YEAR IN REVIEW 2001: SPECIAL-REPORT

Design for the Third Millennium At the turn of the millennium, new product design-both functional and visually striking-was being showcased in homes around the world, defined the look of cars, and offered innovative styles for the products used for office or household work. Design not only reflected the current culture but also harkened back to the past as well as showing the promise of times to come-a future embodied in metallic, luminescent, and translucent objects that were also fluid, organic, humanistic, and often whimsical. The product that best exemplified this vision was the Apple iMac personal computer, which, less than two years after its introduction, paved the way for a flood of other home and office products similarly encased in tinted translucent plastic. The iMac's softer, rounder form was also incorporated into the design of such unglamorous everyday objects as the Umbra Garbino wastebasket, Michael Graves's toilet brush for Target, and OXO's Good Grips kitchen tools. Sleek car designs beckoned to the future, while others embraced the past, notably the new Volkswagen Beetle, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, and the Ford Thunderbird. The office landscape was changing too as the regulation cubicle and padded chair were being banished by Herman Miller's Resolve office system and Aeron chair and Studio eg's ecowork system. The cutting-edge design of the latter two included the use of recycled materials. The introduction of new handheld technology also had an effect on design. Products such as the Motorola Talkabout, Nokia's brightly coloured cellular phones, and the Palm VII personal digital assistant were developed with the use of existing design trends, but they represented an early glimpse of the wireless revolution that could eventually connect the workplace to the home as well as owners to their possessions and ultimately people to one another. The biggest impact on product design and daily life, however, probably would come from the continued miniaturization of new technology. Patrick Coyne is editor and designer of Communication Arts magazine. Games of the XXVII Olympiad From Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, 2000, Sydney, Australia, played host to the world as the site of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad. Despite initial concerns about protests by native Aboriginal Australians-and amid the financial scandals that plagued the International Olympic Committee and several other host cities-Sydney's festivities were pronounced "the best Olympic Games ever" by IOC Pres. Juan Antnio Samaranch. Nearly 11,000 accredited athletes, representing 199 IOC member-states, participated; in addition, three athletes from the UN dependency of East Timor competed as individuals. At the spectacular opening ceremony, during which Aboriginal Australian runner Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame, North and South Koreans marched together under one flag for the first time (they later competed for their separate countries). A record 928 Olympic medals were awarded in 300 events (168 for men, 120 for women, and 12 mixed), with 80 countries gaining at least one medal. U.S. athletes won the most medals, 97, followed by competitors from Russia (88), China (59), Australia (58), and Germany (57). A total of 48 world records were broken or equaled, 15 of them in swimming and 27 in weight lifting. Several events were contested at the Olympics for the first time in 2000, including men's and women's taekwondo, trampoline, triathlon, and synchronized diving. Other new women's events included weight lifting, modern pentathlon, and pole vaulting. As in past Olympics, drugs cast a shadow over Sydney. At least 40 members of China's national team withdrew or were dropped before the Games. An athlete and an Olympic official were denied entry to the Games when they were caught with banned substances in their possession. In two of the biggest drug-related stories, freestyle wrestler Alexander Leipold of Germany tested positive for steroids and was stripped of his gold medal, and Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan lost her all-around gold after it was discovered that she had taken a nonprescription cold medicine that contained a banned ingredient. Despite falling short of her declared aim to win five gold medals, American sprinter Marion Jones (see Biographies) captured three gold and two bronze. In the pool American Jenny Thompson won 4 medals to bring her career total to 10 (8 gold), a record for any woman swimmer and for an American woman in any Olympic sport, while Australian favourite Ian Thorpe gained 3 gold and 2 silver medals. Two Dutch swimmers unexpectedly triumphed-Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn. ( See Biographies.) Other prominent athletes included diminutive Turkish weight lifter Halil Mutlu (see Biographies); British rower Steven Redgrave, who won his fifth consecutive gold; and Cuban heavyweight boxer Felix Savon (see Biographies), who captured his third straight. In perhaps the biggest upset of the Games, American Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner defeated Aleksandr Karelin; the almost legendary Russian had not lost a bout since 1987. Melinda C. Shepherd is associate editor of Encyclopdia Britannica Yearbooks.