Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics was the third time an Olympic baseball tournament had been held as a full medal sport, and the ninth time it had been part of the Summer Olympic Games in any capacity. It was held in Sydney, Australia from 17 September through to the bronze and gold medal games on 27 September. Two venues were used for the Games: the Sydney Baseball Stadium and Blacktown Olympic Park. For the first time in Olympic competition, professional baseball players were eligible to participate, though no active players from Major League Baseball were available.
2000 Summer Olympics cauldron
The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron by wheelchair racer Louise Sauvage at the opening ceremony for the Sydney Paralympic Games on 18 October 2000 was another spectacle highlight. It was the culmination of another torch relay, but one that had commenced with a lighting ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra on 5 October 2000. Involving 920 torchbearers, each of whom carried the flame an average of 500 metres, it visited each Australian capital city by air. Then within New South Wales it travelled from Moss Vale through the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, Campbelltown, Penrith, Windsor, Hunter and Central Coast areas before heading to Sydney. Like the Olympic Torch Relay before it, the Paralympic Torch Relay succeeded in generating community and media support for the Games, with crowds in many areas and significant crowds lining the Sydney metropolitan route in the final two days of the relay.