2000 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXVII. Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics logo
Venue: Sydney ( Australia )
Stadion: Stadium Australia
Opening ceremony: September 15, 2000
Closing ceremony: October 1, 2000
Opened by: William Deane
(Governor General of Australia)
Olympic oath : Rechelle Hawkes (athlete)
Peter Kerr (referee)
Disciplines: 40 (28 sports)
Competitions: 300
Countries: 199
Athletes: 10,651
(6582 men, 4069 women)
← Atlanta 1996
Athens 2004 →
Medal table
space country G S. B. Ges.
1 United StatesUnited States United States 37 24 32 93
2 RussiaRussia Russia 32 28 29 89
3 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China China 28 16 14th 58
4th AustraliaAustralia Australia 16 25th 17th 58
5 GermanyGermany Germany 13 17th 26th 56
6th FranceFrance France 13 14th 11 38
7th ItalyItaly Italy 13 8th 13 34
8th NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 12 9 4th 25th
9 CubaCuba Cuba 11 11 7th 29
10 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Great Britain 11 10 7th 28
... ... ... ... ... ...
32 AustriaAustria Austria 2 1 - 3
36 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland 1 6th 2 9
Complete medal table

The 2000 Summer Olympics (officially called the XXVII Olympiad Games ) took place from September 15 to October 1, 2000 in the Australian city ​​of Sydney . After the 1956 Summer Olympics , which had been held in Melbourne , it was the second Summer Olympics on the Australian continent.

canditature

Background to the Australian application

After the Olympic Summer Games in Melbourne in 1956 , there was no official Australian application for the hosting of any further Olympic Games for a long time. Sydney's plans for applications for the 1972 Summer Games and the 1988 Summer Games got stuck in the early stages of planning. In 1980 the National Olympic Committee of Australia selected Melbourne to bid for the 1988 Summer Olympics, but the bid was withdrawn in 1981 due to financial difficulties. This withdrawal was followed by two fully implemented applications, from Brisbane for the 1992 Summer Games and from Melbourne for the 1996 Summer Games , which laid the foundation for Sydney's successful bid for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Sydney application

In April 1989, shortly after Melbourne's 1996 nomination, John Coates of the Australian Olympic Committee asked the Prime Minister of New South Wales , Nick Greiner , whether Sydney would be able to run for the 2000 Summer Olympics if Melbourne's failed. Coates suggested that Sydney should improve sports infrastructure and apply to host international sporting events to increase the chances of applying. After Melbourne's application failed, Brisbane and Sydney sought to host the 2000 Summer Games, and Melbourne also wanted to make a second attempt. In an internal vote by the National Olympic Committee of Australia in November 1990, Sydney was chosen as the candidate. Formally, the Sydney City Government and the New South Wales Government decided to apply on March 1, 1991. At this point in time, Beijing and Berlin had already been decided as competitors. Manchester and Istanbul were about to officially apply. On March 11, 1991, Sydney, the National Olympic Committee of Australia and the State of New South Wales signed the contract to make Sydney a candidate city to host the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.

Sydney's application to host the Olympic Games found broad support in Australia from the population, from companies, associations and ethnic groups such as the Aborigines . The mass media also welcomed the application.

More applicants

The other candidate cities that applied to host were Berlin , Beijing , Manchester and Istanbul . Alongside Sydney, Beijing was considered the most promising candidate for the award.

The application of Berlin was sought in the course of the fall . On January 2, 1990, the mayors of West and East Berlin, Walter Momper and Erhard Krack , proposed an application from all of Berlin for the Olympic Games in 2000 or 2004. On September 25, 1990, the Berlin Senate and the Magistrate decided to found Olympia Berlin 2000 GmbH . The then governing mayor, Walter Momper, and the mayor, Tino Schwierzina , declared that the Olympic Games in Berlin should be “a celebration of peace and the overcoming of east-west differences”. In the city there were sometimes violent protests against the Olympic Games. Arson attacks were carried out on two department stores that support Berlin's application. The personnel policy and the work of the application committee were also heavily criticized on several occasions.

Choice of venue

The choice of the venue took place during the 101st IOC session in Monte-Carlo . During this time, the candidate cities were still campaigning for the votes of the IOC members with their delegations and smaller events . On September 23, 1993, election day, each city had a 30-minute presentation. 15 minutes represented the period for inquiries.

It was the first choice of a venue where the IOC members were only given the name of the city and not the distribution of votes. The results were only published after the election. Upon completion of the election, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch congratulated the candidate cities in alphabetical order before announcing that Sydney would host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The contract was then signed in a short ceremony.

Results of the choice of the venue
city country Round 1 round 2 Round 3 Round 4
Sydney AustraliaAustralia Australia 30th 30th 37 45
Beijing China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China 32 37 40 43
Manchester United KingdomUnited Kingdom Great Britain 11 13 11 -
Berlin GermanyGermany Germany 9 9 - -
Istanbul TurkeyTurkey Turkey 7th - - -

organization

tickets

In total, there were 9.6 million tickets for the ceremonies and competitions. Five million of the tickets were only sold in Australia. Ticket sales were around A $ 600 million. The most expensive tickets, for the opening and closing ceremonies, cost up to $ 1,320. Sports events like swimming finals and the basketball final did not cost more than $ 455.

In Germany, ticket sales were made through the German travel agency . The ticket contingent was 58,000 tickets that could only be ordered in writing and without a right of return. So that less attractive "Type 2" sporting events did not have to take place in front of empty stands, the buyer of "Type 1" tickets was obliged to purchase two "Type 2" tickets.

In Switzerland, advance sales were made through Kuoni Reisen .

Medals

The front of the medals from the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney shows the image, which has been mandatory since 1928, of Nike, the goddess of victory, holding the olive branch. On the back, in addition to the Opera House as a symbol of Sydney, the Olympic torch and the Olympic rings are shown.

The medals were designed by the two Australian artists Woljcech Pietranik and Brian Thompson and hung on blue ribbons.

costs

In 2002, the Auditor-General of New South Wales has reported that the Olympic Games in Sydney 6.6 billion AUD cost, with a net cost of public value from 1.7 to 2.4 billion AUD.

Olympic locations

The heart of the 2000 Summer Olympics was the Sydney Olympic Park in the Homebush Bay area on the Parramatta River . The Olympic Village formed a new district and was the largest in Olympic history.

Sports facilities

Map of the Olympic Park

The competitions of the Olympic Games were held in these sports facilities:

  • Stadium Australia (also called ANZ Stadium) (athletics, football)
  • SydneySuperDome (gymnastics, trampoline, rhythmic gymnastics, basketball)
  • The Dome and Exhibition Complex (handball, volleyball, badminton)
  • Convention Center (fencing, weightlifting, judo, wrestling, boxing, taekwondo)
  • State Sport Center (table tennis, shooting)
  • Baseball Stadium (baseball, softball)
  • Aquatic Center (swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo)

The swimming, diving, synchronized jumping and water polo competitions were held in the Aquatic Center. It was opened back in 1994. For the Olympic Games, the audience capacity was increased from 4,500 to 17,500. This made it the largest sports facility for swimming competitions at the Olympic Games. The President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch said of the Aquatic Center that it was the best swimming pool he had seen in his life ("the best swimming pool I have seen in my life").

  • Tennis Center (tennis)
  • Dunc Gray Velodrome (track cycling)
  • Horsley Park (Military, Dressage, Show Jumping, Modern Pentathlon)

The equestrian competitions took place 25 miles west of Sydney in Horsley Park. The complex was designed by Timothy Court and was divided into 80 hectares of grassland typical of Australia. The eventing course led around 7.5 kilometers around a mountain centrally located in this area.

  • Penrith Lake (rowing, canoe slalom, canoe racing)
  • Hockey Center (hockey)

The Hockey Center is part of the Sydney Olympic Park complex . During the 2000 Olympic Games it was the venue for hockey tournaments . The hockey stadium had a capacity of 15,000.

  • Bondi Beach (beach volleyball)

In Sydney International Archery Park , the competitions were in archery held. The complex was built for three million Australian dollars and opened in July 1998. The park is within sight of the Olympic Stadium. Part of the system were two groups of stakes consisting of 185 old electricity pylons, which were supposed to symbolize forests. The sports facility offered 4500 spectators.

Olympic Village

For the first time in Olympic history, 10,651 athletes were hosted in a single Olympic village. 630 houses were built, the architecture of which unites the suburban bungalows and the design of the buildings in downtown Sydney.

By mid-2000, most of the houses and apartments had already been sold, at a price of 400,000 to 500,000 Australian dollars for 95 to 125 square meters.

Torch relay

The torch relay leading up to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney led through Greece , Oceania and Australia .

The flame was lit in ancient Olympia in front of around 20,000 onlookers. The ignition ceremony was performed by priestesses who tried to ignite a dry branch of the olive tree with the help of the sun. However, since it was cloudy that day, there was no ignition, so a flame that had been ignited the day before had to be used. The first torch-bearer was the Greek high jumper Lambros Papakostas . After completing a lap in the Ancient Stadium, he passed the flame on to the daughter of IOC Vice President Kevan Gosper , who became the first Australian woman to run this torch relay. As a result, there has been some controversy over media criticism that IOC members appear to have preferred relatives. For the first time, the torch relay led over some of the Greek islands. The Olympic flame was transported on a ship belonging to the Greek Navy. On May 20, 2000 the torch relay through Greece ended at the Panathinaiko Stadium , the site of the first modern Olympic Games, when the flame was handed over to a member of the organizing committee and then transferred to Oceania by charter plane.

The first stop of the torch relay in Oceania was on May 22, 2000 on the island of Guam . From there, the route of the Olympic flame led through Palau , Micronesia , Nauru , the Solomon Islands , Papua New Guinea , Vanuatu , Samoa , American Samoa , the Cook Islands , Tonga and finally New Zealand before reaching Australia. Fiji was not part of the torch relay because the political situation in that country was unstable at the time. During the time in Oceania, the torchbearers were accompanied by folk performances. In some cases, however, ethnic groups used the attention that the torch relay brought with it for demonstrations to draw attention to their situation.

In Australia over 11,000 runners carried the Olympic flame over a distance of 27,000 kilometers. The flame was transported in various ways. At Bondi Beach she was carried on a surfboard by a surfer , in the Great Barrier Reef a diver carried her underwater, in the outback she flew in a doctor's plane and at Cable Beach in Broome she was transported on a camel .

The Olympic flame reached Australia on June 8th, 2000 in Yulara , in the middle of the continent. From there, the torch relay passed the Uluru World Heritage Site . The first female runner on Australian soil was Nova Peris-Kneebone , the first Aboriginal to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. On June 16, the 93-year-old Bob Tisdall, the oldest living Olympic champion, carried the Olympic torch.

Attendees

Map with the participating nations. The countries that have already taken part in the Olympic Games are marked in green, those that have taken part for the first time are blue.
Team strength
Europe (5323 athletes from 48 nations)
America (2015 athletes from 42 nations)
Asia (1726 athletes from 42 nations)
Oceania (885 athletes from 14 nations)
Africa (869 athletes from 53 nations)
Others (4 athletes)
(Number of athletes)
* first participation in summer games

Competition program

300 competitions (168 for men, 120 for women, 1 mixed and 11 open competitions) in 28 sports / 40 disciplines were held. This was 29 competitions, 2 sports and 3 disciplines more than in 1996 in Atlanta . The changes are detailed below:

  • In weightlifting , women competed in seven weight classes (bantam, feather, light, medium, light, medium and heavyweight) for the first time, while two weight classes (fly and 1st heavyweight) were deleted from men.
  • In athletics , the 20-km walk replaced the 10-km walk for women - in addition, the pole vault and hammer throw were added for women.
  • In track cycling , the men's program was expanded to include the team sprint, Keirin and Madison - the track time trial was new to the women's program.
  • Both in freestyle wrestling and in the Greco-Roman style , there were two weight classes for men (paper and light heavyweight).
  • In modern pentathlon women were added singles.
  • When shooting , skeet and trap became Olympic for women.
  • Women's debut in the team sport of water polo .
  • When Diving program for men and women was expanded to include the synchronized diving from 3-meter board and the 10-meter tower.
  • In sailing , the open boat class 49er became Olympic.
  • Taekwondo with four weight classes each (fly, feather, world champion and heavyweight) for men and women is included in the Olympic program - after it was a demonstration sport in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992.
  • Also triathlon - consisting of swimming, running and cycling - is Olympic, both men and women.
  • The gymnastics is the discipline of trampolining expanded for men and women.

Olympic sports / disciplines

Number of competitions in brackets

Time schedule

Time schedule
discipline Wed.
13.		 Thursday
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15.		 Sat
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21.		 Fr.
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1.		 Decision-
disk-
applications
September Oct
Olympic rings without rims.svg Opening ceremony
Badminton pictogram.svg badminton 2 1 2 5
Baseball pictogram.svg baseball 1 1
Basketball pictogram.svg basketball 1 1 2
Archery pictogram.svg Archery 1 1 1 1 4th
Boxing pictogram.svg Boxing 6th 6th 12
Fencing pictogram.svg fencing 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 10
Football pictogram.svg Soccer 1 1 2
Weightlifting pictogram.svg Weightlifting 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 15th
Handball pictogram.svg Handball 1 1 2
Field hockey pictogram.svg hockey 1 1 2
Judo pictogram.svg Judo 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 14th
Canoeing Canoeing (flatwater) pictogram.svg Canoe racing 6th 6th 12
Canoeing (slalom) pictogram.svg Canoe slalom 2 2 4th
Athletics pictogram.svg athletics 2 2 6th 9 7th 6th 5 8th 1 46
Modern pentathlon pictogram.svg Modern pentathlon 1 1 2
Cycling Cycling (track) pictogram.svg train 2 2 1 1 3 3 12
Cycling (mountain biking) pictogram.svg Mountain bike 1 1 2
Cycling (road) pictogram.svg Street 1 1 2 4th
Equestrian sport Equestrian Dressage pictogram.svg dressage 1 1 2
Equestrian Jumping pictogram.svg Leap 1 1 2
Equestrian Eventing pictogram.svg versatility 1 1 2
Wrestling Wrestling Freestyle pictogram.svg Freestyle 4th 4th 8th
Wrestling pictogram.svg Greco-Roman 4th 4th 8th
Rowing pictogram.svg rowing 7th 7th 14th
Shooting pictogram.svg shoot 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 17th
Swimming sport Swimming pictogram.svg swim 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 32
Synchronized swimming pictogram.svg Synchronized swimming 1 1 2
Water polo pictogram.svg Water polo 1 1 2
Diving pictogram.svg Diving 2 1 1 3 1 8th
Sailing pictogram.svg sailing 3 1 2 2 3 11
Softball pictogram.svg Softball 1 1
Taekwondo pictogram.svg Taekwondo 2 2 2 2 8th
Tennis pictogram.svg tennis 2 2 4th
Table tennis pictogram.svg Table tennis 1 1 1 1 4th
Triathlon pictogram.svg Triathlon 1 1 2
Gymnastics Gymnastics (artistic) pictogram.svg Gymnastics 1 1 1 1 5 5 14th
Gymnastics (rhythmic) pictogram.svg Rhythmic sports gymnastics 1 1 2
Gymnastics (trampoline) pictogram.svg Trampoline exercise 1 1 2
volleyball Volleyball (beach) pictogram.svg beach volleyball 1 1 2
Volleyball (indoor) pictogram.svg volleyball 1 1 2
Olympic rings without rims.svg Closing ceremony
Demonstration competitions
Wheelchair athletics 2
decisions 13 14th 15th 15th 18th 18th 18th 26th 25th 18th 11 17th 17th 11 40 24 300
Wed.
13.		 Thursday
14.		 Fri.
15.		 Sat
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1.
September Oct

Color legend

  • Opening ceremony
  • Competition day (no decisions)
  • Competition day (x decisions)
  • Closing ceremony

    • Ceremonies

    Opening ceremony

    The opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on September 15 in the sold out Olympic Stadium in Sydney in front of 110,000 visitors and 3.7 billion television viewers. It was designed by Ric Birch and David Atkins and dealt with, among other things, Australian history and Aboriginal culture .

    The opening ceremony started with a single rider who rode into the center of the stadium. He was followed by 120 other riders on horses of the Australian Stock Horse breed, which are mainly used as workhorses in the outback . They carried Olympic flags and, among other things, formed the Olympic rings during their performance . The musical background was the theme of the famous Australian film Snowy River ( The Man From Snowy River , 1982) composed by Bruce Rowland . The Australian boy band Human Nature sang the beginning of the Australian national anthem Advance Australia Fair , followed by Julie Anthony , who was accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra .

    The narrative part of the opening ceremony began with 13 year old Nikki Webster , who lay down on a beach towel as "Kitty" and began to dream. The stadium was transformed into the ocean that surrounds Australia. Fish like those found in the waters around Australia and especially in the Great Barrier Reef floated on ropes . 800 performers were involved in this part of the opening ceremony. 150 of them were school children who formed a large school of fish . The girl swam through this ocean and reached a stage where the well-known Aboriginal artist Djakapurra Munyarryun was, who accompanied her through the rest of the program. The Aborigine invoked the spirits of the desert, distant parts of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands . The 350 women of the desert appearing should symbolize the heartbeat of the country in their appearance. They sang the song Dance of the Seven Emu Sisters , red ocher filled the air. That should symbolize the rebirth of the country; other groups of ghosts appeared. Tribal leaders from Arnhem Land and other Aborigines performed traditional dances and burned eucalyptus . The spirit of Wandjina lit a bushfire with lightning that would regenerate the land.

    The bush fire led to the next section of the opening ceremony. A large flame rose in front of a stage on which there were 200 fire-eaters and burning stilt walkers who carried the fire through the stadium. This section should not only pay tribute to fire as an important part of Australia, but above all how the Aborigines treated it, who used it to control and regenerate the bush. The regeneration process now followed in the program. Plants and flowers appeared and also birds and animals typical of Australia such as the kangaroo were depicted.

    The part of the opening ceremony that dealt with the European settlers followed. He was not so concerned with the violence associated with the colonization of Australia, but rather humorously dealt with the metals of the settlers, which they used for tools, machines and houses. Explorers reached the country on bicycles and observed the flora and fauna that was in the stadium with interest. Farms were built inside the stadium and the gold rush was also discussed. Immigration, which played and still plays an important role in Australia, was picked up when 2000 children and 500 adults from all cultures entered the stadium, sorted by continent.

    The standard bearer of the German team at the opening ceremony was the canoeist Birgit Fischer from Kleinmachnow . The marksman Wolfram Waibel junior took on this role for the delegation from Austria . The Swiss flag was carried by the mountain biker Thomas Frischknecht and the shooter Oliver Geissmann was chosen as the flag bearer for Liechtenstein .

    Flag specially made for the opening ceremony for the athletes of North and South Korea

    The athletes of North and South Korea appeared as a team behind a flag specially created for the event, but the two countries continued to form separate teams for the competitions; four athletes from East Timor took part in the games under the Olympic flag.

    Vanessa Amorosi sang her song Absolutely Everybody during the opening ceremony .

    The games were officially opened by William Patrick Deane . The last torchbearer was the Australian athlete Cathy Freeman . The Australian hockey player Rechelle Hawkes and the Australian swimming referee Peter Kerr took the Olympic oath .

    Closing ceremony

    • Kylie Minogue performed at the graduation ceremony and sang not only her Australian No. 1 hit On A Night Like This , but also the ABBA classic Dancing Queen .
    • Furthermore, Midnight Oil played the song Beds are burning , which was renamed The Time Has Come for the occasion , and asked for an apology to the Aborigines .
    • Even Men At Work came up and played the song Down Under .
    • Slim Dusty performed at the end and sang the well-known Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda . He accompanied himself on the guitar.
    • The Olympic flag was presented by Frank Sartor , Mayor of Sydney, to Dimitris L. Avammopoulos , Mayor of Athens.

    Competitions

    badminton

    Badminton was an Olympic discipline for the third time after 1992 and 1996 . 172 athletes from 28 countries started in Sydney. The competitions were dominated by athletes from the People's Republic of China. Four out of five gold medals went to the athletes from the Middle Kingdom. In total, the Chinese athletes won eight medals.

    After the American Kevin Han won the first round of the men's individual tournament, Chelsea Clinton , the daughter of the US President, congratulated him , as it was only the second American victory in an Olympic badminton tournament. On the way to the gold medal, the Chinese Ji Xinpeng defeated the world number one Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia. In the final he won against the Indonesian Hendrawan with 15: 4 and 15:13 in straight sets. The game for the bronze medal was won by Xia Xuanze, also from China, against Peter Gade from Denmark. In the men's doubles, the bronze medal went to one of the South Korean doubles. The final took place between the Indonesians Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan and the South Koreans Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung . The Indonesian doubles won the gold medal in three sets with 15:10, 9:15 and 15: 7.

    In the mixed tournament, the Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling won the gold medal. The Chinese lost the first set in the final 1:15 to the favored doubles from Indonesia. However, they won the second set with 15:13. They also won the decisive third set, this time at 15:11. Bronze won the British mixed doubles from Simon Archer and Joanne Goode , they defeated the doubles from Denmark. It was Great Britain's first Olympic medal in badminton.

    The Danish Camilla Martin won another medal in the women's singles in Europe. The reigning world champion lost in the final to the Chinese Gong Zhichao in two sets. The bronze medal also went to the People's Republic of China. The dominance of the Chinese women was particularly evident in the women's double competition. All three medals were won by teams from the People's Republic of China.

    Overall, the Europeans couldn't keep up with the dominating Asians. The German federation was already satisfied with three ninth places, as its athletes could not keep up in international comparison.

    baseball

    Baseball was part of the Olympic program for the third time after 1992 and 1996. A major rule change came into effect in Sydney that allowed professionals to be called up on the Olympic teams. However, the USA waived this option. Her team, trained by veteran coach Tommy Lasorda , who had long managed the Los Angeles Dodgers , consisted of as yet unknown college baseball players. Lasorda had achieved almost everything the sport had to offer, except for participating in the Olympics with the US team.

    Eight teams had qualified for the Olympic baseball tournament. The Cubans, who won gold at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, were favored . However, the Cuban team could not repeat these Olympic victories. She defeated the USA 6-1 in the preliminary round, but lost 4-0 to the USA in the final. South Korea won the bronze medal in the game for third place against Japan.

    Despite the total of 250,000 visitors who followed the baseball tournament, the question of whether the competitions would remain in the Olympic program was asked. One argument of the baseball opponents was that, given the 2200-page body of rules, baseball would only be interesting and understandable for viewers familiar with the sport.

    basketball

    The two gold medals in basketball went to the teams from the USA. For the men it was the twelfth gold in the fourteenth Olympic tournament, for the women the fourth victory in the seventh. However, this indicated an end to the dominance of the US team in the men's tournament.

    Teams from twelve nations took part in the women's basketball tournament. Five of them - Poland, Senegal, Slovakia, France and New Zealand - took part in an Olympic basketball tournament for the first time. In addition to the favored Americans, the reigning world champions and gold medal winners of the three previous Summer Olympics, the Australian team, which survived the group stage without defeat, reached the final. The hosts lost 54 to 76 points in the final. It was the fourth gold medal for the American Teresa Edwards , who competed in five Olympic Games in 20 years. In the game for third place, Brazil beat Korea 84:73. The score after regular time was 65:65, so the decision was not made until extra time.

    Twelve teams also took part in the men's tournament. New Zealand was the only team to take part in an Olympic tournament for the first time. The Americans won the final against France with 85 to 75 points. They were on the verge of defeat in the semi-finals against the team from Lithuania, which won bronze in the small final against Australia. The Lithuanians led for a long time and in the end only let their victory take away because of their nervousness. The USA team did not match the performance of the Dream Teams of 1992 and 1996, which won their games by at least 22 points, but often by more than 40 points. At these Olympics, four years later, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the Americans only won the bronze medal.

    Archery

    62 men from 32 countries and 66 women from 34 countries competed in the archery competitions . South Koreans won gold in three of the four archery competitions. Its dominance is mainly explained by the importance of this sport in South Korea, where it is even taught in school.

    On the first day of the competitions, the ranking for the first round was determined. The athletes shot 72 arrows each. In the women's singles, 17-year-old student Yun Mi-jin from South Korea won the gold medal. South Koreans also won the silver and bronze medals. In the semifinals there were even four Koreans, as the only North Korean in the competition, Choe Ok-sil , who was number 144 in the world rankings, surprisingly survived the elimination rounds. In contrast to the women's competition, the men of South Korea did not win a medal in the individual. Not a single one of the favorite South Koreans could qualify for the semifinals. The Australian Simon Fairweather won gold , ahead of Vic Wunderle from the USA and Wietse van Alten from the Netherlands. In the first round, the German Christian Stubbe managed to defeat number two in the world rankings, the French Lionel Torres .

    A total of 26 teams started in the team competitions, 14 for men and 12 for women. The gold medal in the women's team competition also went to the South Koreans. For the fourth time since this competition was included in the Olympic program for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, they became Olympic champions. Behind them, Ukraine was able to place itself on the silver rank. The Germans Barbara Mensing , Sandra Sachse and Cornelia Pfohl won bronze. In the duel for third place, they defeated Turkey with 240 to 234 rings. In the semifinals they lost to South Korea with 238 to 251 rings. No German team started in the men's team competition. Here the South Korean men lived up to their role as favorites and won gold. They prevailed against Italy in the final. In the USA's small final against Russia there was a tie based on the regular number of arrows shot. The victory was played in an extra round, which the USA won 29:26.

    Boxing

    With four gold medals, Cuba was the most successful nation in boxing, followed by Russia and Kazakhstan with two Olympic victories each. For the third time in a row, Cuban Félix Savón won gold in the heavyweight division. In the semifinals he prevailed against the German Sebastian Köber , who won the bronze medal for Germany in boxing. In the welterweight division, the German participant Steven Küchler took fifth place. In the middleweight division, Christian Wallot lost prematurely to Jorge Gutiérrez from Cuba. No Germans took part in the other classes or lost in the first rounds.

    fencing

    The fencing competitions that were held in Sydney heralded a radical change. In addition to the dominating Europeans, a Korean was also able to win a gold medal this time. In addition to the most successful fencing nations, which included Italy and Russia with two gold medals each, the German fencers also returned to the top of the world after winning only one bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in fAtlanta . 78 female and 122 female fencers took part in the ten competitions - six for men and four for women.

    With the sword there was an individual competition and a team competition for men and women. In the men's singles, the second in the world rankings, the Russian Pawel Kolobkow , won the gold medal. In the final he won over the Frenchman Hugues Obry with 15:12. Lee Sang-ki from South Korea won the bronze medal. It was the first medal in fencing for South Korea in Olympic history. In the small final he beat the Swiss Marcel Fischer . Eleven teams were qualified for the men's team competition. France and Italy contested the final. Italy became Olympic champion after the battle was decided in the jump-off. The Cubans won the bronze medal with a victory over South Korea. In the women's singles, the 13th placed Hungarian Tímea Nagy surprisingly won the final against the Swiss Gianna Hablützel-Bürki . On the way to the final, the Hungarian defeated the double Olympic champion from Atlanta 1996 Laura Flessel-Colovic from France in the semifinals. The French woman won the bronze medal in the small final. In the women's team competition, the Russians won the gold medal in the final with 45:35 against the team from Switzerland. The Swiss team also included Sophie Lamon , who was just 15 years old and the youngest athlete in the field. The Chinese women won bronze.

    40 athletes started in foil singles . In the final, the South Korean Kim Young-ho prevailed against the German Ralf Bißdorf with 15:14 and won gold. Bißdorf's silver medal was the first medal in foil fencing for a German since 1988. In the battle for third place, the Russian Dmitri Shevchenko won bronze against Jean-Noël Ferrari from France. Kim's gold medal was the first for South Korea in the sport of fencing in 50 years. In the foil team competition, the Chinese were able to prevail against Russia with a 45:30 victory in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the Chinese team then defeated Italy 45:32 and advanced to the final. There she met France. The Chinese lost just under 44:45 points and thus won the silver medal. Gold went to the Frenchmen Jean-Noël Ferrari, Brice Guyart , Patrice Lhôtellier and Lionel Plumenail . In the battle for bronze, Italy won against Poland. The Italian Valentina Vezzali won the individual competition for women with the foil . In the final she defeated the German Rita König . Their silver medal was the first individual medal for German women in foil since 1988. The bronze medal also went to an Italian fencer. In the women's team competition, the German team lost the semi-finals against Poland with 34:45. In the final, however, the Polish women lost to the Italian team. The team gold meant the second gold medal for Valentina Vezzali. The German team made up of Sabine Bau , Rita König, Gesine Schiel and Monika Weber won the bronze medal with a 45:42 against the USA.

    In saber fencing there was only one individual and one team competition for men. The individual won the Romanian Mihai Covaliu with 15:12 in the final against Matthieu Gourdain from France. The bronze medal that Wiradech Kothny won was the first German individual medal in saber fencing in 94 years. The saber team competition was the last fencing competition of the 2000 Summer Olympics. The finalists were the Russian and French teams. The Russians became Olympic champions with 45:32 points. The German team won the bronze medal with 45:27 points. Dennis Bauer , Wiradech Kothny, Eero Lehmann and Alexander Acht defeated the team from Romania in the small final.

    Soccer

    Two football tournaments , one for men and one for women, were held in Sydney . The men's tournament celebrated its 100th anniversary as an Olympic sport. The first Olympic football tournament was held at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris . The women's tournament was held in Sydney for the second time after it was included in the 1996 Olympic program. In total, the football tournaments, which began before the official opening, recorded more than a million spectators. Football was still the only sport that was played well outside of Sydney. 16 men's and eight women's teams took part.

    The opening game of the men's tournament was played by the host country Australia and Italy in front of over 90,000 spectators in Melbourne. The Australians were able to keep the 0-0 for a long time until Andrea Pirlo scored the winning goal for the Italians in the 81st minute. With two more defeats in the preliminary round, the Australians missed qualifying for the quarter-finals. In the quarterfinals, the reigning Olympic champions from Atlanta from Nigeria lost 4-1 to Chile. The South Americans were considered tournament favorites at the time. In the second South American-African quarter-finals, Brazil against Cameroon lost. Until the 89th minute the team from Cameroon led with 1: 0 when Ronaldinho by penalty equalizer away. In the 113th minute of stoppage time, Cameroon scored the golden goal and made it to the semi-finals. There the Cameroonians beat Chile 2-1 and advanced to the final. In the second semi-final, the USA lost 3-1 to Spain. The final was particularly exciting. There was a missed penalty, two dismissals and four goals. The Spaniards scored two goals in the first half, after the break they scored an own goal and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o equalized. The game was only decided on penalties, from which Cameroon emerged as the Olympic champion. In the small final against the USA, Chile won the bronze medal. The top scorer was Chilean Iván Zamorano , who scored a total of six goals.

    In the women's tournament, the German national team dominated their group with three wins and qualified for the semi-finals together with the second-placed Brazilians. In the second group, the USA qualified for the semi-finals before Norway. In the semifinals, the Germans lost 1-0 to the Norwegians because of an own goal scored by Tina Wunderlich . The USA also defeated Brazil 1-0. In the final and in the game for third place, games of the group stage were repeated. The Germans won bronze after a 2-0 victory in the small final over Brazil. It was the only German team medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. It was also the first German medal in football since the bronze medal of the German national football team with Thomas Häßler and Jürgen Klinsmann in Seoul in 1988. The Norwegians won the final against the USA 3-2. After the regular playing time it was 2-2, only in the eleventh minute of extra time was the decision with a golden goal from Dagny Mellgren .

    Weightlifting

    Handball

    At the handball tournament of women ten teams participated. The host country and the first five teams from the last World Cup were qualified. In addition, another team from each of the four continental associations was able to qualify for the Olympic tournament. Korea and Norway were the first to qualify for the semi-finals. There the Norwegians, the reigning world and European champions, lost to the team from Hungary with 23:28. This moved into the final against Denmark. After the first half the Hungarians led 16:14 and fifteen minutes before the end of the game even 23:17, for which Bojana Radulovics was particularly responsible. After an interruption in the game by the Danish team, they turned the game around and defeated Hungary 31:27. The bronze game ended up being tighter. The Norwegians won with 22:21. It was only in the last minute that Mia Hundvin managed to score the decisive goal. The Scandinavians dominated the tournament with gold and bronze.

    For the men's tournament, the host country Australia and the teams that took the first seven places at the 1999 World Cup were qualified from the start. In addition, another team from the continental associations each qualified for Africa, Asia, America and Europe. A total of 12 teams took part in the tournament. Even before the start of the Olympic Games, the national coach of Egypt, Zoran Zivkovio , ranked the Swedes as favorites, as they had been unbeaten as reigning world champions for two years and were defeated by Russia in the 1992 final in Barcelona and Croatia in 1996 in Atlanta. In line with this expectation, the Swedish team won each of their preliminary round matches. In the final, the Swedes faced the Russian team and lost 26:28. This was the third time in a row that Sweden won Olympic silver. The Russian Alexander Tuchkin scored seven goals and the captain and goalkeeper, Andrei Lavrov , held 17 throws. For him, the victory meant winning his third Olympic gold medal after 1988 and 1992. In the bronze medal, Spain won 26:22 over the Yugoslav team. The most successful throwers for Spain were the wingers Rafael Guijosa and Antonio Carlos Ortega with six and seven goals respectively. The German team finished only fifth after being traded as one of the favorites to win. In the preliminary round she first won against the strong nations Yugoslavia and Russia, but then lost to Egypt and Spain.

    hockey

    Ten teams took part in the women's tournament. They started in two groups of five, from which the first three could qualify for the medal group. In the opening game, the Argentines defeated the team from South Korea 3-2. The teams from New Zealand, China, Spain, Argentina, the Netherlands and Australia qualified for the round of the last six. The first two of this group played the final, the third and fourth for third place. The team around Rechelle Hawkes , who had taken the Olympic oath, won the gold medal. The Australians won 3-1 in the final against Argentina. It was the third Australian victory in the fifth edition of this discipline. Bronze went to the Dutch team, who beat Spain 2-0 in the small final. The German women, who were counted among the favorites, finished in seventh place.

    There were twelve participants in the men's group, who initially played in two groups of six. The first and second in a group qualified for the semi-finals. In the first game of the tournament, the Netherlands beat Great Britain 4-2. The German men lost their last game 1: 2 against Great Britain and so the German men’s team, which was one of the favorites, missed the semi-finals. The Australians finished the group stage as leaders of Group B, but lost to the Netherlands in the semi-finals. After 70 minutes of regular time and fifteen minutes of extra time, there was no winner of the game, so it was a seven-meter shootout. The Dutch won 5: 4 because their husband, Ronald Jansen , held the last shot of Australian Brent Livermore . In the second semifinals, the team from Korea prevailed against Pakistan. The Dutch team won the final against Korea again in a seven-meter shootout, while the Australians won bronze, beating the Pakistanis 6: 3.

    Judo

    In the men's judo competitions, Japanese judoka won gold in three of the seven weight classes. In addition, only European athletes were successful with one French, one Italian, one Dutch and one Turkish.

    The women won two gold medals in each of the seven classes, Cuba and China.

    The only medal in judo for Germany was won by Anna-Maria Gradante , who achieved bronze in the super light weight class (up to 48 kg). She shouldn't actually take part in the Olympics because she didn't bring the right weight to a tournament beforehand. For the first time since 1964, the German men had to go home without a medal in their luggage. Four German judoka failed in the first round due to little-known athletes.

    canoe

    A total of 16 canoeing competitions were held, twelve for men and four for women. The twelve canoe racing competitions took place on the Penrith Regatta Course , the four canoe slalom competitions in the Penrith Whitewater Stadium . The most successful were the canoeists from Hungary and Germany, who could each achieve four gold medals. The competitions had to be postponed several times due to the storm, the last final races could only be held shortly before the closing ceremony.

    athletics

    Audience reaction to Cathy Freeman's victory in the 400-meter run in Australia, clip by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

    The track and field competitions lasted ten days and included 46 decisions, 24 for men and 22 for women. They were played at the Australie Stadium. A total of 1.6 million viewers were recorded in athletics. The attendance record was 112,524 on the evening of the women's 400 meter race, which was won by Australian Cathy Freeman .

    At the start of the athletics competitions, the sprint over the 100-meter distance was traditionally the focus. The men's favorite was Maurice Greene , who held the season best with a time of 9.86 seconds. The 1996 Olympic champion Donovan Bailey was eliminated in the run-up . In the final, Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago got off to the best start, but was overtaken by Greene and won silver. Obadele Thompson from Barbados won bronze .

    Modern pentathlon

    The modern pentathlon , which goes back to Pierre de Coubertin , has been part of the Olympic program since the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm . In 1998, the IOC allowed the women's competition to be held in Sydney. As with the previous Atlanta Olympics, the modern pentathlon, which was originally a five-day competition, was played in just one day, with athletes and spectators having to go to three different venues. The disciplines to be completed were pistol shooting , epee fencing , swimming , show jumping and finally a cross-country run . A total of 48 athletes, 24 women and 24 men started in Sydney. This made the modern pentathlon the Olympic discipline with the fewest participants.

    In the first discipline, air pistol shooting, the Belarusian Pawal Douhal took the lead with 1168 points. Nicolae Papuc from Romania placed behind him . The favorite, Gábor Balogh from Hungary, only reached sixth place. For the second discipline, fencing, the athletes prepared themselves. Each athlete had to contest a one-minute battle against every other athlete. The favored Hungarian was able to advance to third place. With 1000 points in fencing, Frenchman Olivier Clergeau took the lead. After the fencing, the modern pentathlon was continued in the Aquatic Center with the 200 meters freestyle. The German Eric Walther set a new Olympic record for this sub-discipline with a time of 2: 00.71 minutes. The fourth discipline of modern pentathlon was show jumping. The athletes did not start with their own horses, but were drawn from a pool and only had 20 minutes to get used to. The Russian Dmitri Swatkowski completed the course best and thus started to catch up with the leading French before the last competition, to which the American Velizar Iliev had caught up. The starting order of the final cross-country run over 3000 meters resulted from the previous placements. The two leaders went into the race first, the starting distances of the following athletes were based on the points achieved. The two leaders were unable to defend their positions and finished eighth and ninth. Olympic champion was Dmitri Swatkowski ahead of Gábor Balogh and Pawal Douhal.

    The women's competition was also decided in the final cross-country run. The British Stephanie Cook was 49 seconds behind her rival Emily deRiel from the USA. After the first kilometer, Cook had improved from eighth to third place. On the second kilometer, she reduced the gap to seven seconds. Stephanie Cook then overtook her teammate Kate Allenby and deRiel on the last kilometer and won the first Olympic gold medal in the women's modern pentathlon. Cook won another race to catch up with the American, as in the previous world championships. Emily deRiel won the silver medal ahead of the second Briton Allenby, who thus achieved bronze.

    Cycling

    The Sydney Olympics street races took place in and around Centennial Park in eastern Sydney. The route was a 17.1-kilometer lap that had to be completed differently depending on the race.

    The women's road race was held on the first day of road cycling competitions. A total of 57 athletes started. The race was only decided in the mass sprint. After 119.7 kilometers, Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel was the first to cross the finish line and won the gold medal. Behind them, Hanka Kupfernagel came second and thus took silver. Diana Žiliūtė secured bronze . In the time trial Zijlaard-van Moorsel a second time was successful. Silver went to Mari Holden from the USA. At the beginning of the late phase of her long career, 41-year-old Jeannie Longo won the bronze medal on her fifth Olympic participation.

    The men's road race was 239.4 kilometers long, which meant that the 154 athletes had to complete the circuit 14 times. The race was open for a long time until about 25 kilometers from the finish the preliminary decision was brought about by an attack by Jan Ullrich . Andreas Klöden and Alexander Vinokurow were able to catch up, which the Italians Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini at the front of the field could no longer do. The two Germans Ullrich and Klöden, as well as Vinokurow from Kazakhstan, all rode in the cycling team T-Mobile-Team , which also spoke for their cooperation. After 5:29:08 hours, Jan Ullrich crossed the finish line first and won gold. The silver medal went to Alexander Vinokurow, the bronze to Andreas Klöden. The men's time trial was 46.8 kilometers long, so three laps had to be driven. The race was hyped up as a duel between Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong , but in the end neither of them could win the gold medal. The winner was the Russian Vyacheslav Yekimov in 57:40 minutes. Eight seconds behind, Ullrich won silver, 26 seconds later Armstrong crossed the finish line in third place. In January 2013 Armstrong was stripped of the bronze medal for doping. The lost bronze medal has not yet been re-awarded.

    Track cycling competitions were held at the Dunc Gray Velodrome . There were eight men's and four women's competitions. The first decision in track cycling was the men's time trial over 1000 meters. World champion Arnaud Tournant from France was the last to start and came in fifth. Jason Queally from Great Britain became Olympic champion over this route . Behind him, the German Stefan Nimke took silver, while Shane Kelly from Australia won bronze . The 4,000-meter team pursuit was won by the Germans Guido Fulst , Robert Bartko , Daniel Becke and Jens Lehmann ahead of the team from Ukraine. In the small final, the British prevailed and thus won bronze. The final of the 4000 meter single pursuit was a purely German duel between Robert Bartko and Jens Lehmann, in which Bartko was able to prevail. For both of them it was the second medal in these games. Bronze went to the Australian Bradley McGee . Besides winning Jens Fiedler two bronze medals in the sprint and keirin .

    The women's 500-meter time trial debuted as an Olympic discipline in Sydney. The French Félicia Ballanger became the first Olympic champion in 34.140 seconds, followed by the Australian Michelle Ferris and the Chinese Jiang Cuihua . Since the discipline was Olympic for the first time, the first rider Daniela Larreal from Venezuela set the first Olympic record over this route, which was then improved three times within the competition. In the 3,000-meter single pursuit, Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel won her third gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. In the points race, she also took silver with 16 points behind Antonella Bellutti from Italy, who was three points ahead.

    In Sydney, mountain biking was an Olympic discipline for the second time. The competitions took place in front of around 30,000 spectators. On Saturday, September 23, 2000, the women's race took place, in which 30 athletes took part. Three participants got out during the race, so that 27 drivers reached the finish. Olympic champion was Paola Pezzo from Italy, who covered the 35.7 kilometers in 1: 49: 24.38 hours. The Swiss Barbara Blatter won silver . As the reigning world champion, she was in the lead for a long time, but could no longer keep up towards the end of the race. Margarita Fullana from Spain took bronze. The next day the men's race took place. 49 athletes started. The Swiss Thomas Frischknecht led by a large margin in the early stages of the race, but in the end had nothing to do with the award of the medals. The Frenchman Miguel Martinez won gold . It took him 2: 09: 02.50 hours for the 49.5 kilometers. The Belgian Filip Meirhaeghe won silver in front of Christoph Sauser from Switzerland, who received bronze.

    horse riding

    The equestrian competitions were held in Horsley Park . The disciplines were eventing , dressage and show jumping .

    Both the individual and team competition in eventing consisted of dressage, cross-country riding and the final jumping. After the dressage competition on the first day, which was held in front of 16,500 spectators, the team from the host country Australia, led by rider Andrew Hoy, was in first place ahead of the team from Great Britain. On the second day of the eventing, the cross-country ride was on the program. There were around 50,000 spectators along the route. In total, the horses and riders had to cover a distance of 25 kilometers. The Australian team was able to defend its leading position without fault points, while the Briton Ian Stark received fault points at obstacle ten, the water hazard. He did not take part in the final jumping on the third day of the competition. The Australians made their third Olympic gold medal at the third Olympic Games in a row. The team from Great Britain placed 14.2 points behind and won silver in front of the team from the USA. The German team made up of Marina Köhncke , Nele Hagener , Andreas Dibowski and Ingrid Klimke took fourth place, 76 fault points behind third place . Up until the Summer Olympics in 1996, the individual eventing event was held separately. Since the Atlanta Games he was integrated into the team competition. David O'Connor from the USA became Olympic champion with a total of 34 penalty points . Andrew Hoy from Australia won silver and the bronze went to Mark Todd from New Zealand .

    The dressage consisted of three sub-competitions. The best 25 of the Grand Prix qualified for the Grand Prix Special. The 15 best placed then started again in the Grand Prix Freestyle, in which the decision was made about the medals. Isabell Werth on Gigolo took first place after the Grand Prix with 1908 points and 76.32 percent, ahead of Dutch Anky van Grunsven on Bonfire, who scored 1875 points and 75m percent. This distribution of places was reversed in the Grand Prix Special. This didn't change in the final Grand Prix Freestyle either, so that Anky van Grunsven became Olympic champion ahead of silver medalist Isabell Werth. German Ulla Salzgeber won bronze with Rusty. In the freestyle competition, she overtook Nadine Capellmann , who also came from Germany, and came in fourth. In the team competition there was an expected close duel between Germany and the Netherlands. For the fifth time in a row, the German team became Olympic champions. With 59 points behind, the Dutch team took silver. The USA won the bronze medal with over 400 points behind in second place.

    The German team consisting of Ludger Beerbaum with Goldfever 3, Lars Nieberg with Espirit FRH , Otto Becker with Cento and Marcus Ehning with For Pleasure won the team competition in show jumping with a total of 15 penalty points. So they were ahead of the Swiss team, which had one more point of error in their account. Brazil won bronze after a play-off against France after both teams had 24 fault points after completing the regular competition. The individual show jumping competition was the last competition in equestrianism at the Sydney Olympics. After the first round, the Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa took first place and it seemed like he would win the first Olympic gold medal in horse riding for his country. In the second round, which was decisive for the medal distribution, however, he was eliminated. After the final round, the first three riders with four points had the same number of penalty points, so that a jump-off brought the decision about the medal award. Gold went to the Dutchman Jeroen Dubbeldam on De Sjiem without any mistakes before his compatriot Albert Voorn on Lando. The bronze medal was won by Chalid al-'Aid from Saudi Arabia.

    Wrestling

    rowing

    shoot

    swim

    The swimming competitions took place in the Aquatic Center. A total of 32 competitions were held like four years earlier in Atlanta. 981 athletes, 410 of whom were women, from 150 countries took part in the swimming competitions. In Sydney for the first time semi-finals were swum in the individual competitions over distances of 200 meters or shorter. In addition, the period in which the competitions took place was extended from seven, by one day, to eight days.

    The dominant nation was the USA with 13 gold medals, followed by Australia and the Netherlands with five wins each. The German swimmers, who had a long successful tradition in swimming, could only achieve three bronze medals. One won Stev Theloke over 100 meters back, the other two won the men's 4 x 100 meter relay and the women's 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay with Franziska van Almsick .

    Inge de Bruijn from the Netherlands was one of the most successful swimmers at the 2000 Olympic Games . She won the 50 and 100 meter freestyle and the 100 meter butterfly. She also achieved silver with the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. With her medal yield, she also took first place among the most successful athletes overall at these games. Her compatriot Pieter van den Hoogenband won gold in the 100 and 200 meters freestyle. In addition, he won bronze in the 50 meters freestyle and with the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay. The 17-year-old Australian Ian Thorpe aroused particular enthusiasm among the audience. He won the 400 meter freestyle in 3: 40.59 minutes, which was a new world record. In addition, Ian Thorpe won gold medals in world record times with the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay and the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay. In the 200 meter freestyle he also won silver behind Pieter van den Hoogenband.

    Synchronized swimming

    Water polo

    For the first time in Olympic history, the Sydney Olympics featured two water polo tournaments : one for men and one for women. Women's water polo was first played as a demonstration sport in 1978 at the 1978 World Swimming Championships in Berlin. After that, the discipline applied for admission to the Olympic program for almost 20 years. However, this was repeatedly rejected, sometimes with reference to a maximum number of athletes. In 1997 the IOC decided to recognize women's water polo as an Olympic discipline. The medal games were played in the Aquatics Center. The other games took place at the Ryde Aquatic Leisure Center.

    The first women's tournament in Olympic history was only contested by six teams. It opened with the match between Australia and Kazakhstan on September 16, 2000. The Australians around their goalkeeper Liz Weekes won clearly with 9: 2 goals. The first medal was awarded in the game for third place between Russia and the Netherlands. The Dutch lost 3: 4. The decisive goal of the Russians was only scored 1:21 minutes before the end of the game. In the game for the Olympic victory, the Australians prevailed 4: 3 in front of 17,000 spectators in the sold out Aquatic Center against the USA.

    On the day of the women's final, the men's water polo tournament began. Participating nations were Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Croatia, the USA, Yugoslavia, Russia, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Australia. The game for third place was played by the two former Olympic champions Spain and Yugoslavia. The Spaniards, who won the gold medal in Atlanta four years earlier, lost 3: 8 and had to go home without a medal this time. The small final for bronze was the last game of the Spanish water polo legend Manuel Estiarte , who took part in the Olympic Games for the sixth time in 2000 and ended his career with the Olympic tournament. In contrast to that of the women, the final did not take place in front of fully occupied stands. Only 80% of the tickets were sold. The two finalists were Russia and Hungary. The Hungarian team won 16:13, making it the seventh Olympic gold medal for Hungary in men's water polo. However, it was the first gold since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The Hungarian Tibor Benedek scored the first goal of the game 1:53 minutes after the start of the game.

    Diving

    The competitions in the water jump took place in the Aquatic Center. Medals were awarded in eight water jumping disciplines. For the first time at the Olympic Games, the synchronous competitions were held from the three-meter board and the ten-meter tower. The Chinese dominated diving with five gold and silver medals each.

    In the individual competition for women from the three-meter board, the Chinese Fu Mingxia won the gold medal ahead of her compatriot Guo Jingjing . Bronze went to the Rostock- born German Dörte Lindner , who won bronze from the one-meter board at the European Championships in 1997. 42 athletes took part in the preliminary competition for the individual competition from the ten-meter tower. The Chinese women were also favored here, but the gold medal went to the American Laura Wilkinson . Silver went to a Chinese woman, bronze to a Canadian woman. For the USA it was the first victory in this discipline since the 1964 Summer Olympics . The gold medals of the four previous Olympic Games each went to a Chinese woman. The Chinese Xiong Ni won the men's competition from the three-meter board . The silver medal went to a Mexican, while Dmitri Sautin won bronze . He was also able to secure the bronze medal in the competition from the ten-meter tower. Two athletes from the People's Republic of China placed in front of him.

    Five jumps were carried out in the synchronized competitions. Two of them had a maximum difficulty level of 2.0 regardless of their actual difficulty. The difficulty of the other three jumps was fully assessed. In addition to the difficulty, synchronicity played a major role in the evaluation. The duo from the People's Republic of China won the men's synchronized competition from the three-meter board. Xiong won his second gold medal at these Olympic Games. Silver went to the couple Alexander Dobroskok and Dimitri Sautin. Together with Igor Lukashin, Sautin also won the synchronous competition from the ten-meter tower. He won a medal in each of the four disciplines. A Chinese duo took silver, ahead of the Germans Jan Hempel and Heiko Meyer , who won bronze. In the women's category , the couple Wera Iljina and Julija Pachalina won the gold medal. For the reigning world champion from the three-meter board, Pachalina, who missed a medal in the individual competition, this victory represented a kind of reparation. Behind the Russians, the Chinese duo placed ahead of the one from Ukraine. In the synchronized jumping from the ten-meter tower, the Chinese Li Na and Sang Xue took first place. Silver went to Canada and bronze to the Australians Rebecca Gilmore and Loudy Tourky .

    sailing

    Softball

    Softball was part of the Sydney Olympic program for the second time, following its introduction four years earlier in Atlanta. Eight teams took part in the softball tournament. Australia automatically qualified as the host nation. Canada, China, the United States and Japan qualified as the top four teams in the 1998 World Cup. The remaining three participants were determined in qualifying tournaments. Italy prevailed in the tournament for Africa and Europe, Cuba succeeded in this in the tournament for America and New Zealand prevailed in the group of Asia and Oceania. In the first round of the Olympic tournament, each team played seven games. The top four qualified for the semi-finals.

    Taekwondo

    tennis

    The tennis competitions took place between September 19 and 28, 2000 at the New South Wales Tennis Center.

    In the men's individual tournament, some favorite players such as Marat Safin , Lleyton Hewitt and Marcelo Ríos were eliminated. In the semifinals, the German Tommy Haas defeated the Swiss Roger Federer 6: 3 and 6: 2. The French Arnaud Di Pasquale was defeated by the Russian Evgeni Kafelnikow 6: 4 and 6: 4. The Russian also won the final against Haas 7: 6, 3: 6, 6: 2, 4: 6 and 6: 3. In the game for third place, Federer lost to the French Di Pasquale. The men's doubles tournament was the final appearance of Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde , who had been a team for ten years. They moved into the final against the Canadian doubles Sébastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor , but lost it 7: 5, 3: 6, 4: 6 and 6: 7. With this, the Australians won the silver medal at the end of their career. Bronze went to the Spaniards Àlex Corretja and Albert Costa , who defeated the doubles from South Africa in the small final.

    In the second round of the women's singles, number one Lindsay Davenport was eliminated due to a fracture in her foot. Olympic champion was the American Venus Williams , who won the final 6: 2 and 6: 4 against Jelena Dementjewa . In the semifinals, Williams prevailed in three sets against Monica Seles , who won the bronze medal in the small final. In the doubles tournament, Venus and Serena Williams competed together as a team. In the final, the two Americans met the doubles from the Netherlands, consisting of Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans . The Dutch lost with 1: 6 and 1: 6. Bronze went to the Belgian doubles. Venus Williams was only the second woman in Olympic history to win singles and doubles gold in the same games. This was previously only achieved by Helen Wills Moody at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris .

    Table tennis

    Triathlon

    The triathlon celebrated its Olympic premiere at the Olympic Games in Sydney. The competitions took place against a large backdrop in the middle of Sydney . They started and ended at the Sydney Opera House and swam in Sydney Harbor. In addition, the Sydney Botanical Gardens formed a large part of the backdrop for the competitions, which were followed by around 500,000 spectators along the route. The competitions included 1.5 kilometers of swimming, 40 kilometers of cycling and 10 kilometers of running.

    On September 16, 2000, 48 participants started in the women's competition. After the first sub-discipline, swimming, the American Sheila Taormina , who won Olympic gold in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay in Atlanta, was in the lead. During the second sub-discipline, however, she was caught up and the German Joelle Franzmann was the first to switch to the third sub-discipline, running. In the last ten kilometers the lead changed frequently and a duel for victory developed. Swiss Brigitte McMahon became the first female Olympic champion in this discipline, two seconds ahead of Australian Michellie Jones . Magali Messmer, who also came from Switzerland, took third place and won bronze. The women's triathlon was watched by 80,000 people, especially near the opera house, where a video screen had been installed.

    The men's competition took place on September 17, 2000 in front of around 400,000 spectators. 52 athletes took part in it. Australian Craig Walton was the first to swim , followed by British favorite Simon Lessing . After the second sub-discipline, the French world champion Olivier Marceau was in the lead, but could not keep it on the final ten-kilometer run. The German Stephan Vuckovic took the lead. He already had the goal in mind when the Canadian Simon Whitfield intercepted him 150 meters from the finish line. With that he only won silver. The bronze medal went to the Czech Jan Řehula .

    do gymnastics

    Rhythmic sports gymnastics

    84 athletes competed in rhythmic gymnastics in Sydney . 24 of them took part in the individual competition, the rest belonged to the ten teams, each consisting of six athletes, of the team competition.

    The athletes had to perform exercises with hoops, clubs, ribbons and balls in the individual competition. The 17-year-old Russian Alina Kabajewa qualified first in the preliminary competition with 39.691 of the possible 40 points. In the run-up to the Olympic Games, she had won her third European Championship title and received a full 40 points in seven competitions. In the decision for the medals, Kabayeva's tires rolled out of the field, which earned her a penalty of 0.2 points and cost her gold. The Olympic victory went to Julija Barsukowa, also from Russia, with 39.632 points. Yulia Raskina won silver ahead of Kabajewa, who still achieved bronze.

    In the team competition, the performance density was very strong. The first three teams qualified for the final battle scored over 39 points, the next five over 38. The defending champions of Atlanta from Spain could not qualify. The Russian women and Belarusians won the gold medal among themselves. Both achieved a score of 39.5, so that the normally unevaluated highest and lowest rating was used to award the Olympic victory. Accordingly, the Russian team won gold by 0.2 points. Silver went to the Belarusians, bronze to the Greek women .

    Trampoline exercise

    Trampoline gymnastics was part of the Olympic program for the first time in Sydney. Twelve men and twelve women took part in the competitions, which consisted of a qualifying round and a final fight. The eight best placed in the qualification qualified for the final, in which the medals were jumped out.

    In the women's competition, Anna Dogonadze from Germany , the 1998 European champion, won the qualifying round. In the final, Dogonadze, who was in bed with a fever before the competition , fell out of the medal ranks. The first female Olympic champion in trampoline gymnastics was instead the Russian Irina Karawajewa , who won the World Cup in 1994, 1998 and 1999. Silver went to Oksana Zyhuljowa from Ukraine, bronze to the Canadian starter Karen Cockburn . In the men's category, Alexander Moskalenko won , who, like the women's winner, also came from Russia. He had already retired from the sport, but decided to make a comeback after it was established in August 1997 that trampoline gymnastics would be Olympic. In 1998 he still had problems catching up with the world's best, but in 1999 he became world champion for the fourth time in his career, making him the favorite in the competition at the Olympics. The Australian Ji Wallace unexpectedly won silver . The bronze medal was won by a Canadian, Mathieu Turgeon .

    volleyball

    In men's indoor volleyball , Yugoslavs , who had finished third four years earlier, won the gold medal for the first time. In the final, they prevailed in three sets against Russia , which, after two Olympic tournaments without a medal, continued the successful times of the Soviet Union. Italy won the duel for bronze against Argentina . In the women’s category, Cuba continued its winning streak and defended its title for the second time in a row. The decision in the final against Russia was not made until the tie-break. As in 1996, Brazil came third. Some new rules were introduced at this Olympic tournament.

    At the beach volleyball tournament on Bondi Beach , the Americans Dain Blanton / Eric Fonoimoana won the men's competition. In the final they prevailed against the Brazilians Zé Marco and Ricardo Santos in straight sets . Jörg Ahmann and Axel Hager provided the bronze medal for Germany's greatest success in Olympic beach volleyball to date. In the women's final, the Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst defeated the reigning world champions Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede from Brazil. The bronze medal went to the second Brazilian duo, Sandra Pires and Adriana Samuel Ramos .

    Outstanding athletes and special achievements

    The most successful participants
    rank athlete country sport gold silver bronze total
    1 Inge de Bruijn NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands swim 3 1 - 4th
    1 Ian Thorpe AustraliaAustralia Australia swim 3 1 - 4th
    1 Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands To go biking 3 1 - 4th
    4th Jenny Thompson United StatesUnited States United States swim 3 - 1 4th
    5 Alexei Nemov RussiaRussia Russia do gymnastics 2 1 3 6th
    • The 17-year-old Australian Ian Thorpe won three gold medals and one silver medal in swimming , improving his world record in 400 meters freestyle and also setting new world records with the relays in 4 x 200 and 4 x 100 meters freestyle.
    • As in 1996 in Atlanta, the Russian gymnast Alexei Nemow won most of the medals with two gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
    • The Briton Steven Redgrave won a gold medal in every rowing Olympic Games from 1984 in Los Angeles to 2000 in Sydney .
    • The Sri Lankan athlete Susanthika Jayasinghe was able to achieve the second medal win for her country in the 200-meter run by winning the silver medal.
    • The Cubans Félix Savón won in Sydney as the third Olympic athlete after László Papp and Teofilo Stevenson in three consecutive Olympic Games boxing gold medal.
    • Éric Moussambani , the slowest participant (1: 52.72 min), who has ever contested - and even won - an Olympic 100-meter freestyle race. The man from Equatorial Guinea did not learn to swim until January 2000 and fought more than swam on the two 50 meter lanes. But Eric “the eel” didn't just finish - because both opponents were disqualified because of false starts, he even won his race - and became the star of the games.

    doping

    • For endurance sports, the 2000 Olympic Games are considered EPO games . Although the difference between endogenous and exogenous EPO has been detectable since 2000, since the detection method was only effective within the first four days after administration, but the performance-enhancing effect lasts up to 17 days, the 2000 Olympic Games were still EPO games. So there was still a window of over ten days within which one could improve performance without attracting attention through EPO doping. Since z. For example, if the athletics competitions only lasted 10 days, the organizer had ensured that even those who started on the first and last day of the athletics had an EPO benefit. Even Lance Armstrong did not fall in the doping control on, but he was stripped of his medal because of his EPO confession.
    • The German freestyle wrestler Alexander Leipold was stripped of victory after a positive doping test in Sydney. He had to return the gold medal he had won and was subsequently excluded from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In the following proceedings, however, the victory of the tournament was recognized again, even if he is not allowed to call himself Olympic champion for legal reasons. The further circumstances have not yet been clarified.
    • Marion Jones had won three gold medals and two bronze medals, which placed her in fifth place of all athletes in the medal ranking, but admitted in October 2007 that she had been doped. The IOC subsequently disqualified her in December 2007 and deleted her from the list of results. The medals she had won were withdrawn from her.
    • Jerome Young (1999 / Nandrolone) was only used in the season advance. Since the US relay won gold in the finals, Young also received a gold medal. During lengthy legal disputes, the IOC initially ruled on June 29, 2004 that Jerome Young's 2000 gold medal was stripped, but that the other members of the team were allowed to keep their medals. It was not until 2012 that the IOC officially revoked the gold medals from the USA team and awarded them to the Nigerian team. This late honor came too late for the Nigerian relay runner Sunday Bada , who died a few months before the IOC's decision.
    • In January 2013, Lance Armstrong was stripped of the bronze medal in the individual time trial of the Olympic road race after he made a comprehensive confession of doping in the media. The lost bronze medal has not yet been re-awarded.

    environmental Protection

    The Olympic village was built in collaboration with Greenpeace . If possible, solar energy was used , so that the largest residential solar installation in the world was created at the time. A wastewater treatment plant was built for 16 million Australian dollars. Since the treated water can be used to flush toilets and water plants, drinking water consumption has been halved.

    For the endangered Bell Frogs, a 16 hectare biotope was created behind the ballpark, into which they were relocated. It cost a total of $ 900,000.

    reporting

    More than 20,000 media representatives reported from the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

    watch TV

    The television broadcast broke several records. The Games were watched by around 3.7 billion people in front of their television sets, and they consumed around 40 billion hours of Olympic coverage in total. The sale of the television rights generated revenues of $ 1.3 billion for the IOC. That was $ 400 million more than the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta . All television and radio stations that reported from Sydney were based in the International Broadcast Center (IBC). Before this type of use, this international broadcasting center was the warehouse of a department store and has a size of 70,000 square meters. The IBC was located near the Olympic Village and the Olympic Stadium.

    The world view was provided by the Australian TV organization Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organization, which was represented with 700 cameras at the competition venues. In addition, some television broadcasters used additional cameras that were specifically geared towards their national athletes. The EBU was responsible for the transmission of the television pictures to Europe. 200 hours of images were broadcast daily via five satellites to the 50 countries affiliated with the EBU.

    Germany

    In Germany, the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF alternately reported the games from Sydney. The main program broadcast around 20 hours each time. In addition, there was around six hours of broadcast on 3sat , where mainly ball sports were shown. Olympic reports were also provided for the news and magazines. This meant that around 28 hours of Olympics could be seen per day, which made around 420 hours of television broadcasting in Germany over the entire period of the Sydney Olympic Games. If you add radio coverage, Germany had most of the Olympic coverage in the world.

    ARD and ZDF had more than 600 employees in Sydney, as the time difference required additional shifts. The live broadcasts usually started around 11 p.m. and ended around 3 p.m. Follow-up reports and summaries follow in order to also inform the people who were not satisfied with the airtime. In order to be able to report in detail about the German athletes, ARD and ZDF also used 56 cameras that complemented the worldview provided. Technically, the 2000 Olympic Games marked the beginning of a new era. After the European Football Championship in 2000 , the Epsis program was used for the second time , with which tracks could be marked in color and distances indicated in lines. Since then, this option has been used more and more and is now part of sports broadcasts.

    Other countries

    NBC acquired the rights for the broadcast in the USA for 800 million dollars. The station sold the advertising time for $ 900 million, which was a record amount. Four years earlier, at the Atlanta Games, NBC had only $ 680 million in advertising revenue. In order to be able to show the popular and attractive sports at prime time, NBC decided to broadcast all competitions as recordings due to the 15 to 18 hour time difference. This last happened at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome , when the film roles still had to be brought to the USA by plane. Around 3,000 people worked for NBC at the IBC, which was a new record. Never before had a television station with so many employees been represented at the Olympic Games.

    See also

    literature

    Web links

    Commons : 2000 Summer Olympics  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b c Focus Magazin: Berlin: an emperor without clothes , April 19, 1993. Retrieved February 11, 2011
    2. ↑ January 2nd, 1990. Tagesschau (ARD) , January 2, 1990, accessed on January 3, 2017 .
    3. ↑ a b Der Tagesspiegel : Berliner Chronik series: September 25, 1990 , September 24, 2010. Retrieved on February 11, 2011
    4. ↑ http://www.aafla.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2000/2000v2.pdf page 148
    5. ↑ www.olympic.org Sydney 2000. Retrieved February 18, 2012 .
    6. ↑ Film clips from the opening on olympic.org (English)
    7. ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/journal/thema/article931228/Fuenf-Ringe-und-ein-Lied.html
    8. ↑ hockey.de Olympic Games 2000 women. Retrieved February 15, 2013 .
    9. ↑ hockey.de Olympic Games 2000 Men. Retrieved February 15, 2013 .
    10. ↑ a b Olympic.org (IOC): IOC statement on Lance Armstrong from January 17, 2013
    11. ^ Arnd Krüger : EPO games in Sydney too? Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / limmatsharks.com
    12. ^ Augsburger Allgemeine: Wrestling trainer Alexander Leipold: His moving story from August 8, 2008
    13. ↑ kurier.at: Marion Jones sentenced by the IOC ( Memento of February 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
    14. ↑ spiegel.de: Gatlin coach trained nine doped athletes from August 1, 2006
    15. ↑ http://www.insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/athletics/17818-ioc-decision-to-award-nigeria-4x400m-gold-medal-from-sydney-2000-comes-too-late-for-sunday -bada