Athletics at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games:

Astrid Kumbernuss (GER) had won the last three World Championships and was the defending champion, but was not as dominant as she had been in 1996. The 1992 Olympic champion, Svetlana Krivelyova, was also back and was expected to challenge. But the surprise of the competition was Belarussian Yanina Karolchik who led the qualifying and then held on to win the gold medal. Karolchik had no podium finishes at major championships. She led in round one of the final with 19.43 (63-9), but Russian Larisa Peleshenko took the lead with 19.92 (65-4¼) in the second round. That led until the final round when Karolchik threw her personal best of 20.56 (67-5½) to win.