By choosing this model, however, the Atlanta Olympic Bid Committee, caused the Paralympic Games to be "forgotten", as seen from the loss of funding and low market potential, closing the door to any kind of damage to the image of the AOCOG.

The Shepherd Center's effort worked despite pressure from the USOC and its sponsors, who thought the Paralympics were taking advantage of the Olympics, and also forced a boycott from them: to that end, major local companies had threatened to withdraw funding to the event.

Confusion also reached in terms of financial support, even in the sale of corporate sponsorship quotas, while the Games suffered a boycott and numerous lawsuits filed by both the USOC and by the Olympic sponsors who alleged misuse of trademarks.

The financial difficulties encountered by Atlanta had repercussions since the beginning of Sydney's plans: the APC was small, but had money to survive from its members and the Australian Government, though this would not be able to raise sufficient resources to promote the bid during 1992 and 1993.

Immediately, the bid consultants advised the SOBC to reconsider its decision, and reluctantly they accepted this: it was claimed that the "rejection of the Paralympic Games could be considered a crucial weakness for Sydney" and that "important votes for the end could be lost".

As a sign of courtesy, approach and recognition, the SOBC paid the expenses for the trip to Norway and integrated the delegation and its executive manager, though the SBPC was responsible for printing all its promotional material, the necessary documentation and the application book (which were scarce compared to that of other cities).

[13] During the Lillehammer presentation, it was announced that the first estimated budget for the Paralympic Games was expected to be more than AU$84 million and this would be financed by the sale of sponsorship quotas, tickets, licensed products, marketing actions, and contributions from the Governments of New South Wales and Australia.

"[19] Between these actions, Smith, Finneran, and members of SOBC also ensured in a letter to the IOC, IPC and Australian and New South Wales authorities that if Sydney won both bids, the Paralympic athletes would have the same treatment, conditions and support as their Olympic counterparts as happened in Barcelona, but in a better and innovative way.

[19] A few days after taking office, on 19 April 1993, Finneran wrote a new letter to the Minister explaining that either the APF or the Australian disability sports community were unable to accept responsibility for the financial contributions or otherwise for organizing the Games, even if they are submitting a bid.

However, during 1994, the authorities realized that both had several characteristics in common and motivated by incidents prior to the organization of the Atlanta Games, it was decided in the second half of that year to merge both organizations.in a movement mediated by the Australian government.

This specific legislative act forced the dissolution of the SOCOG and SPOC from 1 January 2001, and their assets and liabilities were transferred to the Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA) who was the from that moment on, she became responsible for managing the legacy of both events.

A big novelty was the development of a marketing campaign in which the issue of disability was abandoned and there was a focus on the trajectory of each athlete.and this ended up resulting in something unprecedented, as around more than 1 million people were present in the Olympic Park during the Games, namely some 340,000 basic education students.

It was observed that the effort regarding education programs also involved councilors, mayors, members of the state and federal parliaments and also the respective residents locals who also helped SPOC raise funds for the Games.

[45] Some of Australia's best and largest quilt makers have embarked on a project involving potentially more than 40,000 people who have created specific designs to be sold at auctions or other events to raise funds for the Paralympics.In total around 650 quilts were made and displayed in all major Australian cities with around 50 being sold in the pre-sale process raising around AUD$50,000.The mayor of the Paralympic Village, former prime minister Tim Fischer, announced that 60 of them were chosen to be displayed in the offices and international zone areas of the village during the Olympic and Paralympic Games within a decision that made sense, as these were the two busiest areas during both events.

[49] NSW real estate agents were encouraged by REI to consolidate their annual fundraising initiatives and this led to some groups to sending part of these funds to the management of the Paralympic Games.

[56][57] Fernando Vicente Martin, former head of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports, allowed neurotypical athletes to compete at the Games in order to win the biggest possible number of gold medals.

[54] The situations experienced in Atlanta and Nagano regarding the visual identities of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in which they clashed and led to numerous problems and lawsuits and a lack of identification and differentiation by athletes, local communities and spectators.

The 2-hours and half ceremonies ended when Kylie Minogue take the stage with a special acapella version of "Waltzing Matilda", her rendition of Kool & the Gang's "Celebration" and her current hit "Spinning Around".World-know Australian actor Bryan Brown acted as the narrator for the event.

[71] Although the IOC's intervention at ATHOC was unprecedented, the lethargy of the Greek organizers in signing the documentation relating to the guarantees for the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games, irritated and embarrassed the International Paralympic Committee, to the point that during its first press conference held in Sydney, the then president of the IPC, Canadian Robert Steadward, made days before the opening ceremony made public that negotiations with Athens "had not progressed as expected in 1997" and "that until that moment the host city contract for the next summer edition had not been signed".

Since the resumption of holding the Olympics and Paralympics in the same host city in 1988, this type of situation had not happened and as the uncertainties were real there was a risk that any reference to Athens or Greece would be removed from the closing ceremonies official protocol.

This also probably involved a performance of the Greek anthem, the mention of Athens in the closing declaration and even the cancellation of the Paralympic flag handover with the expected cultural demonstration in the so-called Antwerp ceremony.

This slowness in the process and also some embarrassing situations due to the ill will of the then Greek Organizing Committee encouraged other cities around the world that wanted to host the Paralympic Games in Athens' place.

Rumors suggested that the Games in could stay in Sydney, due to the resounding success of this edition or that Stockholm, Cape Town (which lost the right to host the 2004 Summer Olympics to Athens), in addition to Barcelona and a joint project London and Manchester could already be in secret negotiations.

But, even before the conclusion, the Athens city council, as a sign of goodwill in negotiating these "controversial" terms, decided to send a last-minute small informal delegation to Sydney to participate in the closing ceremony and receive the Paralympic flag.

Sometime later it was discovered that these 3 million dollars were related to the cost of registration fees for Paralympic athletes and that they were only guaranteed after the IOC injected part of this money through the first mutual collaboration agreement signed during the Sydney Games.

The band was originally meant to be the last act of the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics, but due to an accident some days before the event resulting in a broken hip, they moved their performance to the Paralympics and the lead singer Judith Durham sang the song sitting in a wheelchair.

In this ritual, three generations of the community, who are the original inhabitants of the Australian Capital Territory area, were involved today in creating the flame to fuel the MAA Sydney 2000 Paralympic Torch Relay as it travels around Australia.

At the same time as investing in the promotion and organization of the event, MAA was responsible for carrying out a campaign and an awareness program focused on 13 to 25 year students about safe traffic and the catastrophic consequences of not respecting its rules.

The comeback journey in New South Wales had legs at the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, Campbelltown, Penrith, Windsor, Hunter and Central Coast areas, before heading to Sydney on 16 October 2000 when the torch visited the city mainland marks.

Barbados, Benin, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Palestine, Rwanda, Samoa, Turkmenistan, Vanuatu and Vietnam competed for the first time.