Backgrounder: Olympic Games Sydney 2000: The Millennial Games

The Games of the XXVII Olympiad, also called the Millennial Games, were held in Sydney, Australia, between Sept.15 and Oct.1, 2000, with 10,651 athletes from 199 delegations.

Its inauguration ceremony was focused on the unity of fire, representing Australia's climate, and water, for Sydney's place by the ocean. This became clear when Australian runner Cathy Freeman climbed stairs toward a large pool of water, with the cauldron harboring the Olympic Flame at its center. The cauldron was then lifted up a waterfall to take its place above the Stadium Australia and its 110,000 spectators.

Besides Freeman, who won the 400m in front of her home crowd, the female hero of the Games was American Marion Jones, who took home the gold for the 100m, 200m and the 4x400m relay, while winning two bronze medals for the 4x100m relay and the long jump.

Sadly, in October 2007, Jones confessed to having used illegal substances in Sydney and forfeited her five medals.

Birgit Fischer from Germany took two gold medals in kayaking, to become the first woman to ever reach eight gold medals across six editions in the Olympic Games.

British rower Steven Redgrave continued his haul, winning his fifth gold at five consecutive Olympics.

Sydney also the entry of China into the top three in the medal ranking, finishing third in total medals and in gold medals won, behind the U.S. and Russia, after finishing fourth behind Germany in Atlanta 1996.

In Sydney, China saw a record haul with 28 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 15 bronze medals.

Of these, seven athletes repeated their gold medals from Atlanta, while China found new success in sports such as fencing and cycling.

Tao Luna won China's first gold in the 10m air pistol competition, while divers Xiong Ni and Fu Mingxia took home the gold, the fourth straight such victory for Fu.

Finally, the Chinese male gymnastics team ended a 47-year drought and was crowned with the gold, while the female hockey team finished fifth in its first Olympics, despite beating two of the favourites, the Netherlands and Germany.

SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES MEDAL TABLE

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL

U.S. 37 24 31 92

Russia 32 28 28 88

China 28 16 15 59

Australia 16 25 17 58

Germany 13 17 26 56

France 13 14 11 38

Italy 13 8 13 34

Netherlands 12 9 4 25

Cuba 11 11 7 29

UK 11 10 7 28

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