History

There had been hopes that Athens would host the 1996 Olympics, marking the centennial of the modern Games. But Atlanta was selected for 1996 and Sydney for the 2000 Olympics.

Athens finally got its chance in 2004, eight years late for the centennial celebration. It seemed for a time that Athens would be even later than that. In 2000, the International Olympic Committee seriously considered moving the 2004 games to another country, possibly South Korea, because Athens' preparations were so far behind schedule.

Athens remained the host, though, and everything was ready in time. Well, almost everything. There was no roof on the natatorium, so swimmers struggled with hot sun and high temperatures during afternoon preliminaries. Medal races were fortunately held at night, when the air and water were cooler.

There was praise for the architecture of new and refurbished Olympic venues, for the fountains and reflecting pools that ornamented the areas, for the shimmering Wall of Nations created by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the new stadium and the Olympic Sport Center.

Besides building the obligatory new structures, Athens could serve up tradition as no other host city ever could. The men's and women's shot put competition took place in the stadium of Ancient Olympia.

The Panathinaiko Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, was modified to host archery competition and the finish of the marathon. The Karaiskaki Stadium, which had been the velodrome in 1896, was totally renovated to host men's and women's soccer. And the marathon followed the historic route from Marathon to Athens, first run by a military courier named Phidippides in 490 B.C., according to legend.

After Athens was ready, the next perceived problem was terrorism. Despite constant reassurances about all the security measures in place, ticket sales were slow. When the Games officially opened on Aug. 13, fewer than half of the 5.2 million available seats had been sold and, for the first several days, there were thousands of empty seats at the major events.

Then, suddenly, the spectators began to show up. The 70,000-seat stadium was virtually sold out for every night of the track and field competition, and other venues were nearly filled during the final week or so of the Olympics.

At the closing ceremony on Aug. 29, IOC President Jacques Rogge proclaimed to the Greek people, "You have won. You have won by brilliantly meeting the tough challenge of holding the games. These were unforgettable, dream games."

In truth, there were some problems, but for the most part they couldn't be blamed on the Athens organizing committee. The biggest controvery arose in gymnastics, where three judges were suspended for a scoring error that gave American Paul Hamm the all-around gold medal that should have gone to Yang Tae-young of South Korea. The International Gymnastics Federation said it couldn't change the result because there was no timely protest. South Korea has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitation for Sport (CAS).

The CAS had intervened earlier in a controversy over the three-day equstrian event. Judges originally ruled that Bettina Hoy of Germany had made an illegal start, but then changed their decision and awarded Hoy the gold medal. Her score also gave Germany the gold medal in the team event. However, the CAS ruled that the original decision was correct. As a result, Hoy and Germany both dropped into fourth place. Leslie Law of Great Britain was declared the individual winner and France became the winner of the team event.

The only security breach was a bizarre incident that marred the men's marathon, the final competition before the closing ceremony. A defrocked Irish priest with a history of such disturbances burst from the crowd and grabbed Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, who was leading the race with about three miles to go. De Lima managed to break free, but he kept looking warily over his shoulder for the rest of the race. He finished third and a protest from Brazil's track federation, asking that he be given a share of the gold medal, was rejected. That case, too, may be going to the CAS.

The individual star of the Olympics was unquestionably U. S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals and two bronze. The 19-year-old Phelps can become the all-time leading medal winner in Olympic history by winning four more in 2008.

Another U. S. swimmer, Natalie Coughlin, was the leading medal winner among women athletes. She won five, including two golds. Kayaker Birgit Fischer of Germany quietly moved up the all-time list of medal winners. She won a gold and silver, giving her 12 medals overall, including eight golds. Fischer won her first gold medal in 1980, when she was 18, making her the youngest women ever to win an Olympic kayaking event. With her victory as a member of the four-woman kayaking team, she became the first woman to win Olympic medals 24 years apart.

Track and field didn't really produce a major star, as it often had in the past. Kelly Holmes of Great Britain won the women's 800- and 1500-meter runs and Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco also won two individual golds, in the men's 1500- and 5000-meter. Marion Jones of the U. S., who had had won five medals at Sydney, qualified for only one individual event, the long jump, where she finished fifth. She also ran a leg of the 4 by 100-meter relay, but a botched baton pass disqualified the American team. Jones was under investigation for possible steroid use and some runners felt she shouldn't have been on the relay team at all, because the entire team could be disqualified if she were suspended later. That, of course, turned out to be moot.

The U. S. Olympic Committee had set a goal of 100 medals and the team exceeded that by three. One of those 103 medals was a bronze for the men's basketball team. The fourth edition of the "Dream Team" was a hastily-assembled melange of players who showed little chemistry or cohesion in losing three games.

Unfortunately, that performance drew much more media attention than the U. S. women's gold medal in basketball. And the U. S. women's soccer team also won gold in an overtime match against Brazil, while the men's team didn't even qualify for the Olympic tournament.

China, which will host the 2008 Olympics, was third to the U. S. and Russia in total medal standings, but was a close second in gold medals, with 32 to 35 for the United States.

Top of page