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Australia Athletics

2000  Five Dollar reverse 2000  Five Dollar obverse

2000 Five Dollar

Mintage:100,000
Reverse Designer:Philip Holliday Obverse Designer:Raphael Maklouf Size:39mm Weight:20g Edge:Reeded Composition:92% Copper
6% Aluminium
2% Nickel

Values

Sales History

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This Olympic Athletics commemorative coin was part of a set released following the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. They depict 28 forms of Olympic sports. It had a Raphael Maklouf design on the obverse showing a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II along with the legend ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2000. The reverse was designed by Philip Holliday and depicted an Olympic sprinter in action and an official Sydney 2000 Olympic logo. It contained the legend 5 DOLLARS.

The Olympics Athletics covers a wide variety of events. There were twenty-four events for the men and twenty-two for the women. The 100m men's sprint always receives great attention and this was won by Maurice Green from the USA. The Africans dominated the long distance events winning the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, the 3000 steeplechase and the marathon (Wikipedia, 2013) . Australia's greatest hope for track and field success in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was Cathy Freeman. She was also the leading figure for the Olympics and carried the torch to alight the Games during the opening ceremony (Sports Reference, 2013) . Her personal story is one of triumph over adversity. When she entered the stadium to compete the stadium erupted. She strode to her mark and took the Olympic 400m Gold medal for Australia. Nobody doubted the outcome, it was almost inevitable. Unfortunately this was the only Gold for Australia in the athletics, but Tatiana Grigorieva in the pole vault and Jai Taurima in the long jump, each won silver medals in their disciplines.

The original Olympic Games took place about 3,500 years ago but they didn't last. It was originally held during a religious festival honouring the Greek god Zeus. The Games were abolished in 393 A.D. by the Roman Emperor, Theodosius I, as he tried to suppress paganism.They restarted 1896 and were held in Athens, Greece. It was a great success. The International Olympic Committee had been formed two years earlier. The resurrection was an inspiration from Baron Pierre de Coubertin back in 1887. To be held every four years, as per Ancient Games, the Olympic Games became a great success. The first one to be held in Australia took place in Melbourne, 1956 (Sydney Olympic Games, 2010) . In 1993, Sydney was awarded the opportunity to host the 2000 Olympic Games. This was a chance for Australia to shine. And shine it did. The Sydney games broke so many records including ticket sales, attendances, transport, catering and most importantly, they finished fourth in the medal tables.

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