We'll, of course, start with the official
site of the Sydney 2000 Olympics which opens a window to all the
37 disciplines on show during the games. Clicking on each of the
sports you get a brief description of the sport, the rules, news
headlines, a glossary, the venues where it will be held and links
to relevant international bodies. In the athletes section you can
check out bios of competing stars. Then there is the history of
the games, a section for kids and a great guide to Sydney which
talks of Sydney by night, exploring the Olympic city and a Sydney
survival guide. You can even take a virtual tour Down Under and
if you're impressed enough, you can buy tickets for the games
online.IAAF
The clutch of events under the overall
description of 'Athletics' stretches over the longest period of
the Games and has some of the most legendary sportspersons' names
from Jesse Owens to Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson. Though the
line between the amateur and the professional has all but
vanished, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF)
still governs this highly competitive sport. This is the site to
come to if you want to know how it functions. At this site you
also get news about the sport, competition results, bios of the
athletes, IAAF World Rankings and the latest performance results.
A useful section for learning more about athletics is 'The Sport'
which talks extensively of track and field events, road running
races, cross country races and race walking events. Each of the
fields is further expanded into individual events. Thus, for
example, in track and field you have all the short and long
distance races, high jump, long jump, shotput etc. There is also
a technical section, designed for those involved in the technical
organisation of track and field competitionsFIFA
The Olympic Games football tournament got
a great boost when professional footballers were allowed to
compete, with certain limitations. These players should be under
23 years old with the exception that three overage players are
allowed. The governing body for the game is the International
Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). This is the official
FIFA site from where you can learn about the functioning of this
body, its history, the various competitions, results of the
qualifiying rounds for the Japan/Korea 2002 World Cup and the
status of transfer of footballers. The latest rules relating to
football both for the forthcoming Olympics and the World Cup are
available here. They can be downloaded in handy Portable Document
Format (PDF) files.Gymnastics at about.com
If football and athletics fire the
adrnaline of crowds in the field, an indoor sport remarkable for
showcasing the sheer grace and suppleness of the human body is
gymnastics. About.com has a goodly collection of features
concerning gymnastics at this site. To start with, you can check
out the overview of the countries and the gymnasts participating
in the Olympic Games in the major sections of artistic, rhythmic
and trampoline. Here you can check on the bios of all the
gymnasts either alphabetically or by country. The site lists all
the gymnasts participating in the Games from their respective
countries. Gymnasts too can profit by coming here for there are
sections on active visualisation, diet, training tips and a step-by-step
'how-to' guidelines for a variety of gymnastics-related topics.
And if you want a graceful gymnast adorning your desktop, just
download a picture from the photography section. (pic of
Dominique Moceanu)FINA
The International Federation of Amateur
Swimming or FINA, to use the French acronym, is the body that
governs aquatic events worldwide. You have not created a new
world record unless you get FINA to say so. This is the site
which lists the latest world records for all events in this
discipline. Besides, you can come here for the rules and
regulations applicable to this fine sport, competition news and
results, ranking of swimmers, doping news, and Olympic news. The
site also has links to national swimming organisations and other
swimming sites, including the International Swimming Hall of Fame,
whose mission to be "the world-wide focal point of swimming
and its many disciplines. Its purpose is to have every person in
the world learn to swim and to provide an international facility
that will secure public recognition of the benefits offered by
competitive and recreational swimming, diving, water polo and
synchronized swimming." If it succeeds, the fishes are sure
going to have competition. FILA - Wrestling
Now this site is for the strong men of
the Games and their fans. The International Federation of
Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA, from the French nomenclature)
provides a database containing information about wrestlers and
international wrestling competitions. You can search for
wrestlers by name, for competition results by type of competition,
age group and style, and for competitions by year. All pages are
interlinked, so you can get from the result pages to pages about
wrestlers and from there to competition results. Besides, the
site provides sections informing you about the wrestling calendar,
the countrywise listing of official wrestling bodies, the
international rules of wrestling and the science of wrestling.
Besides there is a photo gallery and the video section where you
can download clips demonstrating actions like the reverse body
lock, backward bending with leg and shoulder throw. The links
section allows you to explore other wrestling sites too.
The folks at Satyam have carved out a
special Olympics site from their sports portal of Khel.com. A
great warm-up for the Games is the history section which takes
you right from the 776BC Olympia to the 21st century extravaganza.
This section is replete with prize tidbits like Norman Pritchard
being India's first medallist, the feats of Johnny 'Tarzan'
Weismuller who won three Gold medals in swimming, and how the
Rome Olympics were the first to have a global television audience.
A special section brings you abreast of India's performance at
the Olympics so far. The site also provides you with Olympic
Games news updated round the clock and once the Games commence
you can get a medal tally "up to the minute of who's winning."
There are details about the Indian team and what are the chances
of each athlete. Interactivity is provided by a couple of virtual
games and a provision for sending the Indian hopefuls a goodluck
message.
Shuttlecock aficionados are sure to be
drawn to the World Badminton Online site for updates on news,
events, results, latest rankings and forthcoming competitions. In
the last section you are informed about draws and seeds, prize
money, venues etc. There are interviews with some of the star
players like the exclusive one with Malaysia's lastest prodigy,
Wong Choong Hann plus others with Peter Gade Christensen (Denmark)
and Ardy Wiranata (Indonesia). The Thomas and Uber Cup Finals
match reports and results as also those for the latest Grand Prix
can also be had. The picture alongside is of Bambee - mascot of
the Thomas and Uber cup finals played last May. The site
publishes the International Badminton Federation (IBF) World
Rankings every Thursday and carries a complete list of all IBF
sanctioned events. The gallery section has a goodly collection of
pictures and bios of badminton greats. There is a provision at
the site through which you can get the latest badminton news in
your mailbox. 
After the general lack of interest in
cricket following sordid revelations concerning cricketers, one
hopes for another game to fire the passions of Indian sports
lovers. So all eyes are on the Indian team's progress in the
Olympic hockey tourney. This official site of the International
Hckey Federation (FIH, to use the French acronym) provides news
of upcoming tournaments, final rankings of completed tournaments
and calendar of events, as also a brief history of the game and
of FIH itself. Here you can get the full text of the FIH Code of
Conduct, which came into effect from 1 March, and also the 'Rules
of Hockey -- 2000. And if our team does well enough to tempt
youngsters to take it up, then they can check out the section:
How To Play Hockey: A beginner's guide. 
Want to check out the Olympic Seeding List
for Sydney 2000? Well, then this official site of the
International Table Tennis Federation is the place where you will
come. Here you will also get the latest world rankings, the full
competitors list for the Games, a calendar of events for the year
and the archived events for the last three years. The sketchiness
of the site is welcomed by a notice saying: "The ITTF
webpage is changing. Much of the information found at [here] will
be accessible at tabletennis.worldsport.com. So we link to the
Worldsport site to find more, like, a rough guide to table tennis,
telling you how the rules have changed over the years; an A to Z
glossary of TT terms from an 'Anti-loop' shot and 'Backhand drive'
to a 'Stroke counter' and 'topspin.'
Extending back to 1977, the
International Tennis Federation (ITF) database, available at this
site, covers over 20 years of records for all male and female
players who have competed in a major event during that time. This
database also provides facts and figures, like, for example, you
can find out how many times Pete Sampras has played Andre Agassi
or follow the rise of Marcelo Rios by calling up his career
record. Separate sections give Davis Cup and Federation Cup
details. The section called 'The Big Picture' explains the
structure of competitive tennis, from the prestigious four Grand
Slams - the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open
- to the many ITF junior, wheelchair and veteran events worldwide.
Live results are provided for ongoing events and for earlier ones,
you can check out the archives. And if there is a dispute at your
local tennis club, check out the rules and regulations of the
game right here. 
The International Amateur Boxing
Association (AIBA) site has really not much to offer. There are
the rules governing amateur boxing including details of the 'Paramount
Regulation,' that the Plea of Force Majeure may never be invoked.
Besides, you get info on the various commissions appointed by
AIBA, continent-wise qualifying tournaments, the calendar of
events for this year and an archive of last year's events. Boxing.com
is geared towards professional boxing. The home page here opens
with breaking news in this field. Forthcoming events are listed
in the various classes right form featherweights to super
heavyweights. There is a section called Daily Knockout which
delivers 'knockout punches' through muscular girls in skimpy
outfits. The site is part of the communicate.com network