LA84 Foundation Olympic Primer

VII. THE MOST RECENT OLYMPIC GAMES

Athens 2004

Athens, the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, won widespread praise for its staging of the 2004 Olympic Games. Despite pre-Games media predictions of unfinished stadiums and widespread transportation problems.

The sports venues were first rate. Thanks, in part to 45,000 Olympic volunteers, the Games ran smoothly and visitors were impressed by the transportation system.

Two hundred one (201) National Olympic Committees, two more than participated in the 2000 Sydney Games, sent athletes to Athens to compete in 301 events. Athletes from the United States, China and Russia led the medal winners.

Women’s wrestling made its Olympic debut in Athens with competition in four weight classes. Japanese women won medals in each weight division, including two gold medals.

Among the highlights of the Athens Games was Michael Phelp’s record-setting performance in swimming. Phelps, an American, became the first person to win eight medals in a single Games. Six of them were gold. Meanwhile canoeist Birgit Fischer, of Germany, won the 12th medal of her long Olympic career that began in 1980.

More than 20 athletes, including several who were stripped of their medals, tested positive for banned substances. In one of the most-publicized stories at Athens, Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, medal winners in 2000 at Sydney, withdrew from the 2004 Games after failing to appear for their drug tests.

In design and ceremonies, the 2004 Games paid homage to Greece’s cultural heritage and its status as the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. The organizers even staged the shot put events at Olympia, the site of the ancient Games.

The International Olympic Committee announced that the worldwide television viewing audience for the Athens Games totaled nearly 4 billion people. Equally significant was the continued emergence of the Internet as an Olympic viewing medium as major broadcasters made live coverage available on their websites.

VIII. THE MOST RECENT OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES

Torino 2006

The 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games marked the second time that the Winter Games had been staged in Italy, the first time being in 1956 in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The 2006 Winter Games attracted a record number of competitors and national delegations, with more than 2,500 athletes from 80 countries.

Athletes from Germany won the greatest number of medals, 29, including 11 gold, 12 silver and 6 bronze medals. The United States had the second highest total with 25 medals, followed by Austria with 23. Athletes from the host country, Italy, won 11 medals, including gold medals in two team events: the 4 x 10-kilometer men’s cross country skiing relay and the men’s team pursuit in speed skating.

The Torino Winter Games featured several milestones and superlative performances. Claudia Peschstein, of Germany, became the first speed skater to win nine medals during her Olympic career. Another speed skater, Cindy Klassen, of Canada, captured five medals at Torino. Korean short track skater Ahn Hyun-Soo won four medals in the men’s events, including three golds.

The 2006 Winter Games introduced new Olympic events in cross country skiing, biathlon, speed skating and snowboarding. A particularly noteworthy addition to the Olympic program was snowboard cross, with separate events for women and men, in which four snowboarders in each heat raced each other through a series of jumps and turns.

Organizers sold nearly 900,000 tickets to the Games. The ice sports, with the exception of curling, took place in Torino, while the events on snow were in the surrounding mountains. The nightly medals ceremony in Torino’s “Medals Plaza” was a focal point of night life in the city. The city of Torino declared two “White Nights,” during Games in which shops, restaurants and bars stayed open all night, attracting tens of thousands of people to the central city.

IX. PAST OLYMPIC GAMES IN THE UNITED STATES

United States cities have hosted Olympic winter or summer Games on eight occasions. In 1904, St. Louis, Missouri became the first American city to stage the Olympic Games. Los Angeles, California and Lake Placid, New York each have welcomed the Games on two occasions. Los Angeles held the Summer Games in 1932 and 1984. Lake Placid was the site of the Olympic Winter Games in 1932 and 1980. Squaw Valley, California hosted the 1960 Winter Games. Atlanta, Georgia organized the 1996 Olympic Games. The United States welcomed its eighth Games in 2002 when the XIX Olympic Winter Games took place in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Lake Placid 1932

Go to next section: Section X - Tomorrow's Olympic Games

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