YEAR 2 INQUIRY - Term 4
Olympic Games
​
Sydney was selected as the host city for the 2000 Games in 1993. Teams from 199 countries participated. The construction of the Sydney Olympic Games venues had begun before we even knew we would be hosting the games. The first sites to be completed were the Aquatic centre and the Athletic centre, finished in 1994. The main Olympic Stadium was finished in 1999.
For the 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney built one of the biggest athlete villages ever constructed at the time. Construction of the Olympic Athletes village began in 1997.
Olympic Park station was designed to support large crowds travelling to and from the stadiums and sports grounds built for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The station and sports facilities were retained after the games. The train station was opened in 1998.
.png)
The opening ceremony, watched by around 3.6 billion people around the world, doubled in parts as learning about Australia’s history, landscape and people for people from other countries, and a national celebration of identity and history on the other. Over 12,000 performers were involved, including thousands of Sydney primary school students.
The 2000 Summer Olympic programme featured 300 events in 28 different sports.
Australia came 4th on the medal table winning 58 medals.
The official logo of the Olympic Games also referred to as the "Millennium Man" combines the image of a runner and a torch in motion; formed by two small yellow boomerangs for arms and a larger red boomerang for legs. The Olympic torch is represented through a blue smoke trail, which draws the iconic peaks of the Sydney Opera House.
The official mascots chosen for the 2000 Summer Olympics were Syd the platypus, Millie the echidna, and Olly the kookaburra and were designed by Matthew Hattan and Jozef Szekeres.
