Atlanta 1996 - AOB Broadcast Opening Sequence

Copyright (c) 1996 Atlanta Olympic Broadcasting

The Games of the XXVI Olympiad, held from 19 July to 4 August 1996, were known as the Centennial Olympic Games as 1996 marked the 100th anniversary of the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896. The celebrations of the modern Games' centenary were held in Atlanta, capital and the most-populous city of the US state of Georgia, and these Summer Games were also the first since 1924 to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympics, under a new IOC practice implemented beginning with the Lillehammer Winter Games in 1994 to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympiads in alternating, even-numbered years.

Atlanta was chosen to host the Games during the 96th IOC Session at Tokyo in 1990, being elected through a 51-35 decision in the fifth and final round of balloting. The other contending cities were Belgrade (still a part of Yugoslavia at the time of the bidding process), Manchester in the UK, Toronto in Canada, Melbourne - site of the 1956 edition, and even Athens, which seeks to land the Centennial Olympics to the Games' ancient and modern birthplace.

Around 10,320 athletes gathered to compete, and a total of 197 nations, all of the then-existing and recognized NOCs, were represented at the Atlanta Games. 24 countries made their Summer Olympic debuts, including 11 ex-republics of the former USSR participating for the first time as independent nations, and especially the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which made their first appearance at the Summer Games just years on since Czechoslovakia peacefully broke up into two sovereign states.

Featured at the Centennial Games were 271 medal events in 26 sports and 37 disciplines; these include debuting Olympic sports and disciplines such as beach volleyball, mountain biking, rhythmic gymnastics and softball, as well as new medal events like lightweight rowing, new women's events in swimming and fencing, and especially women's football.

The Games, however, were marred by domestic violence on the early hours of 27 July 1996, when a pipe bomb was detonated at Centennial Olympic Park (which had been built to serve as a public focal point for the festivities), leaving two people dead and injuring 111 others. Identified as the suspect was Eric Rudolph, who himself, years later, confessed to the bombing and a series of related terrorist attacks. He was then sentenced to life in prison.

Although being marred by the tragedy of the 1996 blast, these Games in Atlanta turned a profit, helped by record revenue from sponsorship deals and broadcast rights, and a reliance on private funding, among other factors. The event itself had a lasting impact on the city; the Centennial Olympic Park led a revitalization of Atlanta's downtown area, and being considered itself as a symbol of the city's legacy of the 1996 Games, it now serves as the hub for Atlanta's tourism district.

Beyond international recognition, the Games resulted in many modern infrastructure improvements. The mid-rise dormitories built for the Olympic Village, which became the first residential housing for Georgia State University, and are now used by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The 85,000-seater Centennial Olympic Stadium has since been converted and redeveloped twice, first as Turner Field, a baseball stadium that served as the home of the MLB's Atlanta Braves from 1997 to 2016, and then as the Center Parc Stadium, currently the home to the Georgia State Panthers football program ever since 2017.

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