win a medal – she was a bronze medallist in the 200m.
- Triathlon and taekwondo were two new additions to the Olympic programme.
- For the first time, tests to detect EPO and blood tests were performed.
- Women took part in the modern pentathlon and the weightlifting for the first time in Olympic history.