Backgrounder: Olympic Games Atlanta 1996: Centenary celebrations

The 26th Olympic Games, also known as the Centennial Olympic Games, were held in the city of Atlanta in the United States between July 19 and August 4, 1996. A total of 10,318 athletes (3,512 women) from 197 countries and regions throughout the world participated in 271 events.

Legendary U.S. boxer Muhammed Ali, already affected by Parkinson's disease, was in charge of lighting Atlanta's Olympic Cauldron.

Despite the centenary celebrations being marred by a terrorist attack on July 27 in the Centennial Olympic Park, causing the death of two people and injuring 110 more, the Atlanta Olympics were a testimony to important sporting successes.

For the first time in Olympic history, all 197 recognized National Olympic Committees were represented at the Games.

A total of 79 nations won medals in the various disciplines, while 53 went home with gold medals. These figures marked new records in Olympic history.

Also, Atlanta was the first city in history to use the money generated from ticket sales, publicity and private assets to pay the 1,800 million U.S. dollars that were needed to organize the Games. In the past only public money had been used to finance the Olympics.

Beach volleyball, mountain biking, lightweight rowing and women's soccer made their first appearance and Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl became the first person ever to compete in nine Olympic Games.

In Atlanta, U.S. athlete Carl Lewis became one of the three athletes in Olympic history to win the same individual event on four occasions and the fourth time gave him his ninth gold medal, after defending his world title in the long jump.

Michael Johnson, another U.S. athlete, set a new world record in the 200 meters and he also won the 400 meters race.

Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu defeated his opponent, Bulgaria's Nikolay Peshalow, in the 64 kilograms category, making him the first weightlifter to win three consecutive Olympic titles.

By the end of the international sporting event, China had collected 16 gold medals, 22 silver and 12 bronze, allowing them to finish in fourth place in both the gold and general medal table.

Judoka Sun Fuming got the Chinese delegation off to a good start in Atlanta by winning the gold in the heavyweight class on the first day of the competition.

Shanghai swimmer, Le Jingyi, stood out in the 100 meters freestyle with a time of 54.50 seconds which became a new Olympic record.

Out of the 15 new weightlifting world records, four were beaten by Chinese athletes in Atlanta. In the men's 59 kilograms category, Tang Linsheng became the unexpected winner.

In the men's 70 kilograms category, Zhan Xugang took advantage of having around 12.5 kilograms over his opponent and he also went on to break three world records throughout his weightlifting career.

Diver Fu Mingxia, 18, showed her superiority both on the platform and the springboard, becoming the new "queen of diving," after Gao Min retired after the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Fu's teammate, Xiong Ni, silver medalist in Seoul 1988, won the gold in the men's three meter springboard.

Moving on to men's gymnastics, Li Xiaoshuang, 23, took home the gold in the all-around event while in badminton, Ge Fei and Gu Jun also won the gold medal for China in the women's doubles.

In the table tennis competitions, the duo Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong repeated their winning performances from previous Olympics, with medals in both the individual and doubles categories.

Wang Junxia, stood out athletics when she won the women's 5,000 meters and took home the silver in the 10,000 meters.

Also at the Atlanta Games, 26-year-old Lee Lai-Shan from Hong Kong won the women's windsurfing, making her the only athlete to win an Olympic medal for Hong Kong before the territory's hand over to China in 1997.

OLYMPIC GAMES ATLANTA 1996 MEDAL TABLE

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL

U.S. 44 32 25 101

Russia 26 21 16 63

Germany 20 18 27 65

China 16 22 12 50

France 15 7 15 37

Italy 13 10 12 35

Australia 9 9 23 41

Cuba 9 8 8 25

Ukraine 9 2 12 23

South Korea 7 15 5 27

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