2000 Summer Olympics
The Games of the XXVII Olympiad or the Millennium Olympics were held in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney was elected in 1993 above Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul and Manchester. The election took place in Monte Carlo on 23rd September, 1993.
Prologue
Although the Opening Ceremony was not scheduled until
September 15, the
football competitions began with preliminary matches on
September 13.
In a long opening ceremony, Australia presented itself and its celebrities to the world, with about three billion watching the show. They saw a record 199 nations enter the stadium, the only missing
IOC member being the suspended
Afghanistan for the
Taliban regime's prohibition to practice any kind of
sports. Most remarkable was the entering of
North and
South Korea as one team, using a specially designed flag. The two teams would compete separately, however. Four athletes from
East Timor also marched in the parade of nations. Although the country-to-be had no National Olympic Committee then, they were allowed to compete under the
Olympic Flag.
The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, opened the games.
The Opening Ceremony began with a tribute to the heritage of the Australian Stock Horse, with the arrival of a lone rider, Steve Jefferys, whose Australian Stock Horse "Ammo" reared. Steve Jefferys cracked his stockwhip and a further 120 riders and their Stock Horses entered the Stadium and performed intricate steps to the music of Bruce Rowland who composed a special Olympics version of the main theme which he had composed for the 1982 film "The Man From Snowy River".
Julie Anthony was the soprano who sang the Australian National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony
The ceremonies concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. Former Australian women Olympic champions brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman, who lit the flame in the cauldron within a circle of fire. A hot favourite for the 400m title, Freeman is a major role model for Indigenous Australians.
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Gold medalist Nancy Johnson (centre) of the U.S., raises her hands with silver medalist Cho-Hyun Kang (left), of Korea, and bronze winner Jing Gao (right), of China, during the first medal ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games. |
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 of
Switzerland swam, cycled and ran to the first gold medal in the sport, beating the favoured home athletes.
The first star of the Games was
Ian Thorpe. The 17-year-old Australian first set a new world record in the 400m freestyle final before competing in an exciting 4 x 100 m freestyle final. Swimming the last leg, Thorpe passed the leading Americans 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.
IOC President
Juan Antonio Samaranch, at his last Olympics, 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.
Canadian Simon Whitfield sprinted away in the last 100m 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 400m
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 100m butterfly final to win by more than a second.
The main event for the Australians on the fourth day of the Games was the 200m 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 only 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. The title completed her return to the sport after a long break because of
anorexia nervosa.
By rowing in the winning coxed four,
Steve Redgrave of
Great Britain became a member of a select group who had won gold medals at five consecutive Olympics.
Australian Cathy Freeman won the 400 metre final in front of a jubilant Sydney crowd at the
Olympic Stadium. The race was tipped to be a major attraction of Sydney Games between Freeman and France's
Marie-José Perec. But Perec left Sydney before the race even began, which left many International commentators and fans disappointed. Perec vowed never to return to Sydney again. Freeman finished the Race ahead of Lorraine Graham of
Jamaica and
Katharine Merry of
Great Britain, which delighted Australian sporting fans and commentators alike.
The
Canadian flag at athletes' village is lowered to half-staff as
Canadian athletes pay tribute to former prime minister
Pierre Trudeau after hearing of his passing in
Montreal. (Because of the time difference, it was September 29 in Sydney when Trudeau passed away)
Cameroon won a historic gold medal over
Spain in the Men's Olympic
Football Final at the Olympic Stadium.
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".
Yvonne Kenny was the soprano who sang the
"Olympic Hymn" at the Closing Ceremony.
The Games were then handed over to the city of their birthplace,
Athens, where they would again take place in
2004. The ceremony concluded with a huge
fireworks display on
Sydney Harbour.
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
Top medal-collecting nations:See also:
*2000 Summer Olympics medals per capita
*For a list of similar statistics, see http://simon.forsyth.net/olympics2000.html .
Articles about Sydney Summer Olympics by nation:The games were covered by the following broadcasters:
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Seven Network (Australia)
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BBC (United Kingdom)
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NBC (United States)
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SVT (Sweden)
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CBC and
TSN (Canada)
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NHK (Japan)
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ARD and
ZDF (Germany)
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France Télévisions (
France 2 and
France 3) and
Canal + (France)
One of the more notable parts of the
media coverage of the games was the two-hour nightly broadcast of "
The Dream," a comedy
talk show discussing the past day's events, presented by Australian comedic duo
Roy and HG. The show was broadcast internationally, and featured a wombat
mascot, (named
Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat), who became significantly more popular than the official mascots Syd, Ollie and Millie. Their commentary on the men's gymnastics was also entertaining.
Running up to the games, a lesser-known Australian comedy satire
The Games was broadcast in Australia only. It featured a spoof of the issues, and events that the top-level organisers and bureaucrats suffered in the lead up to the games.
NBC presented over 400+ hours on their main and sister stations,
CNBC and
MSNBC. The downside of the American coverage was that it was presented on tape delay rather than live due to the 15-hour time difference. NBC remedied this error in their 2004 coverage by presenting live coverage throughout the night and early morning, and showing replays in prime time.
Perhaps, the most poignant part of the media coverage of the games came in Canada. On September 28, the CBC was airing the Olympics when the network's chief correspondent,
Peter Mansbridge, interrupted it and said:
"Hello, from Toronto, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Sad news to report from Montreal...former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau...has passed away."
People in Canada that wanted to see the Olympics between then and the closing ceremonies had to turn to TSN because the CBC was broadcasing news coverage related to the
passing and state funeral of the former prime minister.
Bodies responsible for the Olympics
A number of quasi-government bodies were responsible for the construction, organisation and execution of the Sydney Games. These included:
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SOCOG the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, primarily responsible for the staging of the Games
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OCA the Olympic Coordination Authority, primarily responsible for construction and oversight
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ORTA the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority
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SOBO the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (nominally part of SOCOG)
These organisations worked closely together and with other bodies such as:
*the
International Olympic Committee (or IOC)
*the
Australian Olympic Committee (or AOC)
*the other 197 National Olympic Committees (or NOCs)
*the 33 International Sporting Federations (or IFs)
*all three levels of Australian government (federal, state and local)
*dozens of official sponsor and hundreds of official supplier companies
These bodies are often collectively referred to as the "Olympic Family".
Organisation of the Paralympics
Organisation of the
2000 Summer Paralympics was the responsibility of
SPOC the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee. However much of the planning and operation of the Paralympic Games was outsourced to SOCOG such that most operational programmes planned both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Other Olympic events
Organisation of the Olympic Games included not only the actual sporting events but also the management (and sometimes construction) of the sporting venues and surrounding precincts, the organisation of the
Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and
Olympic torch relay.
Phases of the Olympic project
The staging of the Olympics were treated as a
project on a vast scale, with the project broken into several broad phases:
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1993 to
1996 â€" positioning
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1997 â€" going operational
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1998 â€" procurement/venuisation
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1999 â€" testing/refinement
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2000 - implementation
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2001 - post implementation and wind-down
SOCOG organisational design
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SOCOG organisational structure circa 1998 - five groups and 33 divisions reporting to the CEO are organised primarily along functional lines with only a limited number of divisions (eg Interstate Football and Villages) anticipating a venue focussed design. |
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SOCOG organisational structure circa 1999 - functional divisions and precinct/venue streams are organised in a matrix structure linked to the Main Operations Centre (MOC). Some functions such as Project Management (in the Games Coordination group) continue to exist largely outside this matrix structure. |
The internal organisation of SOCOG evolved over the phases of the project and changed, sometimes radically, several times.
In late 1998 the design was principally functional. The top two tiers below the CEO consisted of five groups (managed by Group General Managers and the Deputy CEO) and twenty divisions (managed by divisional General Managers), which in turn were further broken up into programmes and sub programmes or projects.
In 1999 functional areas (FAs) broke up into geographic precinct and venue teams (managed by Precinct Managers and Venue Managers) with functional area staff reporting to both the FA manager and the venue manager. Ie, SOCOG moved to a matrix structure. The Interstate Football division extant in 1998 was the first of these geographically based venue teams.
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2000 Summer Paralympics*
International Olympic Committee*
IOC country codes*
Sydney Olympic Games Information*
Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony - the Official Report of the XXVII Olympiad*
Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony - Australian Special Events*
IOC Site on 2000 Summer Olympics*
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - archived websites in PANDORA
