Celebrating 20 years since the Sydney Olympic Games

On 15 September 20 years ago the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were declared officially open by the Governor General Sir William Deane.

The games ran 15 September to 1 October 2000.

Of the 632 strong Australian team, 52 were our own Western Australian athletes competing in 21 sports.

We celebrate their Olympic success as they competed on the biggest sporting stage in the world.

20 years ago VenuesWest had four venues, today we have 13, supporting more high performance sports and more WA athletes as they strive to compete at the highest levels.

WA athletes competing at Sydney 2000:

Archery
Scott Hunter-Russell

Athletics
Susan Andrews
Paul Burgess
Emma George
Susan Hobson
Alison Inverarity
Dmitri Markov
Lauren Poetschka

Baseball
Clayton Byrne
Mark Ettles
Michael Moyle

Basketball
Ricky Grace
Luc Longley
Paul Rogers
Andrew Vlahov

Boxing
Daniel Green
Erle Wiltshire

Canoeing
Robin Bell
Amanda Simper

Cycling
Darryn Hill - bronze, men's team sprint
Henk Vogels Jnr

Fencing
Gerald McMahon

Football
Stan Lazaridis
Danny Milosevic
Kasey Wehrman
Tracey Wheeler

Gymnastics
Allana Slater

Hockey
Rechelle Hawkes - gold
Kate Starre - gold 
Damon Diletti - bronze 
Paul Gaudoin - bronze

Rowing
Stuart Reside
Sally Robbins

Sailing
Belinda Stowell - gold, women's 470

Shooting
Belinda Imgrund

Swimming
Rachel Harris
William Kirby - gold, men's 4 x 200m freestlye relay
Todd Pearson - bronze, men's 4 x 100m freestyle realay; gold, men's 4 x 200m freestlye relay
Jennifer Reilly

Taekwondo
Cynthia Cameron

Volleyball (Beach)
Annette Huygens-Tholen
Pauline Manser
Sarah Straton

Volleyball (Indoor)
Daniel Howard

Waterpolo
Bridgette Gusterson - gold
Kate Hooper - gold
Danielle Woodhouse - gold
Andrei Kovalenko
Tim Neesham

Weightlifting
Anthony Martin

Wrestling
Laszlo Kovacs

Relive the spectacular Opening Ceremony here.