2000 Sydney Olympics

At the heart of the Olympic Games is the Sports. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, several sports were added. 10,649 athletes participated, and 80 nations won medals.

Archery

Diving

Rowing

Taekwondo

Athletics

Equestrian

Sailing

Tennis

Baseball

Fencing

Shooting

Triathlon

Basketball

Gymnastics

Soccer

Volleyball

Badminton

Handball

Softball

Water Polo

Boxing

Hockey

Swimming

Weight Lifting

Canoeing/Kayaking

Judo

Synchronized Swimming

Wrestling

Cycling

Modern Pentathlon

Table Tennis

Chess and wheelchair racing were included in the 2000 Olympics as a demonstration sport.

The opening ceremonies for the 2000 Sydney Olympics took place on September 15th. During the opening ceremonies, the Australians paid homage to their history of livestock herding; horses entered the stadium to form Olympic rings. Tribute was also paid to the indigenous population. Australian women were highlighted as the Olympic flame was lit; six Australian women Olympians took the Olympic flame through the stadium, before finally handing the torch to Cathy Freeman, who lit the cauldron. A technical glitch occurred during this part of the ceremony, but once it was discovered, the computer program was overridden and the flame finished lighting the cauldron, and fireworks continued.

A beautiful little girl, Nikki Webster, sang "We'll Be One" during the opening ceremonies. Tina Arena sang "The Flame", Vanessa Amorosi sang "Heroes Live Forever", and Olivia Newton-John sang "Dare to Dream" with John Farnham. A Millennium Marching band with 2000 performers played as well.

A mixup on the vault could have resulted in a different outcome for the gymnasts at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Svatlana Khorkina of Russia was expected to to do well in the all-around competition; unfortunately, she ended up falling to her knees after completing the vault. Distraught, she ended up doing poorly on the uneven bars as well, and was knocked out of competition.

Unknown to Khorkina by the time she went on the uneven bars, there was a problem with the vault. When the apparatus was changed to go from the men's vault to the women's vault, the officials set the vault 5 cm too low. Allana Slater of Australia noticed this and notified her coach, who informed the officials. By the time they had noticed, 18 gymnasts had already competed, and one, Annika Reeder from Great Britain, was hurt badly when she completed her vault, and ended up having to be taken out of the gym in a wheelchair. The gymnasts were given the chance to redo their vaults, but for Khorkina, it was too late to do well in the all-around competition. Andreea Raducan of Romania had received the best score with 38.893, but she ended up being disqualified because her doctor prescribed her with a drug containing pseudoephedrine. Simona Amanar of Romania ended up with the gold, Maria Olaru of Romania took the silver, and Xuan Liu of China won the bronze.

Because of this mixup, the horizontal vault was replaced with the vault table, which is shaped differently and is believed to be safer.

In Barcelona and Atlanta, the United States placed third and first in the women's all-around gymnastics event. In 2000, Romania took the gold while Russia won the silver. China appeared to win the third place medal. Americans rooting on from home were disappointed in the fourth place win. The team of Elise Ray, Amy Chow, Kristin Maloney, Jamie Dantzscher, and Tasha Schwikert went home empty handed (although probably with a lot of good memories).

These athletes went on to live their lives... but sometimes fate changes things.

The Olympic world can work slowly, especially when it comes to verifying the age of Chinese gymnasts. While the world was focusing on the ages of the Chinese gymnasts in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Dong Fangxiao, who was part of the bronze-medal winning Chinese team in 2000, supplied credentials to work as a technical official at the games which indicated that she was 14 years old at the time of the 2000 Olympics. The age of Yang Yun, who received a bronze on the uneven bars along with a bronze team medal, is also under suspicion of being 14 at the time of the Sydney Olympics. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ruled in April of 2010 that the Chinese team would lose their bronze medals, and the United States would win the bronze.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Marion Jones did well. She won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x400m relay. At about the same time, Jones' life started to fall apart. Reporters discovered that her husband had tested positive for steroids prior to the Olympics. Although that didn't keep her from winning medals, after the Olympics, she split up from her husband. Her finances fell into disarray as legal bills mounted and sponsors abandoned her, and she had to sell a mansion that she had, as well as some other houses she had purchased.

In 2007, she admitted to doping during the 2000 Olympics. Her medals were then taken away from her, as were the medals of her teammates in the 4x400 relay: Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, and Nanceen Perry. Although her teammates appealed the ruling to take their medals, in 2009, the gold medals were awarded to the Bahama's relay team. The 100m gold medal was not re-awarded; Ekaterini Thanou, who came in second behind Jones, was accused of doping in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and she was banned from the Beijing Olympics for bringing the games into disrepute. Tayna Lawrence of the Jamaican team had her bronze medal upgraded to a silver medal, while fourth place Merlene Ottey of Jamaica was awarded a bronze medal. In 2009, the second through fourth place finishers in the other races had their medals upgraded.

The Sydney Olympics was Michael Johnson's third (and last) Olympics. This year, he won a gold medal in the 400m event, becoming the only person to have back to back Olympic medals in this event. This event also gave him the distinction of being the oldest man to ever win an Olympic gold medal in a distance less than 5000m (he was 33).

This Olympics was not without its controversy for Johnson though. In 2004, the International Association of Athletics Federations declared that Jerome Young, who ran in the preliminary heats, was ineligible to race; however, this ruling was overturned in 2005. In 2008, Antonio Pettigrew admitted to cheating by using banned performance-enhancing drugs. The gold-winning relay team had to return their medals. Johnson said that he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by the action of his teammate. What would have otherwise been a career with five Olympic gold medals ended up being a career with four gold medals.

Cathy Freeman was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron. Later on in the games, she won the gold in the 400m race. This win was historical for the Australians: it was the 100th Australian gold medal since the beginning of the modern Olympic games in 1896, and was the first individual gold medal won by an Australian of aboriginal ancestry ever. She also was the first athlete to light the Olympic flame and go on to win an Olympic gold medal in the same games.

Freeman's career had not always been uncontroversial. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games, she won the 400m race and was reprimanded for making her victory lap with the Australian aboriginal flag. When she won the gold medal, she took her victory lap with both the aboriginal and Australian flags.

The Australians were excited to host the Olympics, and they were elated to see one of their swimmers do well on his home turf. Ian Thorpe roused the crowds by winning two gold medals, setting world records in the 400 meter freestyle, swimming with the Australians in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay, and by swimming with the country's 4x100 meter relay team. His 400 meter gold medal was the first for Australia in the Sydney games. He earned a silver medal in the 200 meter freestyle, and a silver medal for swimming in the preliminary heats of the 4x100 meter medley relay.

His achievements at the Sydney Olympics earned him the right to carry the flag during the closing ceremonies. The "Thorpedo" was named "Swimmer of the Year" by Swimming Australia.

Anthony Ervin, the winner of the gold medal in the 50 meter freestyle race, was the first black swimmer to swim for the United States of America at the Olympics. In the 50m freestyle race, he finished in a dead heat with another United States swimmer, Gary Hall Jr.

On December 26th, 2004, a devastating tsunami hit Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. In May of 2005, Ervin sold his gold medal on eBay and donated the proceeds to UNICEF to help the people that were hurt by the tsunami. He was able to raise $17,100 for the cause.

Some athletes are inspirational, not for being the fastest or the most flamboyant, but for having determination and facing difficult times. That is the case with Samson Ndayishimiye. Ndayishimiye was the competitor from the country of Rwanda. He was the slowest swimmer in the 50 meter freestyle race, coming in 75th place with a time of 38.76 seconds. In Rwanda, he didn't even have a full size pool to train with; he swam in a 20-meter pool at a hotel. Rather than being upset about his last-place finish, he was just happy to be able to swim in a pool that was clean. Rwanda is a fairly poor country today. The 1994 genocide, where up to a million people were killed over the span of 100 days, In 2000, Rwanda was still in a period of upheaval. President Kagame had just been installed a few months prior (elections wouldn't be held until three years later).

Despite his last place finish, Ndayishimiye would certainly beat me in a race. Additionally, I live in a country with access to many clean pools, and have the benefit of living in a country with a stable government.

Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres both swam for the United States and trained with the same coach; however, they didn't really like each other. The coach even had to work with them separately. As fate would have it, they had to get a little closer than they would hope.

Torres and Thompson both swam in the 100m freestyle race and tied for third place. They had to stand on the third place medal stand together, each receiving a bronze medal.

If you watched diving during the Beijing Olympics, you may recall the formidable duo of Wu Mingxia and Guo Jingjing. In 2000, the Chinese were already doing well on the springboard. Guo Jingjing and Fu Mingxia (not to be confused with Wu Mingxia, who Guo would dive with in Athens and Beijing) received a silver medal in synchronized springboard. The Russian duo, Vera Ilyina and Yulia Pakhalina, received the gold medal; these positions would be reversed four years later in Athens Fu Mingxia received the gold medal in individual springboard, while Guo Jingjing took the silver medal.

In a way, this Olympics marked the passing of a baton for Chinese diving. Fu Mingxia had been competing in the Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the women's platform competition, twenty days before her 14th birthday. She won the gold platform medal and the gold springboard medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Guo Jingjing would continue with the sport, earning gold medals for both springboard and synchronized springboard in Atlanta, and gold medals in springboard and synchronized springboard in Beijing (both synchronized medals were with Wu Minxia).

Britain's Steve Redgrave was a rower whose last Olympics was in Sydney, but he left with a bang. He won the gold medal in the coxless four competition in men's rowing. With this gold medal, he became the fourth person in Olympic history to win gold medals in five different Olympics. Other individuals to win gold medals in five Olympics include Birgit Fischer in kayaking, Elisabeta Lipa-Oleniuc in rowing, Reiner Klimke in equestrian, and Pal Kovacs in fencing. Aladar Gerevich has the record for most gold medals, with golds from six different Olympics in fencing.

The United States men's basketball team was full of big names at the 2000 Olympics, they almost didn't win the gold medal.

1992 was the first year that professional basketball players were allowed to compete in the Olympics. The "Dream Team" in 1992 and 1996 seemed almost invincible. Then in the 2000 Olympics, in a semifinal game against Lithuania, the Americans almost lost. They won the game 85-83, but a last ditch effort to score a 3-pointer by Šarūnas Jasikevičius almost resulted in a win for the Lithuanians.

Rulon Gardner had never really made his mark on the wrestling world. He attributed most of his strength to working on a dairy farm. He wrestled in high school and college, but never took home the gold, silver, or bronze on a national scale. In 1995 and 1997 he won two United States championships. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, he made his mark on the wrestling world.

Aleksandr Karelin was a Russian who had not been defeated for 13 years. He had gold medals from 1988, 1992, and 1996. He was the favorite to win in 2000. He was beat by the first-time Olympian in a shocking upset.

The closing ceremonies had more of a festive air than the opening ceremonies. Christine Anu sang her song "Island Home", and Nikki Webster sang "We'll Be One". Kylie Minogue and INXS, two other Australian artists, also sang.

The president of the IOC at the time, Juan Antonio Samaranch, declared "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever." This was the last Olympics that Samaranch would officiate, and was also the last time that the Olympics were declared the "best Games ever." Sadly, Samaranch died in April 2010. His daughter appeared at the 10th anniversary celebration that took place for the games.

At the end, the games were handed over to Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games. Two Greek flags were raised: the first, because Greece was the place where the Olympics began, and the second, because Athens was to be the host city.

Country

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Total

United States

36

24

31

91

Russia

32

28

29

89

China

28

16

15

59

Australia

16

25

17

58

Germany

13

17

26

56

France

13

14

11

38

Italy

13

8

13

34

Netherlands

12

9

4

25

Cuba

11

11

7

29

Great Britain

11

10

7

28