第27屆夏天奧運會于2000年9月15日至十月1日在澳大利亞東南部港口城市悉尼舉行。曾有中國首都北京在內的30余個城市表示有意承辦這屆千禧年奧運會，最后進入最后爭辦的5個城市是悉尼、北京、德國的柏林、土耳其的伊斯坦布爾和英國的曼徹斯特。

1993年9月23日主辦城市揭曉的投票日，北京直到最后一輪投票時才以兩票之差的微弱劣勢負于悉尼，遺憾地未能獲得本屆奧運會的主辦權。奧運會開幕前的圣火傳遞活動本次又有了新意，組織者充分了借助了水、陸、空各種運輸方法，圣火甚至由潛水運動員帶到了水下。

KEY FACTS

Opening date:15 September 2000

Closing date: 01 October 2000

Country of the host city:Sydney

Sports: 28

SYDNEY 2000 Games of the XXVII Olympiad

The Sydney 2000 Games were the largest yet, with 10,651 athletes competing in 300 events. Despite their size, they were well organised, renewing^{1 faith in the Olympic Movement. Birgit Fischer earned two gold medals in Kayak to become the first woman in any sport to win medals 20 years apart. Judoka Ryoko Tamura lost in the final in both Barcelona and Atlanta, but came back to win the gold medal in Sydney. Steven Redgrave became the first rower to win gold medals at five consecutive2 Olympics. The US softball team won in stirring3 fashion, losing three games in a row and then coming back to defeat each of the teams they had lost to.}

Do You Know? 朝鮮和韓國聯合組隊出目前奧運會的開幕式上

Korea and Democratic^{4 People's Republic of Korea marched together under the same flag.}