The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games commenced with the opening ceremony on 18th October, 2000. It was followed by the 11 days of fierce international competition and was the second largest sporting event ever held in Australia.
The Paralympic Games brought together 4000 of the world's elite disabled athletes. Over 125 countries took part competing in 18 different sports. The Australian team competed in all sports. The Australian team competed in all sports and incredibly won 63 gold medals, leaders of the final medal tally.
The Aquatic Centre was the Paralympic venue for the 18 swimming event sessions which were held over nine days of competition. Swimming has become one of the most popular and competitive Paralympic sports and it is open to athletes from all disability groups. Events are divided into three classifications - visually impaired, athletes with a physical disability (functions) and athletes with an intellectual disability.
A total of 196,073 spectators attended the sessions which were generally four hours in duration. The program also included an incredible 170 medal ceremonies which proved a logistical feat in itself.
The Austrlaian team performed extraordinarily in front of their home crowd with 14 Gold, 15 Silver and 22 Bronze medals a toal of 51 medals in swimming alon. Some of the osutstanding achievers were athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Priya Coop-er who led women's meadal tally with Siobhan receivig 6 Gold and 1 Bronze and Priy with 1 Gold and 3 Bronze. The men did equally well with Kingsley Bugarin leading the men's tally with 2 Gold and 1 Silver.