Talk:1996 Summer Olympics

message: The article currently states that the IOC voted to select Atlanta as host city in 1997—clearly a mistake. Does anyone know the correct year Atlanta was selected?--TallulahBelle (talk) 15:27, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  When did IOC vote for Atlanta? 

message: Verifiable sources need to be found concerning this issue. This CNN/Sports Illustrated article from 1999 (among others) discusses the issue of bribery in the IOC broadly. The issues should be mentioned in the 1996 Summer Olympics bids also. Also interesting is the fact that The Mitchell Commission (which investigated the Salt Lake City bid scandal) was headed by a former U.S. senator, how was this able to happen? Research needs to be done on John Coates & Andrew Young (I'd suggest most people here don't even know who they are, which is unfortunate considering that at the time they exchanged words on several occasions). In the little research I've done thus far, offering foreign aid as an incentive seems to be a reoccuring theme, one example taken from here explains: "Coates said former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young had toured Africa dispensing U.S. foreign aid commitments -- in exchange for support for Atlanta's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics." I'd suggest that CNN is a verifiable source. Discussion on this issue must continue, and also extended to encompass the broader issue of bribery within the IOC and others, not just the 1996 Summer Olympic bid by Atlanta. Nick carson 05:15, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Adressing the bribery issue 

message: I've tagged this article due to the extensive use of weasel words in the introductory section.  I don't have the time to clean it up myself right now, but this section definitely needs attention. Jhortman 14:46, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of Weasel Words 

message: From the text, it states that Gloria Estefan's "Reach" was the official song. I tought the official song was actually Celine Dion's "The Power of the Dream"?--Huaiwei 16:31, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: You are correct that "The Power of the Dream" was the official song, though it might be somewhat inaccurate to label it as Celine Dion's song.  According to the Olympic Report vol. 1, pages 170 and 361, the official song was "The Power of the Dream", composed by David Foster and Babyface with words by Linda Thompson.  According to the Olympic Report vol. 2, it was performed by Dion accompanied by Foster and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I'll go fix the article now. -- Jonel 19:33, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Official song

message: From what I remember of the opening ceremony of the Centennial Olympics, the song "Power of the Dream" was performed by an 11 year old girl with a choir of at least a hundred children performing a field routine.  I don't recall Celine Dion performing the song during the opening ceremony.
-- The 11 year old girl sang the song during the CLOSING ceremonies.  Celine sang the song during the OPENING ceremonies. Itsdannyg 20:03, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  I remember differently 

message: Seems a bit off to refer to the games as "relatively unsuccessful".  A reference for this perhaps?  The games turned a profit.  More than that, they did it despite the bomb and threw some exciting sporting moments and an excellent last day party into the bargain.  Isn't that a success?  The Athens games helped tip economy of Greece into the red.  Money spent on the Olympics by the state is money not spent on hospitals, police, etc.  Way I see it, Atlanta could afford more of those things after the Olympics, Athens couldn't.  The IOC can complain about commercialization but they're not the ones who have to foot the bill.  Phil --82.38.227.22 17:08, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Unsuccessful?

message: There is little mention of him in this article even though his lighting of the torch is considered by many to be one of the most emotionally powerful moments in Olympic history. -- §HurricaneERIC§Damagesarchive 02:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Muhammed Ali 

message: I added a bunch of needed citations, and I put the total number of athletes - just throwing that out there.--Daniel()Folsom T|C|U 16:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Citations Added

message: I also just added a citations missing template - usually I would find something like this myself, but sadly I'm in a rush right now and in the time I'm gone it could probably be fixed - sorry about that.Daniel()Folsom |\T/|\C/|\U/ 12:26, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Citations Missing

message: Somebody should add the mascots, most other olympics pages have them. --AW 19:52, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Most of us tried hard to forget Izzy before, during and after the Olympics. Now that you've brought the pain back, I'll see what I can do to add something about him.  AUTiger ʃ talk/work 21:01, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mascots? 

message: 1996 Summer Olympic Venues contains a longer list, and is up for deletion.  Any useful information on it ? John Vandenberg 07:54, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Venues 

message: Happened in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Not 1996. No idea who the 13th country could have been. :) FreshBreeze 01:57, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, I fixed the article.  Andrwsc 02:49, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bosnia's debut.... 

message: I am challenging this edit: regarding Muhammad Ali's original gold medal:
 (he had thrown his previous one into a river in disgust).
I am pretty certain this is an urban legend, and given its lack of citation makes me think moreso.  Later in the games, I think at half time of a basketball game, Ali was re-awarded his medal, during which the commentator, Bob Costas, explained that this story was a myth, and in reality, he had simply lost it.  Can anyone find a citation that supports either version of this? LonelyBeacon (talk) 11:32, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Ali's Medal

message: The official olympic movement website (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1996) shows that the closing ceremony was on August 4, not August 9.  (I'd edit this but for some reason when I go to edit the page those dates don't appear!) Izzycat (talk) 14:47, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed.  Thanks for pointing this out.  -- Tcncv (talk) 06:31, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Dates

message: I had always heard (contrary to how it is listed in the highlights here, that Keri Strug did not in fact clinch the gold medal for hte U.S. despite it being reported that way all over the place.  There is this snippet from the article on Keri Strug:
Following the media uproar over Kerri's fight to win the team gold, there was controversy concerning her need to have vaulted a second time. According to the final team results [5], the U.S. could still have won the team gold if Kerri had not vaulted. Unfortunately, the Russians still had one performance left (Rosa Galieva), but Kerri decided to vault in an effort to clinch the gold for the U.S. team.
Unfortunately, the citation is a broken link, and I cannot confirm it.  Is there anyone else who can straighten this out? LonelyBeacon (talk) 03:21, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I have now edited the Kerri Strug page, providing better citations and, I'd like to think, a clearer explanation of what happened.  She did clinch the gold, but did so on her first vault.  In the heat of the moment, while other US coaches were flapping around trying to calculate whether Kerri had done well enough to stave off the Russian who was yet to perform, Bela Karolyi simply told his former student, essentially, "the only way to be absolutely sure is if you go out there and do it again."  Was it necessary?  No.  Could the coaches have figured it out quickly by assuming a 10 for the Russian who was yet to perform?  Yes.  Were they stupid for not being able to do simple math in a few seconds?  Absolutely.  But Bela was right, too, because gymnastics is about perception and "judgment".  It's one thing to squeak by on math, and then have that math possibly challenged later on by a protest from Russia.  Just look at what happened to both Paul Hamm and Carly Patterson in the All-Arounds in Athens.  By going back and taking the second, definitive vault, Strug erased any doubt that the US deserved to win.  It made the mathematical difference between Russia and the US insurmountable by any reasonable challenge, on the floor or off.  Strug helped the US win with authority.  Given the problems that have plagued gymnastics and figure skating lately, the important thing about the "unnecessary second vault" was that it took judging "error" completely out of the equation.  They won by .82 because of her second vault, which still stands as the largest margin of victory in the post-Soviet era (that is, since 1988).  CzechOut  ☎ | ✍ 22:05, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, now I'm not so certain about whether she needed the second vault or not.  If you review  the contemporary NBC coverage, the commentators say, prior to her first vault, that she needs a 9.473.  Since she only got a 9.172, she in fact did need the second vault, at least according to NBC in the moment.  I'm not sure what's the most accurate account; one that happened at the time, or one that was told in retrospect.   CzechOut  ☎ | ✍ 23:11, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Revised Kerri Strug yet again to reflect the fact that various sources say various things.  Reflective, post-Olympics coverage is, as far as I can tell, unanimous in its decision that the second vault wasn't necessary.  At the precise moment of the event — or should I say the precise minute of the event — there were several numbers floating around.  What I've not been able to find is a precise minute-by-minute breakdown of the scores to determine who's really "right".  If we knew, at the second Kerri chose to make the follow-up vault, what the Russian score was, and how many Russians were left to compete, we could figure out the math.  But, as far as I can see, no one has reported the event to that degree of accuracy.  I'm guessing the simple reason for that is just that, in the end, the story of her sticking it on one leg is a better story than "Did she really have to go out and be a hero?"  It may also be that, due to the extremely fast pace of the event, it would have been extremely tedious to figure it all out.  CzechOut  ☎ | ✍ 04:16, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Keri Strug highlight

message: Seeing as no Airline flies between the two countries, how did the Cuban Olympic team get into the US?Davez621 (talk) 18:11, 15 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Without knowing anything about the specifics of the situation, I would assume "via another country" - the same as athletes from most other countries would. -- Chuq (talk) 00:59, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Chuq is right. Usually, travel to and from Cuba (and mail) is done by way of Canada or Mexico. Ileanadu (talk) 17:10, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  How did the Cuban team get to the US? 

message: To those who insist that the IOC voted against Athens because its "infrastructure could not be improved enough in time to successfully host the Games", you'll have to source that claim rather convincingly if you want it to remain in the article. As for the part about 2004, that belongs in the relevant article, not here. I also challenge you to cite some evidence to back up your claim, rather than resorting to blind reverting. ·ΚΕΚΡΩΨ· (talk) 15:41, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Athens 

message: Am I the only one who thinks this article repeats itself over and over again? I'm no writer myself, but everyone knows only one mention of commercialization is necessary. The monotonous subject makes the article look vindictive and childish.  MagnoliaSouth (talk) 10:03, 13 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I have the reverse attitude, I think this article treads much too lightly on the topic and is far too kind in general. The Atlanta games are referred to as "inept" () and as "an elongated event of tattiness and tawdriness" ref), and it has been stated that "No-one could do worse for the Olympics than Atlanta" (). The article also fails to mention that the Games were the first (and to date, only) Games run by a private consortium, and the IOC has since vowed to never let that happen again (see next to prev ref). Manning (talk) 03:32, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Commercial, commercial, commercial. 

message: Belarus is erroneously included in the list of nations that won Olympic medals for the first time. The country's first Olympic medals as an individual nation were received at the 1994 Winter games in skating and the biathlon.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vauntedboatboat (talk • contribs) 16:54, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  First-time medal winners list 

message: "Atlanta's main rivals were Toronto, whose front running bid that began in 1986 seemed almost sure to succeed after Canada had held a successful 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and a 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg ..."
What does successful 1999 Pan American Games have to do with a 1990 voting?
85.76.53.69 (talk) 18:21, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bid 

message: Something about the dates of the shooting competitions is wrong. According to the linked blue dot in the calendar, the Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol (won by the Ralf Schumann, Germany) was held on Day 5 (July 24), and the Men's 50 metre rifle prone (won by Christian Klees, Germany) was held on Day 6 (July 25). The trouble begins with this video, the German Tagesschau evening news of July 25, 1996 (German time, but that does not make a difference). It opens with the story that finally, on the 6th day of competitions, the first gold medal was won for Germany, by Klees! If the Wikipedia calendar was correct, the first German gold medal in Atlanta would already have been won by Schumann on the previous day. (Also, is there any reason why the fields in the row "cycling" of July 26th and 27th are blue, even though event finals are listed there?)--VorerstGescheitert (talk) 18:55, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wrong date(s) of shooting competition(s) 

message: The very existence of an Appraisal section in a neutral encyclopedia troubles me but the sneering and snobbery doesn't seem called for. Maybe 500 cheerleaders is garish and vulgar but is it any more so than an actress dressed as the Queen parachuting out of a plane or dancing nurses or people painted to resemble naked gold statues? It's fairly obvious that what the writer of this objects to isn't the lack of high culture (that would be an absurd thing to expect from an opening ceremony) but the fact that Americans dared to reference their own popular culture, which he considers uniquely deserving of derision. Much of the section deserves to remain but there's no source for foreigners considering it "questionable in taste". The New York Times article is simply a general comment on the bizarre nature of these ceremonies, arguing that it's no more incomprehensible than others. It isn't scathing in the way that is implied here. The Coca Cola article does not say that Coca Cola was the "exclusive drink offered"; it says that the Coca Cola company was the exclusive provider of soft drinks, which is an entirely different matter and the same situation has existed at other games.--Lo2u (T • C) 23:23, 18 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Appraisal 

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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080528011846/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1996/1996v1.pdf to http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1996/1996v1.pdf
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Neither this article nor the one on the bombing say anything about the effect on attendance or the games. Looking at the calendar it doesn't look like any events were cancelled. Whether or not these were affected, it's relevant. Were people still allowed into the park? What additional security (if any, and I assume there was) was imposed? Ileanadu (talk) 17:17, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Attendance, Stadium & Events after bombing 

message: Also known as the Waffle Olympics? I see nothing in the citations, Am I missing something uniquely Atlantan or is this not just vandalism? Sorry I'm new here so hesitant to be bold and just cut it out. Advice on best practice appreciated. Clunk Butter talk|contrib 13:22, 6 June 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Great catch, and welcome to editing! This was apparently someone being cute. I've reverted. Checking the "view history" tab is often useful for stuff like this--a few days ago, someone changed "Centennial" to "Waffle". If you can find where an apparently nonsensical thing was introduced, that usually gives a good indication if it's actually nonsense or if there's something more to it. -- Jonel (Speak to me) 00:51, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Waffle Olympics?