Australia at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
Australia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Paralympics which was held in Sydney. Australia competed in the games between 18 and 29 October. The team consisted of 285 athletes in 18 sports with 148 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to a Games. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games since its inception. Australia finished at the top of the medal tally with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals to total 149 medals for the games. This was the first time and the only time to date that Australia has finished on top of either an Olympic or Paralympic medal tally.
Paul Bird
211000 - Archery Tony Marturano shoots - 3b - Sydney 2000 match photo
211000 - Athletics wheelchair racing 10km heat John Maclean action 2 - 3b - 2000 Sydney race photo
Australian track athletes Katrina Webb (left) and Alison Quinn (right), seen from behind with the Australian flag, celebrate with the crowd over their medal wins in the 100 m T38 at the 2000 Summer Paralympics. Quinn won gold and Webb won silver in this event.
The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics were organized by two different Organizing Committees. In this edition, a record 3,801 athletes from 120 National Paralympic Committees participated in 551 events in 18 sports, and until the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, it was the second largest sporting event ever until that date held in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Sydney was the eighth city to host the Olympics and the Paralympics on same venues at the same year, and the first since Barcelona 1992 that they were organized in complete conjunction with the Olympics. They were also the first Paralympic Games outside the Northern Hemisphere and also in Oceania.
Then-president of the Australian Paralympic Federation, Ron Finneran, during the 1984 Winter Paralympics, held in Innsbruck, Austria
Daytime view of pond with waterlilies at Sydney Olympic Park during the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games
Yothu Yindi performs at the Sydney opening ceremony.
The Australian team at the opening ceremony