Atlanta 1996

Artistic Gymnastics

Athletics

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Twenty years on, we relish in Magnificent 7’s legacy with Shannon Miller and Kyla Ross, and remember the miracle birth of Centennial Park.

Originals

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The Magnificent 7, USA Women's Soccer, and Atlanta's enduring Olympic legacy

Mighty football nation Argentina in an Olympic final against Nigeria hoping to become the first major football champion from Africa.

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Men’s Football Final, Atlanta 1996

After winning the first ever women’s beach volleyball gold medal, Brazil’s Jackie Silva focused her attention on serving the next generation

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Where are they now? Jackie Silva’s legend lives on

Twenty years after their success in Atlanta 1996, the Spanish rhythmic gymnastics team look back at their amazing journey to new heights.

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Where are they now? “Las Niñas de Oro” legend lives on

Gail Devers edges out Merlene Ottey in a thrilling photo finish Olympic 100m final at Atlanta 1996 that could barely have been any closer.

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Devers Pips Ottey in Dramatic 100M in Atlanta 1996

Robert Korzeniowski appreciates that it can be a hard sell convincing the uninitiated that race walking is a rich, dynamic discipline well worth a look\. But listen to him speak and within a few minutes you may well find yourself heading out for a brisk 20km\.

Robert KORZENIOWSKI

Polish legend Korzeniowski hails “noble” discipline of race walking 

Las Ni&ntilde;as de Oro &ndash; the Golden Girls of Atlanta &ndash; are the subject of an Olympic Channel episode of Legends Live On, which also features double Olympic gymnastics champion Svetlana Khorkina, Pieter van den Hoogenband, who won three titles in the pool, and six\-time fencing champion Valentina Vezzali\.

Golden Girls take time to realise how much they shone

&nbsp;On the start line of the 200m final at the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996, Michael Johnson was fairly sure that anything less than an Olympic and world record was going to mean the failure of what had become his life&rsquo;s mission\. The US sprinter had already secured the gold medal

Michael JOHNSON

An “inspirational” home crowd, lobbying and the stiffest competition – Johnson’s record-breaking 200m had it all

Khorkina is the subject of the Olympic Channel&rsquo;s fifth episode in the new season of Legends Live On, which will also feature athlete Hicham El Guerrouj, who won the 1,500/5,000m double at the Olympic Games in 2004, six\-time fencing champion Valentina Vezzali and Uschi Disl, winner of nine biathlon medals

All the world’s a stage for ‘diva’ Khorkina

The great thing about track and field is that it comes in the second week of the Games so that means we have the opportunity to go to the Opening Ceremony because we have plenty of time to recover\. But the strange thing about being an athlete at the opening

Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie: “It felt like an out-of-body experience”

To be at the Opening Ceremony in Atlanta in 1996 was pretty incredible\. I remember walking towards the entrance to the stadium and it was like everything was in slow motion\. There were thousands and thousands of people, and because we were on home turf, they were all screaming &ldquo;USA,

Cliff Meidl’s incredible journey from dicing with death to carrying the flag for his country

Two things that made the outcome of the men's marathon in Atlanta impossibly hard to predict\. First, there were the hot and humid conditions\. Despite an early morning start the athletes still found themselves completing the race in temperatures above 25 degrees\.

Thugwane wins marathon by a whisker

German canoeist Birgit Fischer&nbsp;arrived in Atlanta looking to add to her Olympic medal haul a full 16 years after claiming her first gold at the Games\.

Ageless Fischer adds to her Olympic medal haul

Former rugby player Paea Wolfgramm&nbsp;was a giant of a man who weighed in at 140kg, but in international boxing terms the Tongan super heavyweight was a rank outsider unknown to many outside his native country\.

Wolfgramm punches above his weight for Tonga’s first Olympic medal

Global giants, Brazil and Argentina started as the hot favourites for gold in the men&rsquo;s football tournament, with squads packed with famous players\. Nigeria, by contrast, seemed to be in a state of disarray\. Their preparations for Atlanta had been affected by a political dispute that saw the national team

Super Eagles soar to football gold

When Nigeria qualified for the women's football World Cup in 1991 it had been an extremely proud moment for the team and the country at large\. However, for Chioma Ajunwa&nbsp;it was also a frustrating experience, as she spent most of the tournament sitting on the substitutes' bench\. Afterwards, she decided

Ajunwa’s leap of faith stuns Atlanta

Spanish road cyclist Miguel Indurain&nbsp;returned to the Olympic stage in Atlanta following a 12\-year hiatus\. And he was quite literally a man with unfinished business\. His first appearance at the Games had come in the men&rsquo;s road race at Los Angeles 1984, where he had failed to finish\. He was

Indurain marks Olympic return with time trial gold

As strange as it may now seem, prior to Atlanta 1996, no Jamaican woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in an individual event\. That, though, was about to change, thanks to the brilliance of Deon Hemmings\.

Hemmings becomes Jamaica’s first lady of the track

In 1992, Algeria's Noureddine Morceli had entered the men&rsquo;s 1,500m as the overwhelming favourite, but had finished only seventh\.

Morceli banishes ghosts of Barcelona

The women's 800m in Atlanta&nbsp;was expected to be a contest between two of the most respected athletes in the world &ndash; Cuba's Ana Quirot&nbsp;and Mozambique's Maria Mutola\. Both had endured difficult personal and sporting journeys\. Quirot had survived a horrific cooking accident that left her with 38% burns and tragically

Comeback queen Masterkova completes memorable middle-distance double

The Olympic men's 100m final is arguably the most widely anticipated contest of the Games and has a record of producing dramatic twists and memorable stories\.

Bailey blazes to 100m glory

The Olympic Games had a particular resonance for Andre Agassi\. His father, Emmanuel had represented Iran in the boxing competitions at the 1948 and 1952 Games\. He lost his first bout on both occasions, but he passed down to his children a love for the Games\.

Agassi wins heartfelt tennis gold

Known as &ldquo;the Gazelle&rdquo;, Marie\-Jos&eacute; P&eacute;rec&nbsp;was arguably France's highest profile athlete at Atlanta 1996\. Four years earlier, she had won the 400m title in Barcelona in outstanding style\. Now she was determined to make history not once but twice: by retaining the title and by completing an almost unprecedented 200m/400m

Pérec keeps her word to produce rare sprint double

Cuba&rsquo;s F&eacute;lix Sav&oacute;n&nbsp;arrived in Atlanta surrounded by an aura of invincibility\. The reigning Olympic heavyweight boxing champion had never been beaten in a major tournament\. Blessed with huge natural talent, Sav&oacute;n married that with incredible power, fitness and tactical acumen, and it was hard to contemplate him failing to win

Invincible Savón savours another heavyweight gold

Australia's women were the favourites to win the field hockey gold in Atlanta, and with good reason\. Over the previous few years the so\-called &ldquo;Hockeyroos&rdquo; had been crowned world champions and had won the Champions Trophy three times in a row\. They arrived in the USA on the back of

Hockeyroos strike hockey gold

Atlanta 1996 saw women's football make its debut on the Olympic programme, with eight teams taking part in the inaugural tournament\. Fittingly, the host nation, were firm favourites to win gold, with Norway expected to provide their biggest challengers\.

Golden era of US women’s football begins on home turf

Vebj&oslash;rn Rodal honed his skills as a middle\-distance runner in somewhat unconventional surroundings\. While others trained in sunshine, the Norwegian found his home town of Berkak under snow and ice for much of the year, which made maintaining a regular training regimen difficult to impossible\.

Resourceful Rodal reaps rewards in the 800m

Mountain biking was added to the Olympic programme in 1993, as a response to the sport&rsquo;s meteoric rise in popularity around the world\. By the time it made its Olympic debut in Atlanta, it was still just 20 years old as an organised competitive sport, and the first world championships

Brentjens bosses mountain bike debut

At the tender age of 17 Lilia Podkopayeva&nbsp;was already a seasoned international star\. The Ukrainian had taken up gymnastics at the age of five and was quickly earmarked as one of the most talented children in what was then the Soviet Union\. By the time she made her international debut,

Podkopayeva draws comparisons with gymnastics legend Comăneci

The men's gymnastics individual all\-around competition at Atlanta 1996 developed into to an absorbing clash between Russia&rsquo;s Alexei Nemov and the reigning world champion Li Xiaoshuang of China\.

Li’s all-around prowess produces golden lining

Hong Kong&rsquo;s Lee Lai Shan s had competed in the women&rsquo;s windsurfing four years earlier in Barcelona, when it was included on the Olympic programme for the very first time\. She hadn&rsquo;t got near the podium, finishing 11th, but in the following years she had improved dramatically, winning both the

Windsurfer Lee gives Hong Kong a first Olympic triumph

Alexei Nemov had taken up gymnastics when he was five years old\. Such was his progress through the packed ranks of Russian talent factory, that he made is senior international debut just 11 years later, finishing fifth at the 1993 World Championships\.

Gymnast Nemov comes of age with six medals 

Despite the fact that he was making his Olympic debut, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie arrived in Atlanta as hot favourite for the men&rsquo;s 10,000m\. He had won the world title over that distance at the 1993 and 1995 World Championships, had broken the world record and was fully expected to take

Gebrselassie’s Olympic golden debut

Germany's Ilke Wyludda&nbsp;had been one of the world&rsquo;s finest discus throwers for nearly a decade\. But when it came to the big competitions, she had often failed to produce anything like her best performances\. She had won two European titles but at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, she failed

Discus star Wyludda finally rises to the occasion

Donovan Bailey may have won the blue riband 100m, but the mantle of Atlanta's greatest sprinter arguably belonged to another athlete\. Bailey's achievement had been both spectacular and memorable, but Michael Johnson&rsquo;s feats over 200m and 400m seemed to redefine the parameters of the possible\.

Johnson seals unique double on the track

There was no medal for Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl may not have won a medal at Atlanta 1996, but he did create a real piece of history when he took to the waters in the two\-person keelboat\. \. It was his ninth consecutive Games, a record in any sport until

Raudaschl sails into the record books

Carl Lewis was 35 years old by the time he competed at Atlanta 1996\. He could look back on an extraordinary series of successes\. Over the course of the previous three editions of the Games, he had entered nine events, winning eight gold medals and one silver\. Perhaps most notably,

Remarkable Lewis leaps to ninth Olympic gold

Italian hurdler Antonella Bellutti&nbsp;had been prevented from making her Olympic debut in Barcelona four years earlier when a knee injury scuppered her preparations\. As part of her recuperation she had taken up cycling\. Such was her affinity with the sport that by the time Atlanta 1996&nbsp;came around it was on

Bellutti turns adversity into triumph on two wheels

Syrian athletes were marking their eighth appearance at the Games in Atlanta, but the country still awaited its first Olympic champion\. Indeed, only one Syrian had ever made it onto the podium \- wrestler Joseph Atiyeh, who won a silver in 1984\. Now, 12 years on, Syrians had real cause

Heptathlete Shouaa shines to give Syria its first ever gold

Lightweight rowing was added to the Olympic programme for the first time in Atlanta and among the frontrunners for the inaugural gold medal were a couple of Swiss brothers\. Markus and Michael Gier had spent nearly a decade living and training together\. And even though the allure of an Olympic

Brothers-in-oars find top Gier

The men&rsquo;s canoe slalom provided one of the most intriguing contests of these Games, with a whole host of athletes regarded as serious contenders for gold\. Foremost among them was the reigning champion Luk&aacute;&scaron; Pollert&nbsp;of the Czech Republic\.

Canoeist Martikán shows teen spirit to win gold on the rapids

By the time he arrived in Atlanta, British rower Steve Redgrave was already a sporting legend\. A powerhouse of a man, he had won gold medals at the previous three Games and was now intent on making history in Atlanta\. No rower had ever won gold medals at four different

History man Redgrave wins a fourth Olympic gold

In 1992 the French cyclist F&eacute;licia Ballanger&nbsp;had narrowly missed out on a medal in the sprint, losing the bronze to Ingrid Haringa&nbsp;of the Netherlands\. Spurred on by the memory of that defeat at Atlanta 1996, she was determined not to go home empty\-handed once more\.

Perfect Ballanger launches golden run 

The women&rsquo;s 100m final in Atlanta brought together the three finest sprinters of their generation\. The USAs&rsquo;s Gail Devers was the defending champion and remained at the peak of her powers, but her great rival, and team\-mate, Gwen Torrance, was also still going strong, as was Jamaica&rsquo;s Merlene Ottey\. The

Devers wins battle of the sprint divas

At Barcelona 1992, 16\-year\-old judoka Ryoko Tamura had sprung a surprise by reaching the final of the women&rsquo;s extra\-lightweight competition\. The Japanese teenager missed out on gold, but now had the confidence and determination to conquer the world\. And over the next four years, she did just that\.

Unknown teen Kye Sun-hui stuns judo world

Brad Bridgewater and Tripp Schwenk had been rivals for almost as long as they had been swimming\. The American duo both grew up in Florida, and regularly raced each other in club meets, both specialising in backstroke\. Normally it was Schwenk who came out on top\. He was two years

Bridgewater breaks childhood hoodoo to pip Schwenk to backstroke gold 

Ecuador had never won a single medal in any event at the Olympic Games, but going into Atlanta&nbsp;the country&rsquo;s sports fans knew they had someone who was capable of changing that statistic\.

Trailblazer Pérez walks tall for Ecuador

New Zealand's track record in the swimming events at the Olympic Games was not hugely impressive going into Atlanta 1996\. They had a couple of bronze medals, and then a silver in the 200m butterfly won in Barcelona four years earlier by a 17\-year\-old by the name of Danyon Loader\.

Loader wins first swimming golds for New Zealand

In the years leading up to Atlanta 1996, US swimmer Amy Van Dyken had been steadily improving, making light of the fact that she suffered from asthma to transform herself into a regular contender for international prizes\. In early 1995, she broke the world record in the 50m butterfly and

Van Dyken breaks new ground with four golds

Russian swimmer Aleksandr Popov had made an explosive Olympic debut at Barcelona 1992, winning two individual gold medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle, along with two relay silvers\. Four years on, by the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was firmly established as a superstar of the pool, known

Popov proves invincible in the pool yet again

Atlanta 1996 - Stories Mosaic

Australia competes in their women’s optional floor rotation from the artistic gymnastics competition at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Joanna Hughes led the squad in the rotation, earning 9.600 for her routine.

Joanna HUGHES

Atlanta 1996 | Olympic Games

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Australia performs on the floor exercise at Atlanta 1996

Team USA performed on the balance beam during the women’s team event at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The squad, which won the USA’s first gold in the event, was led by Shannon Miller’s 9.862 and Dominique Moceanu’s 9.850.

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Team USA competes on beam during the team optionals at Atlanta 1996

The U.S. women perform on the floor exercise during the team optionals at Atlanta 1996. The squad, later nicknamed the Magnificent Seven, won Team USA’s first-ever Olympic women’s team title in artistic gymnastics. Dominique Dawes had the high score on the apparatus, a 9.850.

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Team USA competes on the floor exercise during the women's team optionals at Atlanta 1996

Dominique Moceanu performs in the women’s all-around final at Atlanta 1996. A member of the gold medal-winning U.S. squad, Moceanu finished ninth overall individually, earning her highest scores on the uneven bars (9.762) and vault (9.706).

Dominique MOCEANU

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Dominique Moceanu finishes ninth in the all-around at Atlanta 1996

The women of Team Greece as they compete in their optional floor exercise routines during the team competition at Atlanta 1996. The squad, which finished 11th overall, was led by Vassou Tsavdaridou’s 9.675 on the event.

Olympic Games Atlanta 1996

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Australia performs on the floor exercise at Atlanta 1996

Team USA competes on beam during the team optionals at Atlanta 1996

Team USA competes on the floor exercise during the women's team optionals at Atlanta 1996

Dominique Moceanu finishes ninth in the all-around at Atlanta 1996

The women of Team Greece compete on floor during team optionals at Atlanta 1996