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WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION AND
PERFORMANCE IN THE SYDNEY 2000
OLYMPIC GAMES
By Mrs Shengrong LU (CHN)
Member of the International Olympic Committee
President of the International Badminton Federation
Member of the Women and Sport Working Group
of the IOC
The 2000 Olympics in Sydney will be remembered for so many things; from
the stunning location and excellent organisation to the warmth and spirit of the
thousands of volunteers, the Sydney Games was an exceptional Olympics.
For those of us lucky enough to be present, it truly was an incredible sporting
experience, but what made it really special for me was the ever-increasing role of
women in the Games.
The Olympic Games in Sydney marked an important milestone in the
development of women's sport: the centennial year of women's participation in
the Olympics. In the Games in Paris in 1900, 19 women representing five NOCs
made history by competing for the first time. One hundred years later and
unprecedented 4,063 women athletes took the stage at the Sydney Olympic Games.
Women were pivotal to the whole Olympic experience in Sydney and that was
made clear from the outset. The Opening Ceremony revolved around a young
girl and from the moment that young Nicky Webster was suddenly hoisted some
30 metres into the air the importance of women in the Olympic Games was made
abundantly clear.
As the athletes marched into the arena, 54 teams were led by women carrying
national flags - that's more than the combined total of women athletes who took
part in the 1900 and 1904 Games. Australian hockey star Rechelle Hawkes was
given the honour of pronouncing the Olympic Oath on behalf of the athletes
and the torch relay too became a celebration of women's participation. It had
become a must-see event at the Olympic Games and fittingly it became an allfemale
affair when the torch reached the Olympic stadium for the Opening
Ceremony. Six women Olympians carried the flame to its final destination for what
was to be one of the most spectacular lighting ceremonies in Olympic history.
Championing not only the women's cause but that of the indigenous people of
Australia, Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman took centre stage as she lit the
Olympic cauldron, and the "Women's Games" began.
The statistics speak for themselves. All 199 National Olympic Committees
were represented in Sydney and only nine fielded teams without female athletes.
That is a vast improvement on the 1996 Games in Atlanta where 26 of 197 NOCs
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