2000 Sydney Olympic Games

2000 Sydney Olympic Games
Official logo
City	Sydney, Australia
Venue	Sydney SuperDome
Team Gold Medalist	Romania Simona Amânar Loredana Boboc Andreea Isărescu Maria Olaru Claudia Presăcan Andreea Răducan
All-Around Gold Medalist	Andreea Răducan (ROU) Simona Amânar (ROU) (see controversy below)
Vault Gold Medalist	Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS)
Uneven Bars Gold Medalist	Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
Balance Beam Gold Medalist	Liu Xuan (CHN)
Floor Exercise Gold Medalist	Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS)
Preceded by	1996 Atlanta Olympic Games
Succeeded by	2004 Athens Olympic Games

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/ Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, took place between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was the second time that the Summer Olympics were held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first one being in Melbourne in 1956, and as a result of this location and the dates, took place in early spring. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Sydney SuperDome on September 16–25.

Format of Competition

No compulsory routines were performed in artistic gymnastics at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Instead, all participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included:

• The team competition, in which the six highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. Each team of six gymnasts could have up to five gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and only the four highest scores counted toward the team total.
• The all-around competition, in which the thirty-six highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. Each country was limited to three gymnasts in the all-around final.
• The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

Competition Schedule

September 17	Qualifications
September 19	Team Final
September 21	All-Around
September 24	Vault Event Final
	Uneven Bars Event Final
September 25	Balance Beam Event Final
	Floor Exercise Event Final

Results

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team	Romania Simona Amânar Loredana Boboc Andreea Isărescu Maria Olaru Claudia Presăcan Andreea Răducan	Russia Anna Chepeleva Svetlana Khorkina Anastasia Kolesnikova Ekaterina Lobaznyuk Elena Produnova Elena Zamolodchikova	USA Amy Chow Jamie Dantzscher Dominique Dawes Kristen Maloney Elise Ray Tasha Schwikert
All-Around	Simona Amânar Romania (ROU)	Maria Olaru Romania (ROU)	Liu Xuan China (CHN)
Vault	Elena Zamolodchikova Russia (RUS)	Andreea Răducan Romania (ROU)	Ekaterina Lobaznyuk Russia (RUS)
Uneven Bars	Svetlana Khorkina Russia (RUS)	Ling Jie China (CHN)	Yang Yun China (CHN)
Balance Beam	Liu Xuan China (CHN)	Ekaterina Lobaznyuk Russia (RUS)	Elena Produnova Russia (RUS)
Floor Exercise	Elena Zamolodchikova Russia (RUS)	Svetlana Khorkina Russia (RUS)	Simona Amânar Romania (ROU)

Notable Moments

• Initially, Romania swept the team competition and the all-around podium (this changed several days after the all-around - see controversy below).
• Russia's Svetlana Khorkina had originally qualified for the vault event final, but gave up her spot to her teammate, Elena Zamolodchikova. Zamolodchikova, who faltered in the all-around, won Russia their first gold medal of the games.
• China's Liu Xuan became the first Chinese gymnast to win gold on balance beam.
• The highest recorded score was 9.862, by Svetlana Khorkina during the uneven bars event final.

Controversies

• In the first two rotations of the all-around competition, the vault was set a notch too low, resulting in a 5 centimeter, or 2 inch, difference. This is very important in a sport where the success of an element rests on spatial awareness and very small margins. Gymnasts like Great Britain's Annika Reeder, Brazil's Daniele Hypólito, and USA's Elise Ray made uncharacteristic errors on the vault. Then, Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, who was a favorite for the all-around title, fell on vault in the second rotation. Prior to her vault, Khorkina went to an Australian official to say that something was off on vault, but was ignored. During warm-up for the third rotation, Australia's Allana Slater echoed Khorkina's statements about the vault. The vault was then measured and was discovered to be set too low. The competition continued, but the athletes who vaulted in the first two rotations were given the opportunity to vault again once the competition was over.
• Andreea Răducan was the original Olympic All-Around Champion in Sydney. Not only that, the Romanians intially swept the podium, with Simona Amânar winning the silver and Maria Olaru winning the bronze. However, several days after the all-around, Raducan was stripped of her medal after testing positive for pseudoephederine. Răducan and her coaches maintained that she was innocent, and that as a minor, she had only followed the treatment plan the team physician, Ioachim Oana, had recommended. The night before the competition, she had been given Nurofen, a common over-the-counter medication, to help treat a fever and cough. She also said that the pills had made her feel dizzy instead of helping her in any way. The gold was re-awarded to Amânar, Olaru was promoted to silver, and former fourth-place finisher Liu Xuan from China was given the bronze medal. Initially, Amânar and Olaru declined their new medals, but changed their minds in order to bring them back to Romania. Amânar returned the gold medal to Raducan, believing her to be the rightful 2000 Olympic All-Around Champion. Many fans feel the same way.
• After Yang Yun admitted being 14 when she competed in Sydney on Chinese national television, she was subject to an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation along with teammate Dong Fangxiao. Yang Yun was found to be innocent due to insufficient evidence in February 2010, meaning she was able to keep her bronze medal in uneven bars, but she was given a warning by the FIG. Her teammate Dong Fangxiao was found guilty and her results were canceled. On April 28, 2010, the IOC removed the Chinese team's bronze medal. The team bronze medal was awarded to the United States at the 2010 Visa National Championships.

Medal Count

Rank	Country				Total
1	Russia	3	3	2	8
2	Romania	2	2	1	5
3	China	1	1	2	4
4	USA	0	0	1	1

Gallery

• The Sydney Superdome during the competition
• Team Gold Medalists: Romania
• Team Silver Medalists: Russia
• Original Team Bronze Medalists: China
• Team Bronze Medalists (as of 2010): USA
• All-Around Medalists (from left): Simona Amânar (ROU), Andreea Răducan (ROU), Maria Olaru (ROU)
• Vault Medalists (from left) Ekaterina Lobaznyuk (RUS), Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS), Andreea Răducan (ROU)
• Uneven Bars Medalists (from left): Ling Jie (CHN), Svetlana Khorkina (RUS), Yang Yun (CHN)
• Balance Meam Medalists (from left): Elena Produnova (RUS), Liu Xuan (CHN), Ekaterina Lobaznyuk (RUS)
• Floor Exercise Medalists (from left): Simona Amânar (ROU), Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS), Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)

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