Nobody in the world of sports imagined another venue for the 1996 Olympic Games other than Athens. So, it was one hundred years since the return of these festivals, precisely, in Hellenic territory, which celebrated, between 776 BC to 393 AD, 291 editions in ancient times.
However, a continental rotation of the hosting of these events, and the security of the American candidacy, weighed on the vote to leave aside historical recognition. Rotation? Atlanta became the fourth city in its country to host the quadrennial multi-sports meeting. Security? On July 27, in the middle of the Games, a bomb exploded in the Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring hundreds.
But edition 26 left some guidelines. Russia, as a country, returned after 1912; softball, beach volleyball and mountain biking debuted; Soccer introduced women, and rhythmic gymnastics to ensemble competition. In addition, professional cyclists were admitted, and five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Induráin won the route. Another milestone was Nigeria’s triumph in soccer, not only because of the gold medal, but because they came after defeating the powers of Brazil and Argentina.
Four years later, from the same opening, the Australian city of Sydney left in history the first native, the athlete Cathy Freeman, to light the Olympic flame. She was the second woman to do so, after the Mexican Enriqueta Basilio, in 1968. There has not been a third, although in the 2012 Athens Games, in the only time that a group of athletes gave life to the cauldron, three young promises of athletics had that honor. In the Australian city, for the first time the two Koreas paraded together at the inauguration, under a white flag with the territory of the peninsula in blue.
The taekwondo and triathlon disciplines made their debut, as did synchronized diving, and women made their debut in water polo and weightlifting.
At the second call on the mainland island, the American Marion Jones arrived with the purpose of winning five gold medals. She achieved three (100 and 200 meters, and the 4×400 relay), and two bronze medals, in the short relay and long jump. But a few years later, she was stripped of those awards when she was found guilty of doping in 2007.
Greece had to wait until 2004 to return the festival to its founding soil. There a woman, riding her kayak, the German Birgit Fischer, paid her a winning tribute. With her gold medal in the k4-500, and the silver in the k2-500, she became the first woman – in any sport – to win gold medals in six different Olympic Games, the first woman to win with 24 years apart and the first person in Olympic history to achieve two or more medals in five different editions.
She was imitated by American swimmer Michael Phelps, with eight diadems, six gold and two bronze, the first athlete to win that many awards in a single competition.
A wealth of technology and the most impressive facilities at the events under the five rings were witnessed by the athletes who responded to the call of Beijing-2008. One who returned and sang the official theme song, You and me, was Sarah Brightman, from Amigos para siempre, in Barcelona-1992.
Phelp continued to make the headlines, because there he reached eight gold; Rohullah Nikpai, in taekwondo, won a bronze medal, the first for Afghanistan. And, as if that were not enough, the Usain Bolt Era began in the Chinese capital, with his first gold medals and world records in 100 and 200 meters.
