It is the dawn of a new millennium, and the Games are returning, for the second time, to the Southern Hemisphere. With over 15,000 athletes from 200+ countries, the Sydney 2000 Games will probably be the biggest sporting event in history.

         Over a period of 16 days, between the 15th of September to the 1st of October, it is estimated that between 500,000 to 1.5 million visitors will converge on Sydney and that the athletes will be cheered on by a television audience of over 3.5 billion. We are (arguably) one of only 2 nations who have been represented at every OlympicGames , (the other being Greece). Australia, being a continent, as well as nation is represented as one of the 5 rings on the Olympic flag, and we have produced champions far out of proportion to our population's size.For the successful operations of the Games, the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic
Games (SOCOG), set a budget totaling over 2.5 billion dollars and the organisers promised to deliver the most technicially advanced, athlete focused, and enviromentally sound games in the modern era.