The venue for the Olympic Games at the turn of the millennium was determined at the 101st session of the IOK in Monaco. This happened seven years before the start of the games, and the contenders were the capitals of Turkey (Istanbul), Germany (Berlin), China (Beijing), as well as English Manchester and Australian Sydney. In three out of four rounds of voting, Beijing came first, and Sydney came second. But in the final majority of only 2 votes, the Australian city was elected the capital of the 2000 Olympics.
Sydney is located on the southeast coast of the continent and is the capital of New South Wales. It was founded in 1788 as the first settlement of European colonists. This place was chosen because of the convenient and, moreover, beautiful bay, separated from the ocean by a narrow natural isthmus. By the time the XXVII Summer Olympics were held, Sydney was already a huge city with a population of 4.5 million inhabitants.
Of the thirty sports facilities involved in the 2000 Games, exactly half were built specifically for this sports forum. Only in the starts of two disciplines - beach volleyball and water polo for women - were temporary facilities used. Almost all of the new buildings are compactly located in the new district "Olympic Park", from which to any other point on the Olympic map of Sydney could be reached in no more than 30 minutes.
In addition to the capital of New South Wales, four other Australian cities took part in the XXVII Summer Olympic Games - Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. Their stadiums hosted the matches of the Olympic football tournament.
Due to the fact that the Summer Olympic Games this time were held in the southern hemisphere of our planet, their timing turned out to be very unusual for most athletes. Summer and winter change places there, so the previous Olympiad on this continent (Melbourne, 1956) was held in late November and early December. This time, the deadlines were moved a little closer to the usual for residents of the northern hemisphere - the opening ceremony of the games took place at the stadium "Australia" on September 15, 2000. The XXVII Summer Olympics ended with the beginning of the last month of autumn, on October 1.
The team victory in these games was won by the US Olympians - they were able to win 92 awards, 36 of which were gold. In terms of the total number of medals, the Russians lost very little - 3 awards. The next three countries in the top list had almost the same indicators: China and Australia each collected 58 awards, and Germany - 56.
