Bids for the 2000 Summer Olympics

Five cities made presentations to the 101st IOC Session in Monte Carlo to host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Games were awarded to Sydney, Australia, on 23 September 1993 at 18:17 UTC (8:17 pm in Monaco (UTC+02:00), 4:17 am in Sydney, 24 September 1993 (UTC+10:00)). The other cities were Beijing (China), Manchester (Great Britain), Berlin (Germany) and Istanbul (Turkey). 11 days earlier in a different process, Sydney had been chosen by the International Paralympic Committee to host the 2000 Summer Paralympics.

Events

The Australian Olympic Committee originally contemplated either Melbourne or Brisbane as their preferred bidding host cities, but Sydney gained popular favor amongst AOC President John Coates, and others, having never been a host city, as they were the last Australian bidding cities. Brasília, the capital city of Brazil, and Milan, Italy, withdrew during the bidding process – Milan shortly after submitting its bid book, Brasília following the visit by the IOC Inspection Group, which stated the city had substandard facilities. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, also put in a bid for the Games, in order to gain some recognition of that country's existence and new independence, but withdrew very early into the race.

Berlin was an early front-runner, hoping to cap the decade of German reconstruction and reunification by hosting the first Games of the new millennium. But the support of its bid was marred when anti-Olympic protesters marched through the city just four days before the final vote in Monaco claiming that the games would deny funds to further domestic reconstruction efforts. Manchester's bid book was thought strong, but with much regeneration in the city needed.