The 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 13 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was the second time that the Summer Olympics were held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first one being in Melbourne in 1956.* At the Opening Ceremony, the Olympic cauldron is ignited by descendant of Aboriginal Cathy Freeman, a symbolic apology from the Australian domination and near extinction of the Indian race that lived in Australia before the arrival of whites. Days later, Freeman would win the gold medal in the 400 meters.
* In the parade of nations, the two Koreas entered the stadium together under one banner for the first time in the Olympics, but competed separately.
* During the first day of competition, the IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, had to travel back home due to an illness of his wife. When she arrived, she was dead. Samaranch returned to Sydney four days later. During this period, the Olympic flag was flown at half mast as a mark of respect for the president's wife.
* The first medals of the Games were given the test rifle air at 10 meter. Nancy Johnson, the United States, was the first champion from the Sydney Games.
* Ian Thorpe, Australian 17 years, becomes the biggest name in swimming the Games, winning three gold medals, breaking his own world record in the 400 freestyle. Among women, the Netherlands Inge de Bruijn is the highlight, with three golds and a world record.
* For the first time in history, Greece won the gold medal in a contest of speed in athletics, with the victory of Konstantinos Kenteris in the 200 meters.
* Marion Jones, United States, becomes the queen of the Olympic stadium to win three gold medals and two bronze medals and becoming the first woman to win five medals in athletics in the same Olympics.
* Maria Mutola of Mozambique, won the first gold medal of his country in the 800m. It was the second medal of Mozambique. The first bronze was also won by Mutola in 1996 and Atlanta in the same event.
* The historical Cameroon win a gold medal by defeating Spain in the final of football after the penalty shootout.
* Colombia also won the first gold medal in its history, the weight lifting female, María Isabel Urrutia.
* Steve Redgrave, Great Britain, winning his fifth consecutive gold medal in Olympic rowing.
* The taekwondo fighter Tran Hieu Ngan won Vietnam's first medal (silver), since the country's first participation in 1952.
* Eric Moussambani swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, had learned to swim just six months before the Games begin, and while competing in Sydney was the first time I swam in pools with official distance (in Equatorial Guinea there were no Olympic swimming pools). The swimmers competed in the 100-meter freestyle alone, as the two competitors in his series had been disqualified for making false starts. It took more than twice the time of the first-place finishers from other rounds and nearly drowned, but his sympathy and the Olympic spirit has become one of the highlights of the competition.
* Afghanistan was banned from the Games in 1999 because of the Taliban regime and did not compete in Sydney.
