26. Olympic Summer Games
Olympic Medals in the games of 1996 in Atlanta
842 Medals in 31 Sports in 271 Events
Atlanta is home to Coca Cola, CNN, UPS and many other major US companies. Athens had expected to host the anniversary games 100 years after the first Olympic Games. That was also logical. Nevertheless, Atlanta was preferred in the 5th round election. The Greeks were offended, which only resolved when the 2004 Games were awarded to Athens. Critical voices were heard to suggest that the IOC had been bought by Coca Cola, one of the main sponsors of the games. Commerce had defeated tradition. As a result, the United States hosted the Olympic Games for the sixth time from July 19 to August 4, more often than any other country in the world. Moving was the inflammation of the Olympic fire by Muhammad Ali, who clearly suffered from Parkinson's and who won the light heavyweight gold medal in Rome in 1960 when Cassius Clay was boxing. The 97-year-old Slovenian gymnast Leon Štukelj was also invited to the opening ceremony. He was the oldest surviving Olympic champion in 100-year Olympic history. He was even supposed to live for almost 101 years and kept up with gymnastic exercises until a few days before his death.
On July 27, Eric Rudolph, an Army of God activist, carried out a bomb attack in Centennial Park, which was part of the visitor area. He remotely detonated 18 kilograms in three pipe bombs filled with nails and dynamite. Two people died and one hundred eleven were injured. An hour before the explosion, 50,000 people listened to a rock concert in Centennial Park. It was the second attempt in Munich after 1972, again the games were not stopped.
Beach volleyball, women's football and softball, the baseball version for women, were new to the sporting program. Many sports got additional competitions, so there was a new record with 271 decisions. Four years in Sydney would be 300.
Sporting highlights were the world record of Michael Johnson over 200m, Marie-José Perec ran a new Olympic record over 400m, making it the third fastest time in the history of women's athletics over this route, Carl Lewis won his ninth gold medal, his fourth in a long jump in a row . This winning streak of an individual athlete was only available until 1996 through his fellow countryman Al Oerter, who threw the discus from 1956 to 1968 and the Danish sailor Paul Elvstrøm from 1948 to 1960. The Russian swimmer Alexandr Popov fought a duel with the American Gary Hall Jr., finally both won two gold and two silver medals. Amy van Dyken was the most successful athlete in Atlanta with four gold swimming medals.
For the first time since the home games in Los Angeles in 1984, the USA won again in the medal table, confidently ahead of Russia and Germany.