| Main: | yes |
| Paralympics: | yes |
| Logo-Size: | 175px |
| Winner: | Atlanta |
| Votes1: | 51 |
| Runner-Up: | Athens |
| Votes2: | 35 |
| Shortlisted1: | Toronto |
| Shortlisted2: | Melbourne |
| Shortlisted3: | Manchester |
| Shortlisted4: | Belgrade |
| Decision: | September 18, 1990 |
Six cities submitted bids to host the 1996 Summer Olympics (formally known as Games of the XXVI Olympiad), which were awarded to Atlanta, on September 18, 1990. The other candidate cities were Athens (Greece), Toronto (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), Manchester (United Kingdom) and Belgrade (Yugoslavia).
| 1996 Host City Election — ballot results | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country (NOC) | bgcolor=silver | Round 1 | bgcolor=silver | Round 2 | bgcolor=silver | Round 3 | bgcolor=silver | Round 4 | bgcolor=silver | Round 5 |
| 19 | 20 | 26 | 34 | 51 | |||||||
| 23 | 23 | 26 | 30 | 35 | |||||||
| 14 | 17 | 18 | 22 | — | |||||||
| 12 | 21 | 16 | — | — | |||||||
| 11 | 5 | — | — | — | |||||||
| [1] | 7 | — | — | — | — |
Athens entered as the "sentimental favorite" for these games,[2] [3] because Greece, the home of the ancient and first modern Olympics, was considered by many observers the "natural choice" for the Centennial Games.[4]
Athens bid chairman Spyros Metaxas demanded that it be named as the site of the Olympics because of its "historical right due to its history," which may have caused resentment among delegates.[4]
The Athens bid was described as "arrogant and poorly prepared", being regarded as "not being up to the task of coping with the modern and risk-prone extravaganza" of the current Games. Athens faced numerous obstacles, including "political instability, potential security problems, air pollution, traffic congestion and the fact that it would have to spend about $3 billion to improve its infrastructure of airports, roads, rail lines and other amenities."[4] [5]
Atlanta was selected by the USOC over bids from Nashville, San Francisco and runner-up Minneapolis to be the U.S. representative in international bidding.[6] [7] The city entered the competition as a dark horse, being up against stiff competition against Athens.[8] [3]
The US media also criticized it as a second-tier city and complained of Georgia's Confederate history. However, the IOC Evaluation Commission ranked Atlanta's infrastructure and facilities the highest, while IOC members said that it could guarantee large television revenues similar to the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[4] Additionally, former US ambassador to the UN and Atlanta mayor Andrew Jackson Young touted Atlanta's civil rights history and reputation for racial harmony. Young also wanted to showcase a reformed and modernized American South.
The strong economy of Atlanta and improved race relations in the South helped to impress the IOC officials.[9] The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) also proposed a substantial revenue-sharing with the IOC, USOC, and other NOCs.[9]
Allegations were quick to emerge in the Greek and Australian media that Atlanta had won the Games due to a conspiracy organized by global beverage company Coca-Cola, a longtime sponsor of the Olympic Games headquartered in Atlanta. Coca-Cola executives, however, had feared that a successful Atlanta bid would hurt their business. While they produced commemorative pins of the six candidate cities, with the intent of handing out the winning city's pins to IOC delegates, this backfired as others alleged that Coca-Cola had predicted which city had won; indeed sales of the beverage in Greece dropped for the next few years.[8]
A year later, an article appeared in the German periodical Der Spiegel accusing the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) of bribing IOC members with up to $120,000 in cash, gold credit cards and college scholarships for their children. In one case, allegations that Atlanta had promised free heart surgery to IOC members coincided with reports that an IOC official had suffered a heart attack while visiting the city, with the medical expenses covered by ACOG as a "professional courtesy". In his defense, ACOG Chairman Billy Payne said, "Atlanta's bidding effort included excessive actions, even thought processes, that today seem inappropriate but, at the time, reflected the prevailing practices in the selection process and an extremely competitive environment." Indeed, these practices were widespread among cities wishing to host an Olympics, right up until the IOC scandal broke in 1998. The competing cities spent a total of over $100 million campaigning for the right to host the Summer Games, of which Atlanta spent $7.3 million.[9]
However, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki disagreed, saying that Atlanta won the Games because "desire and heritage alone would not guarantee...election to host the Games. We realized...we should improve our city...our environment...our infrastructure."
Athens was angry at their defeat to Atlanta. People had gathered throughout the city hoping for a 21-gun salute to kick off the celebrations and upon hearing the announcement, reacted with shock, anger, and dismay.[12] Greek officials, including President Constantine Caramanlis, called the selection of Atlanta one of "rage and disgust"[12] and that the IOC "ignored the history of the Olympic Games"[13] and committed "flagrant disregard of Olympic history."[14] An Athenian daily newspaper declared the "Olympic flame will not be lit with oil, but with Coca-Cola," while the Athens bid chair, Spyros Metaxas, said that the city would never again bid for the Games.[15] [16]
Newsday slammed the IOC, saying that it did not provide the "poetic justice" in awarding Atlanta the games.[17] Many felt that Athens should have had the right to host the games to mark the centennial anniversary of the modern Olympics.[18]
See also: 2004 Summer Olympics and Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics. After NBC got rights to broadcast the 2004 Summer Olympics in December 1995, the value of U.S. television fees (and payments to the IOC) led to Athens putting in a bid for the games.[19] [20] This time, the bid was led by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki.[21]
Unlike the bid by Metaxas, the one Daskalaki led was focused on appeal to human values, and on the future.[22] It was low scale, humility, honest, and earnest and had its focused message and was a more real and detailed bid concept. Her bid also detailed the success that Athens had in hosting other events including the 1991 Mediterranean Games, the 1994 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, 1994 World Fencing Championships and the successful 1997 World Championships in Athletics, one month before the Olympic host city election was crucial in allaying lingering fears and concerns among the sporting community and some IOC members about the Greek ability to host international sporting events. She also convinced the IOC to restore some of the original values of the Olympics to the Modern Games, which they felt was lost in 1996.[23]
The bid process culminated on September 5, 1997 with Athens being awarded the games, which Daskalaki called "a new bid for a new city," although the favorite for the games was Rome.[5] [24] She criticized Atlanta's transport problems to end the "guilt factor" about losing the Centennial games.[25] By coincidence, the country that Athens followed as an Olympics host was the United States. Athens put in their bid for 2004 six months after Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics.
. Olympic turnaround: how the Olympic Games stepped back from the brink of Extinction to Become the Best Known Brand. 0-275-99030-3. Westport, Ct.. Praeger Publishers. 2006. Michael Payne (executive).