Segments of the Opening Ceremony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Summer_Olympics_opening_ceremony

Dare To Dream John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John walked among the Olympic competitors and sang the song "Dare to Dream", which was written especially for the occasion.

Opening Addresses The President of the 2000 Olympic Organising Committee (SOCOG), Michael Knight, and the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch made the opening addresses. The event was officially opened by Governor General Sir William Deane, the Australian representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of . This was the first occasion that a Summer Olympics held in a Commonwealth realm was not opened by the monarch or a member of the Royal Family, and the first Summer Olympics since in 1956 not to be opened by the head of state.

The Olympic Flag The Olympic Flag was carried around the arena by eight former Australian Olympic champions: Bill Roycroft, Murray Rose, Liane Tooth, , Marjorie Jackson, Lorraine Crapp, Michael Wenden and Nick Green. During the raising of the Olympic Flag, the Olympic Hymn was sung in Greek by the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.

Cauldron The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the . Tina Arena and the Sydney Children's Choir performed The Flame before former Australian Olympic champion Herb Elliott brought the Olympic Flame into the stadium. Then, celebrating 100 years of women's participation in the , former Australian women Olympic champions: and , , (later Shirley Strickland de la Hunty), Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to . Freeman then climbed a long set of stairs towards a circular pond. She walked into the middle of the water and ignited the cauldron around her feet in a circle of fire. The planned spectacular climax to the ceremony was delayed by the technical glitch of a computer switch that malfunctioned, causing the sequence to shut down by giving a false reading. This meant that the Olympic flame was suspended in mid-air for about four minutes, rather than immediately rising up a water-covered ramp to the top of the stadium. When the cause of the problem was discovered, the program was overridden and the cauldron continued its course, and the ceremony concluded with a spectacular fireworks display.