2000 Summer Olympics torch relay 2000 Summer Olympics torch relay The 2000 Summer Olympics torch relay was the transferral of the Olympic Flame to Sydney, Australia that built up to the 2000 Summer Olympics. The torch travelled to various island nations as part of a tour of Oceania before beginning an extensive journey around Australia. For the first time the Flame was taken underwater, with a special flare-like torch taken on a dive down to the Great Barrier Reef. At the opening ceremony the cauldron was lit by Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman. A History of the Olympic Torch Relay has been written by Janet Cahill
Independent Olympians at the Olympic Games the Czechoslovakia NOC; however they were prepared to allow its athletes to enter under the Olympic flag. In any event, the Games were cancelled because of World War II. In the Cold War, some athletes who emigrated from Communist European countries were unable to compete at the Olympics, as their original state's NOC neither wanted them on its own team nor gave them permission to transfer nationality. Some applied to compete as individuals in 1952 and 1956, but were refused. When Guyana joined the 1976 Olympic boycott, its sprinter James Gilkes asked the IOC to be allowed to compete as