US OLYMPIC CITIES

Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games

The United States’ women’s teams enjoyed resounding success at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, capturing the first-ever gold medals in women’s soccer and softball, as well as winning gold in women’s gymnastics team all-around and women’s basketball.

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For the first time, the Summer Games were held in a different year than the Winter Games and this marked the centenary of the first-ever modern Olympics, the Athens 1896 Olympic Games. Twenty-four nations made their Olympic debut, but it was the host United States that led the medal count for the first time since 1984 and for the first-time in a non-boycotted Olympic Games since 1968. Swimmer Amy Van Dyken became the first American woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Tragedy occurred in the middle of The Games, when a bomb exploded in the Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring 110 others.

Olympic Highlights

  • Nations: 197
  • Athletes: 10,318 (6,806 men, 3,512 women)
  • Disciplines: 37
  • Medal Count: United States 101 (44 gold, 32 silver, 25 bronze); Germany 65 (20 gold, 18 silver, 27 bronze); Russia 63 (26 gold, 21 silver, 16 bronze)
  • New Sports: beach volleyball, mountain biking, softball, lightweight rowing, women’s soccer
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