2004 Summer Olympics

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{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="float:right;margin-left:1em;" |bgcolor="#efefef" colspan="2" style="margin-left:5px;" align="center"| '''Games of the XXVIII Olympiad''' |- |colspan=2 align=center| Image:Athens 2004 logo.jpg Ancient victors were crowned with olive
wreaths (Gk. ''kotinos'') — a tradition echoed
with this games' medalists. The colours of
the logo come from the Flag of Greece. |- | Nations participating | 202 |- | Athletes participating | 11,099 |- | Events | 301 in 28 sports |- | Opening ceremony | August 13, 2004 |- | Closing ceremony | August 29, 2004 |- | Officially opened by | Costis Stephanopoulos |- | Athlete's Oath | Zoi Dimoschaki |- | Judge's Oath | Lazaros Voreadis |- | Olympic Torch | Nikolaos Kaklamanakis |} The '''Games of the XXVIII Olympiad''', commonly known as the '''2004 Summer Olympics''' were the 28th Summer Olympic Games. The Games were held in Athens over 17 days, from August 13 to August 29, 2004. Planners expected 10,500 athletes (in fact 11,099 at the end) and 5,500 team officials from 202 countries. There were a total of 301 medal events from 28 different sports. ==Medal count and country performance ranking== {| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" |- bgcolor="#efefef" ! colspan=5 style="border-right:0px;";| 2004 Summer Olympics medal count | style="border-left:0px"; | Image:Olympic-rings.png |- bgcolor="#efefef" | '''Rank''' | '''NOC Name''' | bgcolor="gold" |''' Gold ''' | bgcolor="silver" |'''Silver''' | bgcolor="CC9966" |'''Bronze''' | '''Total''' |- ||1||Image:Wikipedia flag united states large.png United States ||35||39||29||103 |- ||2||Image:China flag large.png China ||32||17||14||63 |- ||3||Image:Russia flag large.png Russia ||27||27||38||92 |- ||4||Image:Australia flag large.png Australia ||17||16||16||49 |- ||5||Image:Japan flag large.png Japan ||16||9||12||37 |- ||6||Image:Germany flag large.png Germany ||14||16||18||48 |- ||7||Image:France flag large.png France ||11||9||13||33 |- ||8||Image:Italy flag large.png Italy ||10||11||11||32 |- ||9||Image:South korea flag large.png Korea ||9||12||9||30 |- ||10||Image:Uk flag large.png Great Britain ||9||9||12||30 |- |colspan=6|''For the full list, see 2004 Summer Olympics medal count'' |- |} ==Bid and preparations==

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Scene from the spectacular opening ceremony

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The USPS issued a stamp to honor the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Athens was chosen as the host city in 1997, after surprisingly losing the bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics. Athens bid on the games based largely on an appeal to Olympic history, since 1996 would be the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. In the last round of voting, Athens defeated Rome, 66 votes to 41. Before this, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Cape Town and San Juan had already been eliminated from consideration after receiving only a few votes. NBC Universal paid the IOC $793 million for U.S. broadcast rights [1], the most paid by any country. It was the first Olympics since NBC had merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment; the merger made it possible for the network to broadcast over 1200 hours of coverage during the games, triple what was broadcast in the U.S. four years earlier. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, concerns about terrorism were much higher. Greece increased the budget for security at the Olympics to €970 million (US$1.2 billion). Approximately 70,000 police officers patrolled Athens and the Olympic venues during the Olympics. NATO and the European Union also provided support, after Athens asked for assistance. When International Olympic Committee expressed its concern over the progress of construction work of the new Olympic venues, a new Organizing Committee was formed under President Gianna Angelopoulos–Daskalaki. Athens was transformed into a city that uses state-of-the-art technology in transportation and urban development. Some of the most modern sporting venues in the world were built to host the 2004 Olympic Games.

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Following tradition established in 1936, the Olympic Flame toured the world.

By late March 2004, some Olympic projects were still behind schedule, and Greek authorities announced that a roof would no longer be constructed over the main swimming venue. The main Olympic Stadium, the designated facility for the opening and closing ceremonies, was completed only two months before the games opened, with the sliding over of a futuristic glass roof. The current pace of preparation, however, made the rush to finish the Athens venues one of the tightest in Olympics history. The Greeks, unperturbed, maintained that they would make it all along. The lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame took place on March 25 in Ancient Olympia. For the first time ever, the flame travelled around the world in a relay to former Olympic cities and other large cities, before returning to Greece. EMI released ''Unity'', the official pop album of the Athens Olympics, in the leadup to the Olympics. It features contributions from Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Moby, Destiny's Child and Avril Lavigne. EMI has pledged to donate US$180,000 from the album to UNICEF's HIV/AIDS program in Sub-Saharan Africa. [2] At least 19 people died during the work on the facilities. Most of these people were not from Greece.[3] Before the games, Greek hotel staff staged a series of one-day strikes over wage disputes. They have been asking for a significant raise for the period covering the event being staged. Paramedics and ambulance drivers have also been protesting, as they want the same Olympic bonuses promised to their security force counterparts. In the event the 2004 games were described as a 'dream' games by IOC president and Greece was congratulated for her organisation. ==Mascots==

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The mascots were based on this clay model at the National Archaelogical Museum

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Soft toys were one of the many items of merchandising available at the Games

Since the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France it has been the tradition to have a mascot for the games; for 2004, the official mascots are sister and brother, ''Athin�'' and ''Ph�vos'' (pronounced in Greek, Athina and Fivos), named after the goddess of wisdom, strategy and war and Phoebos the god of light and music, respectively. They are inspired by the ancient daidala which were dolls that had religious links as well as being toys.
==Online coverage== For the first time, major broadcasters were allowed to serve video coverage of the Olympics over the Internet, provided that they restricted this service geographically, to protect broadcasting contracts in other areas. For instance, the BBC made their complete live coverage available to UK high-speed Internet customers for free; customers in the U.S. were only able to receive delayed excerpts. [4] The International Olympic Committee forbade Olympic athletes, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from setting up specialized weblogs and/or other websites for covering their personal perspective of the games. They were not allowed to post audio, video, or photos that they had taken. An exception was made if an athlete already has a personal website that was not set up specifically for the Games. [5] ==Opening ceremony== :''Main article: 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony''

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The 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony was held on August 13. As part of the theatrics, the Olympic rings are seen burning in a pool of water.

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A topless goddess holding snakes, based on a Minoan statue