Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games

Olympic Torch Atlanta 1996.

The Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and informally as the Centennial Olympic Games (in Spanish: Centennial Olympic Games), were held in Atlanta, United States, between July 19 and August 4, 1996. 10,318 athletes (6,806 men and women) participated. 3,512 women) from 197 countries, competing in 26 sports and 271 specialties.

The United States has organized, in addition to this edition, the Summer Olympic Games in 1904, 1932 and 1984. Those games were held 100 years after the first in the modern era, Athens 1896. Atlanta became the third city American to host the Summer Olympics.

The official theme song was Puedes Llegar, a Spanish version of the single "Reach" by Gloria Estefan, performed by herself and accompanied by singers like Roberto Carlos, José Luis Rodríguez, Julio Iglesias, Jon Secada, Ricky Martin, Carlos Vives, Patricia Sosa, Plácido Domingo and Alejandro Fernández.

Selection process

Atlanta was selected as the Olympic venue on September 18, 1990 in the Japanese city of Tokyo.

In 1996 the 100th anniversary of the first Olympic Games of the Modern Era was fulfilled and Athens presented its candidacy to host this Olympics, most of the opinions and preferences leaned towards the Athenian candidacy since it would have been the ideal setting to celebrate said centenary in an environment of humanity and mythology that offered the city as the cradle and world capital of Olympism, whose historical places were also the settings in which the world saw them reborn for contemporary times in 1896. However, the distrust due to lateness in terms of the construction of sports facilities and infrastructures as well as the continental rotation system (since Barcelona, Spain, had already been chosen to host the 1992 Games), led the International Olympic Committee to decide on the American city in the last rounds of voting, opting for the security in all its senses that Atlanta's candidacy had, even so the decision was not without controversy and severe criticism days after the vote. Athens resubmitted its candidacy and hosted the Olympic Games again for the second time in 2004.

XXVI 1996 Olympic Games
96th Session of the International Olympic Committee 18 September 1990, Tokyo, Japan
City	Country		Voting
Atlanta		United States	19	20	26	34	51
Athens		Greece	23	23	26	30	35
Toronto		Canada	14	17	18	22	-
Melbourne		Australia	12	21	16	-	-
Manchester		United Kingdom	11	5	-	-	-
Belgrade		Yugoslavia	7	-	-	-	-

Olympic Torch

• Designer: Malcolm Grear
• Date: March 30 to July 19, 1996 (the tour in the United States began April 27)
• Kilometraje: 29 016 kilometres
• Number of relays: 13 267
• Route: Olympia - Athens (GreeceGreece - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - San Francisco - Seattle - Salt Lake City - Denver - Dallas - San Luis - Minneapolis - Chicago - Detroit - Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Washington - Birmingham - Miami - AtlantaUnited States of America

Participating countries

Participating countries (blue for debutants)

The number of countries increased after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The countries that participated in the Unified Team at Barcelona 1992 would now do so separately. Russia competed as a separate country for the first time since the 1912 Olympics, and it was the first time that all the countries that were members of the IOC at the time participated in the Olympics.

The 14 nations making their debut at the Olympic Games were Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Nauru, Palestine, Republic of Macedonia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

On the other hand, after their debut in the 1994 Winter Olympics, the countries of Armenia, Belarus, Slovakia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Uzbekistan joined.

These are the countries that participated in these Olympics:

Offices and facilities

In Atlanta

• Centennial Olympic Stadium - Athletics. Olympic stadium with capacity for 80,000 spectators.
• Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium - baseball.
• Alexander Memorial Coliseum - boxing.
• Georgia Dome - basketball, basketball, artistic gymnastics.
• Georgia International Horse Park - Riding, mountain biking.
• Lake Lanier - row and canoe.
• Georgia World Congress Center - fencing, judo, handball, table tennis, halterophilia, fighting.
• Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center - swimming, nailing, synchronized swimming, water polo.
• Golden Park - softball.
• Rio Ocoee - canoeing.
• Sanford Stadium - football.
• Stone Mountain Tennis Center - tennis.
• The Omni - basketball, volleyball.

In the city of Jonesboro, within the State of Georgia, the beach volleyball competition was held.

Outside Atlanta

• Citrus Bowl Stadium (Orlando, Florida) - Football.
• Legion Field (Birmingham, Alabama) - soccer.
• Miami Orange Bowl (Miami, Florida) - Football.
• Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (Washington DC, Columbia) - Football.
• Savannah River (Savannah, Georgia) - yachting.
• Stegeman Coliseum (Athens, Georgia) - rhythmic gymnastics, volleyball.

Development

The XXVI Olympic Games opened on July 19, 1996, at the Centennial Olympic Stadium before more than 80,000 people. The Olympic oath was given by the basketball player Teresa Edwards on behalf of the athletes and by Hobie Billingsley on the part of the judges, and the cauldron was lit by Muhammad Ali, the American boxer who was a gold medalist in Rome 1960.

The Games profoundly transformed the city of Atlanta, leading to a modernization of infrastructure and new sports facilities. The Olympic Village later constituted a residential area and facilities for the Georgia Institute of Technology. At the end of the Games, the Centennial Olympic Stadium was destroyed and replaced by a baseball field that occupies part of the land of the previous Olympic Stadium.

Atlanta 1996 did not use public money to finance the Games, as was done in Los Angeles 1984. However, they were the first Olympics where all the financing was done through ticket sales, advertising, sponsorships and private investments. Unlike the 1984 event where a return of $250 million was achieved, the Atlanta '96 profit was only $10 million.

At the end of the event, various criticisms were made, such as excessive commercialism, in which the city of Atlanta competed with the IOC when generating income by allowing the presence and establishment of companies that did not sponsor the Games. At the closing ceremony, Juan Antonio Samaranch congratulated the city in his speech and declared the Games "the most exceptional", without saying that they were "the best". as it did in Barcelona 1992, and 4 years later in Sydney 2000. Other criticisms made were the saturation of the Olympic Village or the lack of a transport network prepared for the occasion.

Pet

Izzy was the mascot for the Atlanta Olympics. Created in 1991 by graphic designer John Ryan, it was presented to the world at the closing of Barcelona 1992 during the presentation of Atlanta as the succesful city and under the name of "Whatizit" (Name based on the phrase "What is it?", What is this) and was a kind of blue toad, designed by computer.

The reception of the new mascot was appalling since its introduction, and faced with the refusal to change it, the Olympics organization asked its creator to redesign the character, applying a more athletic aptitude and some superfluous changes. In October 1995, the definitive version, known as "Izzy", was presented, and the mascot was finished. Izzy did not enjoy the same popularity as Cobi during his Olympic Games, being less promoted by the organization of the event alleging that the mascot was especially focused "on the children's public", with the end of the Games he was immediately forgotten.

Incidents

The Atlanta Games suffered a terrorist attack. On July 27, 1996, a bomb located in the Centennial Olympic Park exploded, causing the death of 2 people and wounding hundreds. The US government condemned the attack and criticized the lack of security in the surrounding area.

Highlights

During the celebration of the 1996 Olympic Games, 10,318 athletes (3,512 women, 6,806 men) were present, and 11 absolute records and 51 Olympic records were produced. The United States captured the medal table with 101 metals.

New sports were admitted to the Olympic event, thus producing the debut of softball, beach volleyball and mountain biking. Likewise, rowing and soccer were added as new female categories. There was also the debut of the group modality within rhythmic gymnastics. There were no exhibition sports.

Donovan Bailey, winner in the 100-metre smooth.

In the track and field category, Canada's Donovan Bailey won the 100-meter dash, setting a new record in 9.84 seconds. Michael Johnson won in the 200 and 400 meters, also setting a world record in the 200 meters. French athlete Marie-Jose Perec performed a feat similar to Johnson's in the women's category. In the walk, the expected duel between Spaniards, Mexicans and Russians ended in a big surprise when the Ecuadorian walker Jefferson Pérez would achieve gold in the 20 km walk category, becoming the first athlete from Ecuador to obtain a gold medal in the Olympic Games. In long jump the athlete Carl Lewis, with 35 years of age, achieved the fourth gold medal in his history. 2 world records and 12 Olympic records were broken.

In basketball there was complete American dominance. The 1996 men's team won gold by beating Yugoslavia. The Atlanta team tried to emulate the legendary Dream Team that won the gold medal in Barcelona in 1992, with the presence of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill, Karl Malone and John Stockton among other NBA players. In the women's category, the United States won gold in the year before the WNBA was established.

In baseball, the Cuban team won the gold medal by defeating Japan, in a significant victory as it took place on US soil. The victory in softball went to the United States.

In combat sports, the judo category was dominated by Asian countries, especially Japan and South Korea, in the medal table. In wrestling, Kurt Angle's gold stands out, while in boxing, Americans and Cubans stood out.

Professional cyclists were also allowed to participate in the Olympics, marking the debut of five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Induráin in an Olympics. The Navarrese cyclist won the gold medal, while Abraham Olano, also a Spaniard, got the silver.

Soccer featured the debut of the women's team at the Olympics. In the men's category, the gold medal went to Nigeria, who surprised everyone after beating Brazil and Argentina with a team that included Celestine Babayaro, Daniel Amokachi, Amunike and the revelation of the tournament, the young Nwankwo Kanu, among other athletes. In the women's category, gold went to the United States, with a team led by Mia Hamm.

The Girls of Gold, Spanish gymnasts Olympic ensemble champions in Atlanta, in a reunion in 2006 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the medal.

In artistic gymnastics, in the women's category, the Ukrainian Lilia Podkopayeva achieved first place in the individual overall, while in the men's category, the first place went to Li Xiaoshuang. In the team competition in the women's category, the victory went to the American team made up of Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Jaycie Phelps, Liang Dongfem and Kerri Strug. During the final, American gymnast Kerri Strug scored highly in the final vault by fracturing her ankle and performing despite her having already injured him in her first vault, clinching first place for the final. american team. In the men's category, the Russian team, which was made up of Sergei Kharkov, Nikolai Kryukov, Alexei Nemov, Yevgeni Podgorny, Dimitri Trush, Dmitri Vasilenko and Alexei Voropaev, won.

In rhythmic gymnastics, Ekaterina Serebrianskaya won the gold medal in the individual general, while in the group modality, which made its debut at the Olympic Games, the victory went to the Spanish group made up of Marta Baldó, Nuria Cabanillas, Estela Giménez, Lorena Guréndez, Tania Lamarca and Estíbaliz Martínez. Upon their arrival in Spain, the media christened them the Golden Girls.

In swimming, Ireland's Michelle Smith won three gold medals and one bronze in swimming, and Amy Van Dyken won four golds in the pool. In the men's category, Aleksandr Popov won two golds and two silvers for Russia. Other athletes who won 2 golds were the Australian Danyon Loader in freestyle, and the Russian Denís Pankrátov in butterfly. In synchronized swimming the gold went to the American team, in springboard jumping, China monopolized the medal table with the outstanding performance of Fu Mingxia in the women's, and in water polo Spain achieved the gold medal that it could not achieve in Barcelona 1992 after winning 7 -5 to Croatia.

In tennis, Andre Agassi won the gold medal against Sergi Bruguera, while Lindsay Davenport took the women's gold by beating Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. In table tennis, China achieved eight medals and gold in all categories, with the outstanding presence of Liu Guoliang and Deng Yaping.

Sports

Medal table

The United States won the Olympic medal table with 101 metals, 44 gold. Second in the medal table was Russia, which dropped the number of medals achieved significantly to 61, partly because they were competing separately for the first time in several years, and collected 61 medals with 26 golds. Germany was the second country that achieved the most medals (64), but having fewer golds (19) it was in third place in the medal table. The Spanish-speaking country that achieved the most medals was Cuba with 25 medals, followed by Spain with 17.

In these Olympics, several countries won medals for the first time. They were Costa Rica, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burundi, Ecuador, Slovakia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mozambique, Tonga, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. In the case of Hong Kong, the medal was gold and achieved when the island was still a British colony.

Organizing country (United States)

No.	Country				Total
1	United States (USA)	44	32	25	101
2	Russia (RUS)	26	21	16	63
3	Germany (GER)	20	18	27	65
4	People ' s Republic of China (CHN)	16	22	12	50
5	France (FRA)	15	7	15	37
6	Italy (ITA)	13	10	12	35
7	Australia (AUS)	9	9	23	41
8	Cuba (CUB)	9	8	8	25
9	Ukraine (UKR)	9	2	12	23
10	South Korea (KOR)	7	15	5	27