[5] The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles.

The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history.

On September 17, 2004, Sauvage carried the Australian flag into the opening ceremony stadium, "Spyridon Louis", at what was her 4th Paralympic games.

Australian gold medalist, Katrina Webb, who were critical of the Paralympic Organizers who removed the party element of the closing ceremony and thus leaving only the athletes' entry, the Paralympic President Phil Craven's speech and the handover of the flag to Beijing, said "Things like this happen, you can't stop everything.

Research has also been conducted on communist countries as it has been proposed that these nations utilise their success in top-level sports to exhibit the benefits of their political system.

The clothing was manufactured by Nike and contained threads of vectran fibre which was found to "reduce drag by 7% when compared with the 2004 outfits".

[26] Thus, it can be argued that some technological advancements that were utilised in the 2004 Paralympic games provided an unfair advantage amongst other participants including Australian parathletes.

[28] One notable athlete is Siobhan Paton, a Paralympic swimmer with an intellectual disability, who won the most gold medals than any other Australian in the 2000 games, coming away with 6 in total.

[29] The 2004 Olympics and Paralympics was the largest event Athens had ever hosted and thus, it was paramount that the games ran safely and timely.

[24] The Olympic Planning Unit (OPU) played a crucial part in the planning of these games as they decided what was lacking and therefor needed of local public health agencies, identified possible health risks that could be exposed to the public and worked collaboratively with other government agencies.

The Greek government accounted for the possibility of new diseases that were previously not endemic to the city of Athens being imported due to the increase in tourists and travellers.

With 7,000 people expected to attend these Paralympic games, it was recognised that delivery of food was of large concern and importance.

Overall, 250 chefs and 250 assistants were employed to ensure the smooth preparation of around 50,000 expected daily meals to fed the village residents.

[24] Continuing on, multiple catering companies and outdoor vendors were hired to offer meals around the various Paralympic venues.

[24] More specifically, influenza was of main concern as a considerable portion of athletes and visitors were arriving from the southern hemisphere, including Australians, where it is highly prevalent.

[24] However, upon post-event analysis of the games, it was proposed that the relatively low number of visitors may partly be due to the international political position.

This scandal lead to the implementation of a more thorough and objective criteria that Paralympic athletes must meet prior to their participation in the games.

[29] In the 2000 Summer Sydney Paralympic games, Siobhan Paton acquired a total of 6 gold medals and set 9 world records whilst doing so.

[31] Unfortunately, this IPC decision caused Paton to fall into depression as she felt she didn't not meet the disability requirements anymore.

It wasn't until after the 2008 Paralympic games, that a specific and rigorous criterion had been created, and thus the ban had been lifted for intellectually disabled athletes'.

[35] Coaches - Scott Goodman (Head), Paul Angel, Richard Bednall, Andrew Dawes, Iryna Dvoskina, John Eden, Brett Jones, Gary Lees, Alison O'Riordan Officials - Andrew Faichney (Manager), Louise Mogg, Paul Rohwer, Greg Jones, Jodie Carey Australia were top of the medal table in cycling.

[3][36] Coaches - Miroslav Sipek(Head), Hans Heiderman Officials - Michelle Fletcher (Manager), Craig Jarvis, Elizabeth Ziebarth Coaches - Brendan Keogh (Head), John Beckworth, Peter Bishop, Graeme Carroll, Gwen Godfrey, Paul Simms Officials - Adam Luscombe (Manager), Zoe Young, Brendan Burkett, Before the Athens 2004 wheelchair basketball competition, the men's team, popularly called The Rollers, goal was to improve their fifth place from Sydney.

The Gliders team, consisting of a total of 12 women, had seven first time Paralympians so the silver medal was a great accomplishment.

Coaches: Glenn Stephens and Terry Vinyard Officials: Robert Doidge, Kim Ellwood and Maria Spiller.

Coaches - Greg Crump (Head) Officials - Sallee Trewin (Manager) Headquarters staff - Paul Bird (Chef de Mission), Ken Brown (Assistant Chef de Mission), Nick Dean (Assistant Chef de Mission), Doug Denby (Assistant Chef de Mission), Jason Hellwig (Director of Operations), Natalie Jenkins (Sports Administration Officer), Jacqui Knife (Sports Administration Officer), Richard Mathews (Attache), Stephen Mathews (Manager Security), Tony Naar (Manager Sport), Graeme Watts Sports Medicine and Sports Science - Syd Bourke (Director Medical), John Camens, Lily Chiu, Liz Cloughessy (Medical Coordinator), Kieran Cusack, Maria Di Michele, Mick Jordan, David Lee, Murray Lydeamore (Welfare Coordinator), Mark MacDonald, Ingrid McKay, Claire Nichols, David Spurrier, Greg Ungerer, Luke Vladich Media - Graham Cassidy, Katie Hodge, Margaret McDonald, David Lutteral[3][36]