• Emblem

  

  The emblem represents the figure of an athlete, using typically Australian shapes and colours. The boomerangs and suggestions of sun and rocks, together with the colours of the harbour, beaches and red interior invoke the unique Australian landscape and its original inhabitants.

  The flash which transforms the silhouette of Sydney Opera House into a trail of smoke from an Olympic torch recalls the emblem of Sydney’s Olympic candidature.

  
  

  

• Turkmenistan team

  Athlete	Sport
  Chary Mamedov	Athletics
  Viktoriya Brigadnaya	Athletics
  Galina Atayeva	Judo
  Nasiba Salayeva	Judo
  Igor Pirekeyev	Shooting
  Aida Steshenko	Table Tennis
  Umurbek Bazarbayev	Weightlifting
  Nepes Gukulov	Wrestling Greco-Roman

  

• Torch

  Start date:
  10 May 2000, Olympia (Greece)
  
  End date:
  15 September 2000, Olympic Stadium, Sydney (Australia)
  
  First torchbearer:
  Lambros Papakostas, Olympic participant in athletics (1992, 1996)
  
  Last torchbearer:
  Cathy Freeman, Olympic participant in athletics (1992, 1996, 2000), gold medallist in Sydney 2000 and silver medallist in Atlanta 1996. 
  
  Number of torchbearers:
  ~900 in Greece, ~1,500 in Oceania, 11,000 in Australia
  
  Recruitment of torchbearers:
  In Australia, the Community Torchbearers programme allowed the Australian general public to nominate people who were notable for their achievements or worked for the common good. Through this programme, 6,000 torchbearers were selected from among a total of over 43,000 nominations.
  The rest of the torchbearers were either chosen through sponsors, media partners and the Organising Committee, or were Olympians. About 7 per cent of the torchbearers were of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage.
  
  Distance:
  1,696 km on land and 463 nautical miles in Greece, ~17,000 km in Oceania, 27,000 km in Australia.
  
  Countries visited:
  Greece, Guam, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia.

  

  

• Mascots

  

  SYD, OLLY AND MILLIE

  NAME
  Syd is a reference to Sydney, Olly to Olympic and Millie to the new millennium.

  DESCRIPTION
  The three mascots are a duck-billed platypus (Syd), a kookaburra (Olly) and an echidna or spiny anteater (Millie). They symbolise the water, air and earth respectively. Their colours correspond to those of the Games emblem, and all three are typical examples of Australian fauna.

  CREATOR
  Matthew Hatton

  DID YOU KNOW?

  • The choice of mascots was based on a survey in Australia and other countries. Matthew Hatton's duck-billed platypus sketch got him selected for the mascots project. The objective of the project was also to avoid kangaroos or koalas, which is why two other less well known animals were chosen.
  • This was the first time there had been three official mascots. There had previously been couples, for example Hidy and Howdy for the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, or even a quartet: the four Snowlets or the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano.
  • The kookaburra and the duck-billed platypus are two emblems of the Australian state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital.

  

Re-Live Sydney 2000!

Triathlon and taekwondo were two new additions to the Olympic programme. Susanthika Jayasinghe became the first Sri Lankan woman to win a medal, claiming bronze in the 200m.
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