Games

Sydney 2000

The XI Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000 opened on 18 October and marked the start of what would become known as the “best games yet.”

A record number of 122 countries, or 123 delegations including independent athletes from East Timor, participated at the Sydney Paralympics, making this the largest Games in Paralympic history.

During Games time, the Paralympic Village was home to 6,943 people, comprising 3,824 athletes, 2,315 team officials and 804 technical officials.

Sydney 2000 was the first time that the Paralympic and Olympic Games were organised by the committee. The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) and the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) had shared departments and delivered the best possible conditions for elite athletes with a disability.

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	63	39	47	149
2	Great Britain	41	43	47	131
3	Spain	39	30	38	107

Sporting performances were of an unprecedented standard with more than 300 World and Paralympic records broken.

Great Britain’s athletes returned from a superb Games having officially become Britain’s most successful Paralympic Team ever.

The victorious team of 214 British athletes finished second in the medal table with a total of 41 golds, 43 silvers and 47 bronze medals – ahead of Spain, Canada, USA and China and only surpassed by the host nation, Australia.

With greater media coverage than ever before more people in Britain could appreciate the world class quality of the athletes competing in 16 of the 18 sports.