2000 Summer Paralympics
Encyclopedia
The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 October to 29 October. The eleventh Summer Paralympic Games
, an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the Sydney programme. They commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000. It was followed by the 11 days of fierce international competition and was the second largest sporting event ever held in Australia.
When the Paralympic flag was handed over to Sydney in 1996, the organizers had insisted on the principle that all core services for the Paralympic Games be delivered by the same staff and same team that would deliver services for the Olympic Games. This move paid off. The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) and the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) were able to capitalize on shared departments and delivered on their promise to create the best possible conditions for elite athletes with a disability. Paralympic and Olympic athletes lived in the same village, and enjoyed the same catering services, medical care and facilities. Ticketing, technology and transport systems for the Olympics were seamlessly extended to the Paralympics.
A record number of 122 countries, or 123 delegations including independent athletes from East Timor, participated at the Sydney Paralympics, making this the largest Games in Paralympic history. The Atlanta 1996 Paralympics had 103 countries competing, and Barcelona 1992 attracted 83 countries. During Games time, the Paralympic Village was home to 6,943 people, comprising 3,824 athletes, 2,315 team officials and 804 technical officials.
From an organizational point of view, the Sydney Paralympics could not have been better. A record number of about 1.2 million tickets were sold, more than double the 500,000 for Atlanta 1996. About 2,300 media representatives were on-site to cover the Games. The Games set a new precedent in webcasting, with the public being able to watch some 100 hours of Paralympic competitions through WeMedia's video streaming service on the Internet. Users across 103 countries logged in to catch the webcast. The official Games website attracted an estimated 300 million hits during Games time.
The mascot for the 2000 Paralympics was "Lizzie" the Frill-necked Lizard
.
Australian artist Jeffrey St. John sang "Advance Australia Fair
" and "The Challenge" at the Opening Ceremony.
Kylie Minogue
sang "Waltzing Matilda
" and "Celebration" at the Opening Ceremony.
Other performers included Nathan Cavaleri, Melissa Ippolito, Bryan Brown, Taxiride, Billy Thorpe, Jack Thompson, Renee Geyer, Tina Harris and Christine Anu.
Australian country artist Graeme Connors
sang his song 'Being Here', which was specially written for the event.
The Australia
n group, The Seekers
, sang their hit song "The Carnival Is Over
" as the finale to the Closing Ceremony. Judith Durham
, who had a broken hip, sang from a wheelchair.
While the relay visited each Australian capital city, it also focused strongly on Sydney and the surrounding region, as this was the main catchment area for ticket sales.
The Paralympic Torch Relay succeeded in generating community and media support for the Games, with crowds in many areas and significant crowds lining the Sydney metropolitan route in the final two days of the relay.
The event, which commenced with a lighting ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra on 5 October 2000, involved 920 torchbearers, each of whom carried the flame an average of 500 metres. After visiting each capital city (except Sydney) by air, the relay travelled in New South Wales (NSW) from Moss Vale through the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, Campbelltown, Penrith, Windsor, Hunter and Central Coast areas before heading to Sydney.
Highlights included:
program and wheelchair rugby
, a demonstration sport at the 1996 Paralympics, was contested as a medal-awarding sport.
Sporting performances were of an unprecedented standard. With 550 gold medals to be won, the 18 events on the Sydney 2000 Paralympic program brought forth more than 300 world and Paralympic records. British wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson crowned a distinguished career by winning four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m races in her disability category. Jason Wening, a double below-the-knee amputee swimmer from the United States, won his third consecutive gold medal in the 400m freestyle, breaking his own world record in the process. Wening has not been beaten in the 400m in his category since 1991, when he first broke the world record. Sydney 2000 marked the first-time participation of female athletes in powerlifting, and it was a debut to remember. Seven world records tumbled within the space of two hours. Jianxin Bian of China and Fatma Omar of Egypt took the first two gold medals in women's powerlifting. Wheelchair rugby, a demonstration event at Atlanta 1996 and now a full-medal sport at Sydney 2000, became an instant crowd-puller. The USA edged out Australia 32-31 in a closely fought final to take the gold medal. Host country Australia eventually topped the medal table with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze. Great Britain was next with 41 gold, 43 silver and 47 bronze. Then came Spain with 39 gold, 30 silver and 38 bronze.
In the table below, the ranking sorts by the number of gold medals earned by a nation (in this context a nation is an entity represented by a National Paralympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.
. The newly independent country had not yet established a National Paralympic Committee
, so the International Paralympic Committee
invited East Timorese athletes to compete at the games under the title of Individual Paralympic Athletes.
Barbados
, Benin
, Cambodia
, Costa Rica
, El Salvador
, Guatemala
, Guinea
, Iraq
, Laos
, Lebanon
, Lesotho
, Madagascar
, Mali
, Mauritania
, Mongolia
, Niger
, Palestine
, Papua New Guinea
, the Philippines
, Rwanda
, Samoa
, Sudan
, Turkey
, Turkmenistan
, Vanuatu
and Vietnam
, who had not participated in the Atlanta Games, competed in Sydney.
, multiple Paralympic gold medallist for Great Britain, later said of the Sydney Games:
Summer Paralympic Games
The Summer Paralympic Games or the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event, where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years,...
, an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the Sydney programme. They commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000. It was followed by the 11 days of fierce international competition and was the second largest sporting event ever held in Australia.
When the Paralympic flag was handed over to Sydney in 1996, the organizers had insisted on the principle that all core services for the Paralympic Games be delivered by the same staff and same team that would deliver services for the Olympic Games. This move paid off. The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) and the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) were able to capitalize on shared departments and delivered on their promise to create the best possible conditions for elite athletes with a disability. Paralympic and Olympic athletes lived in the same village, and enjoyed the same catering services, medical care and facilities. Ticketing, technology and transport systems for the Olympics were seamlessly extended to the Paralympics.
A record number of 122 countries, or 123 delegations including independent athletes from East Timor, participated at the Sydney Paralympics, making this the largest Games in Paralympic history. The Atlanta 1996 Paralympics had 103 countries competing, and Barcelona 1992 attracted 83 countries. During Games time, the Paralympic Village was home to 6,943 people, comprising 3,824 athletes, 2,315 team officials and 804 technical officials.
From an organizational point of view, the Sydney Paralympics could not have been better. A record number of about 1.2 million tickets were sold, more than double the 500,000 for Atlanta 1996. About 2,300 media representatives were on-site to cover the Games. The Games set a new precedent in webcasting, with the public being able to watch some 100 hours of Paralympic competitions through WeMedia's video streaming service on the Internet. Users across 103 countries logged in to catch the webcast. The official Games website attracted an estimated 300 million hits during Games time.
The mascot for the 2000 Paralympics was "Lizzie" the Frill-necked Lizard
Frill-necked Lizard
The frill-necked lizard , also known as the frilled lizard or frilled dragon, is found mainly in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. Its name comes from the large frill around its neck, which usually stays folded against the lizard's body. It is largely arboreal, spending the majority of...
.
Australian artist Jeffrey St. John sang "Advance Australia Fair
Advance Australia Fair
"Advance Australia Fair" is the official national anthem of Australia. Created by the Scottish-born composer, Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed in 1878, but did not gain its status as the official anthem until 1984. Until then, the song was sung in Australia as a patriotic song...
" and "The Challenge" at the Opening Ceremony.
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
sang "Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A country folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia"....
" and "Celebration" at the Opening Ceremony.
Other performers included Nathan Cavaleri, Melissa Ippolito, Bryan Brown, Taxiride, Billy Thorpe, Jack Thompson, Renee Geyer, Tina Harris and Christine Anu.
Australian country artist Graeme Connors
Graeme Connors
Graeme Connors is an Australian country music singer, songwriter and performer, born in Mackay, Queensland. He is best known for the hits A Little Further North and Let The Canefields Burn. Throughout his music career Graeme has released over fourteen albums and to date has received fourteen Golden...
sang his song 'Being Here', which was specially written for the event.
The Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n group, The Seekers
The Seekers
The Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop music group which were originally formed in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States...
, sang their hit song "The Carnival Is Over
The Carnival Is Over
"The Carnival Is Over" is a Russian folk song with lyrics written by Tom Springfield in 1965 for the Australian group The Seekers, who customarily close their concerts with it...
" as the finale to the Closing Ceremony. Judith Durham
Judith Durham
Judith Durham, OAM is an Australian jazz singer and musician who became the lead vocalist for the Australian popular folk music group The Seekers in 1963. She left the group in mid-1968 to pursue her solo career...
, who had a broken hip, sang from a wheelchair.
Torch relay
The Torch Relay Program's objectives were to develop a route and an event which would help maintain momentum between the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, promote the Paralympic Games and encourage ticket purchases. It was also to safely deliver the Paralympic flame to the Opening Ceremony.While the relay visited each Australian capital city, it also focused strongly on Sydney and the surrounding region, as this was the main catchment area for ticket sales.
The Paralympic Torch Relay succeeded in generating community and media support for the Games, with crowds in many areas and significant crowds lining the Sydney metropolitan route in the final two days of the relay.
The event, which commenced with a lighting ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra on 5 October 2000, involved 920 torchbearers, each of whom carried the flame an average of 500 metres. After visiting each capital city (except Sydney) by air, the relay travelled in New South Wales (NSW) from Moss Vale through the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, Campbelltown, Penrith, Windsor, Hunter and Central Coast areas before heading to Sydney.
Highlights included:
- The creation of the Paralympic flame during an Indigenous lighting ceremony on the forecourt of Parliament House, Canberra, with Paralympian David Hall (a tennis player) as the first torchbearer. The Australian Prime Minister attended this event.
- The use of a Royal Australian Air Force Falcon 900 Executive jet to convey the Paralympic flame around Australia.
- The Paralympic flame being carried across the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (17 October 2000) by four torchbearers.
Sports
The games included 550 separate events in 19 sports. For the first time, women's events were included in the powerliftingPowerlifting
Powerlifting is a strength sport. It resembles the sport of Olympic weightlifting, as both disciplines involve lifting weights in three attempts. Powerlifting evolved from a sport known as 'odd lifts' which followed the same three attempt format but used a wide variety of events akin to Strongman...
program and wheelchair rugby
Wheelchair rugby
Wheelchair rugby, , is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is currently practiced in over twenty countries around the world and is a Paralympic sport....
, a demonstration sport at the 1996 Paralympics, was contested as a medal-awarding sport.
Sporting performances were of an unprecedented standard. With 550 gold medals to be won, the 18 events on the Sydney 2000 Paralympic program brought forth more than 300 world and Paralympic records. British wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson crowned a distinguished career by winning four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m races in her disability category. Jason Wening, a double below-the-knee amputee swimmer from the United States, won his third consecutive gold medal in the 400m freestyle, breaking his own world record in the process. Wening has not been beaten in the 400m in his category since 1991, when he first broke the world record. Sydney 2000 marked the first-time participation of female athletes in powerlifting, and it was a debut to remember. Seven world records tumbled within the space of two hours. Jianxin Bian of China and Fatma Omar of Egypt took the first two gold medals in women's powerlifting. Wheelchair rugby, a demonstration event at Atlanta 1996 and now a full-medal sport at Sydney 2000, became an instant crowd-puller. The USA edged out Australia 32-31 in a closely fought final to take the gold medal. Host country Australia eventually topped the medal table with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze. Great Britain was next with 41 gold, 43 silver and 47 bronze. Then came Spain with 39 gold, 30 silver and 38 bronze.
- ArcheryArchery at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsArchery at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of seven events, four for men and three for women. Competitors were divided into three categories:*W1: quadriplegic archers, or comparable disability, in wheelchairs...
- AthleticsAthletics at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsAthletics at the 2000 Summer Paralympics comprised a total of 234 events, 165 for men and 69 for women. Athletes were classified according to the extent and type of their disability.* Classes 11-13: visually impaired athletes...
- Basketball IDBasketball ID at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsBasketball ID at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of a men's event with eight teams competing. The sport was a form of basketball adapted for players with intellectual disabilities .- Medal summary :...
- BocciaBoccia at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsBoccia at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of individual, pairs, and team events. Men and women competed together.- Medal summary :...
- CyclingCycling at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsCycling at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of 27 events in two disciplines, road cycling and track cycling.- Road cycling :- Track cycling :...
- EquestrianEquestrian at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsEquestrian at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of mixed individual and team dressage events.- Medal summary :...
- Football 7-a-sideFootball 7-a-side at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsFootball 7-a-side at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of a men's event with eight teams competing.- Medal summary :- Group stage :- Finals :...
- GoalballGoalball at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsGoalball at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of men's and women's team events....
- JudoJudo at the 2000 Summer Paralympics- Medal summary :...
- PowerliftingPowerlifting at the 2000 Summer Paralympics- Men's events :- Women's events :...
- SailingSailing at the 2000 Summer Paralympics- Medal summary :...
- ShootingShooting at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsShooting at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of twelve events spread over two main classes:* Class SH 1 - Pistol and rifle competitors who don't require a shooting stand...
- SwimmingSwimming at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsSwimming at the 2000 Summer Paralympics comprised a total of 169 events, 91 for men and 78 for women. Swimmers were classified according to the extent and type of their disability.- Men's events :- Women's events :...
- Table tennisTable tennis at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsTable tennis at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of thirty singles and team events.Competitors were divided into eleven classes according to the extent of their disability, with lower numbered classes corresponding to more severe disabilities...
- VolleyballVolleyball at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsVolleyball at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of standing and sitting volleyball events for men....
- Wheelchair basketballWheelchair basketball at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsWheelchair basketball at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of men's and women's team events.- Medal summary :- References :...
- Wheelchair fencingWheelchair fencing at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsWheelchair fencing at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of épée, foil, and sabre events.- References :...
- Wheelchair rugbyWheelchair rugby at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsWheelchair Rugby at the 2000 Summer Paralympics was officially a mixed sport, however no women participated. This was the first year that the sport was an official part of the Paralympic program. It had previously been a demonstration sport at the 1996 Paralympics. Eight teams took part in the...
- Wheelchair tennisWheelchair tennis at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsWheelchair tennis at the 2000 Summer Paralympics consisted of doubles and singles competitions for men and women.- Medal summary :...
Games highlights
- AustraliaAustralia at the 2000 Summer ParalympicsAustralia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney. Australia finished at the top of the medal table, with 63 gold medals. Among Australia's most successful athletes were Lisa Llorens, who won three gold medals and one silver in track and field, and Siobhan Paton, who won six...
n swimmer Siobhan PatonSiobhan PatonSiôbhán Paton OAM, born 28 August 1983, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. As of 2004, she holds thirteen world records in her disability class of S14 - intellectual disability....
won six gold medals, and set nine world records in the process.
Medal count
A total of 1657 medals were awarded during the Sydney games: 550 gold, 549 silver, and 558 bronze. The host country, Australia, topped the medal count with more gold medals and more medals overall than any other nation. Great Britain took the most silver medals, with 43, and tied Australia for the most bronze medals, with 47.In the table below, the ranking sorts by the number of gold medals earned by a nation (in this context a nation is an entity represented by a National Paralympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.
| 1 | 63 | 39 | 47 | 149 | |
| 2 | 41 | 43 | 47 | 131 | |
| 3 | 38 | 33 | 25 | 96 | |
| 4 | 38 | 30 | 38 | 106 | |
| 5 | 36 | 39 | 34 | 109 | |
| 6 | 34 | 22 | 17 | 73 | |
| 7 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 86 | |
| 8 | 19 | 23 | 11 | 53 | |
| 9 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 32 | |
| 10 | 16 | 41 | 38 | 95 |
Participating delegations
One-hundred and twenty-three delegations participated in the Sydney Paralympics. Included among them was a team of "Individual Paralympic Athletes" from East TimorEast Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
. The newly independent country had not yet established a National Paralympic Committee
National Paralympic Committee
National Paralympic Committees are the national constituents of the worldwide Paralympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Paralympic Committee , they are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Paralympic Games.The Paralympic Games are a major...
, so the International Paralympic Committee
International Paralympic Committee
The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nine sports...
invited East Timorese athletes to compete at the games under the title of Individual Paralympic Athletes.
Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, Palestine
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, who had not participated in the Atlanta Games, competed in Sydney.
Views
Dame Tanni Grey-ThompsonTanni Grey-Thompson
Carys Davina "Tanni" Grey-Thompson, Baroness Grey-Thompson, DBE is a Welsh athlete and TV presenter.Grey-Thompson was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. She is considered to be one of the most successful disabled athletes in the UK...
, multiple Paralympic gold medallist for Great Britain, later said of the Sydney Games:
- "Sydney 2000 will always hold a special place in the hearts of everyone who was there. The Aussies love their sport and they treated us simply as sportsmen and women. We weren’t regarded as role models or inspirations, we were competitors. Some of us won gold medals, most didn’t, but, hey, that’s life. Sydney was phenomenal because, from day one, you felt there was something extraordinarily special in the air. Sydney was an athletic Disneyland, it was where magic happened. It probably marked the time and place when Paralympians genuinely became part of the Olympic Movement."
See also
- 2000 Summer Olympics2000 Summer OlympicsThe Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
- Cheating at the Paralympic GamesCheating at the Paralympic GamesCheating at the Paralympic Games has caused scandals that have significantly changed the way in which the International Paralympic Committee manages the events. Testing for performance-enhancing drugs has become increasingly strict and more widespread throughout the Games, with powerlifting seeing...
External links
- Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games - archived websites in PANDORA
- "Participation Numbers: Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games", International Paralympic CommitteeInternational Paralympic CommitteeThe International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nine sports...
- Interview with Paralypian Judy Siegle