General Information
- Ceremony credits include executive producer of the opening ceremony, Ric Birch. The stadium's English-language announcer for the Opening Ceremony was Australian actor John Stanton.
- The wife of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC President, was seriously ill and was not able to accompany her husband to the Olympics (she died the following day, from cancer). Therefore, Samaranch invited former Australian Olympic Champion swimmer, Dawn Fraser, to accompany him at the ceremony. Dawn Fraser explained some of the cultural references in the display section to him.
- The young girl singer, who featured throughout much of the early part of the opening ceremony, was Nikki Webster. Other musical performers taking part during the opening ceremony were Olivia Newton-John and John Farnham (who sang the duet "Dare to Dream" while walking among the athletes), Vanessa Amorosi (who sang "Heroes Live Forever" while a huge cloth was lowered down to cover the athletes - with sporting images and the image of a white dove of peace then being displayed on the cloth) and Tina Arena (who sang "The Flame").
Read more about this topic: 2000 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony
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