Individual All-Around, Men

Aleksey Nemov had won the silver medal in this event in 1996, but a series of injuries had caused him problems since. He won the World Championships on floor exercise in both 1997 and 1999 but was unable to do well in all-around, placing 26th in 1997 and 6th in 1999. In Sydney, however, he led the qualifying round and was solid on every apparatus in the all-around final to win the gold medal. As in Atlanta, he would win six medals in Sydney, adding a gold on horizontal bar, giving him 12 Olympic medals and 4 golds. Nemov competed again in 2004 but did not make the individual all-around final.

The silver medal was won by China’s Yang Wei, which was an upset but was a precursor. He had had no major international placements individually before Sydney, but was among the top gymnasts for most of the next decade, winning the Olympic gold medal in 2008 at Beijing, and was all-around World Champion in 2006-07. Bronze medalist Oleksandr Berush of Ukraine had won the all-around at the 2000 Europeans and would win three individual medals at the 2001 World Championships. Sadly, he never got to compete at the 2004 Olympics. He was killed in Kyiv in February 2004 when his car was hit by a speeding government sedan.