Bahrain at the 2000 Summer Olympics Bahrain at the 2000 Summer Olympics Bahrain sent a delegation to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which were held from 15 September to 1 October 2000. This was the fifth consecutive Summer Olympics the Kingdom took part in. The delegation consisted of four athletes: sprinter Mariam Mohamed Hadi Al Hilli, middle-distance runner Mohamed Saleh Naji Haidara and short-distance swimmers Dawood Yosuf Mohamed Jassim and Fatema Hameed Gerashi. Al Hilli and Gerashi's inclusion in the Bahraini delegation was the first time in history a Gulf Arab nation had sent female athletes to the Olympic Games. All four
Olympic Games inclusion only two were selected as finalists: karate and squash. Neither sport attained the required two-thirds vote and consequently they were not promoted to the Olympic programme. In October 2009 the IOC voted to instate golf and rugby union as Olympic sports for the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The 114th IOC Session, in 2002, limited the Summer Games programme to a maximum of 28 sports, 301 events, and 10,500 athletes. Three years later, at the 117th IOC Session, the first major programme revision was performed, which resulted in the exclusion of baseball and softball from the official programme