page_title: Georgia State University
section_title: 1996 Summer Olympic Games
hierarchical_section_title: Georgia State University / Athletics / 1996 Summer Olympic Games
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Stade et drapeau des JO d'Atlanta 1996 English: 1996 Atlanta Olympics--Olympic flag at track and field venue. Olympic Stadium. Crowd scene.
context_page_description: Georgia State University is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of higher education by enrollment based in Georgia and is in the top 10 in the nation in number of students with a diverse majority-minority student population of around 53,000 students, including approximately 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the main campus downtown as of 2018.
  Georgia State is classified as R1, for "very high research activity". The university's over $200 million in research expenditures for the 2018 fiscal year ranked 1st in the nation among universities without an engineering, medical, or agricultural school for the third year in a row. The university is the most comprehensive public institution in Georgia, offering more than 250 degree programs in over 100 fields of study spread across 10 academic colleges and schools.
context_section_description: Georgia State University was used during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, with the GSU Sports Arena hosting the badminton matches. Georgia State's prominent position in downtown Atlanta allowed the city to build some of its venues with adaptive reuse in mind to be used by the university. The first on-campus dormitories at the university, the Village, was constructed as part of the Olympic Village to house athletes. This began the metamorphosis of GSU from a commuter college to a massive urban research institute, as well as one of the largest universities in the United States. Centennial Olympic Stadium, host of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, was after the games converted to Turner Field, home of MLB's Atlanta Braves. After the Braves moved to SunTrust Park in suburban Cobb County, Turner Field and the surrounding grounds were purchased by Georgia State in January 2017. The university converted the stadium to a football field for the school's football team, now called Georgia State Stadium, and is building a new campus baseball stadium on the site of the former Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, and new classrooms and housing on the lot.
caption: The Olympic flag waves at the 1996 games
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