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.

The most successful sports were athletics, cycling, equestrian, swimming and wheelchair tennis. As one of the sporting events, sailing involved the implementation of forecasting systems and services in Sydney Harbour, in addition to the recruitment of professionals to design the project’s plans and processes. This occurred in order to fulfil the requirements of both event organisers, competitors and visitors.

Notable Australian performances were:

• Siobhan Paton won six gold medals in S14 swimming events and set six world records
• Timothy Sullivan won five gold medals and set five world records in athletics
• Neil Fuller, a leg amputee sprinter, won four gold medals and one bronze medal and was flag bearer at the closing ceremony
• Lisa Llorens won three gold medals and one silver medal in athletics
• Greg Smith in wheelchair athletics events won three gold medals
• Lisa McIntosh won three gold medals in athletics
• Athletes who won two individual gold medals were: Louise Sauvage, Russell Short, Amy Winters, Julie Higgins, Kingsley Bugarin, and Gemma Dashwood.

Ultimately, this event has historically influenced The Australian Paralympic Movement and has present impacts on the social development of the Australian nation and its disabled community. Noting the access and disability challenges experienced prior to and during the Games, the outcomes of central organisational bodies responsible for devising and executing plans associated with this have been reviewed. Following the announcement of Sydney being the host city for the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games on 23 September 1993, the NSW Government established central organisations and bodies to distribute the workload, responsibilities and eventually, allocated funding based on this.