2004 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXVIII. Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics logo
Venue: Athens ( Greece )
Stadion: Athens Olympic Stadium
Opening ceremony: August 13, 2004
Closing ceremony: August 29, 2004
Opened by: Konstantinos Stefanopoulos (President)
Olympic oath : Zoi Dimoschaki (athlete)
Lazaros Voreadis ( referee )
Disciplines: 40 (28 sports)
Competitions: 301
Countries: 202
Athletes: 10,911
(6582 men, 4329 women)
Sydney 2000
Beijing 2008
Medal table
space country G S. B. Ges.
1 United StatesUnited States United States 36 39 26th 101
2 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China China 32 17th 14th 63
3 RussiaRussia Russia 28 26th 36 90
4th AustraliaAustralia Australia 17th 16 17th 50
5 JapanJapan Japan 16 9 12 37
6th GermanyGermany Germany 13 16 20th 49
7th FranceFrance France 11 9 13 33
8th ItalyItaly Italy 10 11 11 32
9 Korea SouthSouth Korea South Korea 9 12 9 30th
10 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Great Britain 9 9 12 30th
... ... ... ... ... ...
27 AustriaAustria Austria 2 4th 1 7th
46 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland 1 1 3 5
Complete medal table

The 2004 Summer Olympics (officially called the XXVIII Olympiad Games ) took place from August 13th to 29th, 2004 in the Greek capital Athens . After the First Modern Olympic Games in 1896 and the unofficial Intermediate Games in 1906 , which are not officially regarded as Olympic Games by the IOC , Athens hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time . For the first time since the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , a city in Europe got the chance.

Allocation of the games

Never before have there been so many people interested in hosting the Games. Russia , Sweden , France , Argentina , Brazil , Italy , Puerto Rico , South Africa , Turkey , Spain and Greece submitted the application documents to the IOC.

For the decision on September 5, 1997, Rome , Cape Town , Athens, Stockholm and Buenos Aires were accepted as candidate cities. The 2004 Olympic Games were awarded to Athens in the IOC session in Lausanne .

The award of the Games to Athens was seen as reparation after the failure to bid for the 1996 Olympic Games seven years earlier . Back then, it was believed that the Olympic movement would return to its starting point to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games.

Award of the 2004 Olympic Games
canditature country Round 1 Runoff round 2 Round 3 Round 4
Athens 2004 GreeceGreece Greece 32 - 38 52 66
Rome 2004 ItalyItaly Italy 23 - 28 35 41
Cape Town 2004 South AfricaSouth Africa South Africa 16 62 22nd 20th -
Stockholm 2004 SwedenSweden Sweden 20th - 19th - -
Buenos Aires 2004 ArgentinaArgentina Argentina 16 44 - - -

Preparations

After Athens was awarded the contract to host the 2004 Olympic Games in 1997, there was little preparation until 2000. Only after the then IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch threatened Athens with the withdrawal of the Games at the beginning of 2000, the work was intensified. The largest infrastructure projects that arose at that time included the ring road, underground lines 2 and 3 and the reintroduction of the tram. Private individuals also benefited from public subsidies, for example the renovation of house facades was subsidized.

After the change of government in Greece in March 2004, the organizers once again increased the pace of the work. Despite this, there was speculation, especially in foreign media, whether Athens would be ready by the start of the Games. Although only 15 of 39 sports facilities were completed in June 2004, all of them were completed when they opened. There was even the roof of the Olympic Stadium , which was not included in the original plan. On the other hand, the roof of the Aquatics Center was not built, supposedly for reasons of time, but in fact for reasons of cost.

At the 116th General Assembly of the IOC, the Greek President Konstantinos Stefanopoulos sharply attacked the IOC's criticism of the preparations. The then 77-year-old said: “There have been balanced, justified suggestions from your committee and also from honest friends of the Olympic idea. I was bitter at a number of malicious and ironic comments from others. They predicted an organizational failure. ” He further remarked, referring to an interview with IOC President Jacques Rogge , in which he allegedly described the award of the Games to Athens as a mistake: “ What I cannot accept are statements that it was a mistake to give the games to Greece. "

A total of 13 workers died in the construction of the buildings, which led to protests on the Tuesday before the opening of the games. The demonstrators blamed the neglect of safety measures in piecework for the accidents.

It was not until late that there was a rush for tickets. On August 10, 2004, the Tuesday before the opening, a new sales record was set with 88,317 tickets. At that time, however, 2.7 million of the 5.7 million cards were still available.

Visual appearance

The first 2 euro commemorative coin was ever issued for the games. The coin was designed more as a promotional rather than a collector's item, so the circulation was high
The Olympic Velodrome

The visual appearance was based on the fact that the visitors expected a close connection to the ancient games, on the other hand the organizers attached importance to a contemporary impulse. Around the turn of the millennium, which was generally neo-functional in terms of design, it was possible to anticipate and significantly shape the later design tendencies towards ornamental tendencies with the bright colors and ornamental textures. The design team of the games was led by Theodora Mantzaris, the individual building blocks of the appearance were designed by individuals within the team.

Gill Sans was chosen as the font . With the permission of the copyright holder Monotype, the Greek letters were revised by Hector Charalambous and Panayiotis Haratzopoulos in 2000. This font has since been commercially available as Gill Sans Hellenic .

The logo designed by Rodanthi Senduka was presented in 1999 as the first component of the corporate design. It is the first Olympic logo ever to be drawn freely and not constructed geometrically. It shows an olive branch on a blue background. This took up the symbol of the ancient award ceremonies. The lettering Athens 2004 is under the drawing in Greek, English or French.

mascot

Athena and Phoibos were the mascots of the 2004 Athens Olympics. They depict the Greek gods of wisdom ( Athena ) as well as of light and music ( Apollo , one of his most common epithets was Phoibos). They were developed by the Greek designer Spyros Gogos andselected from 196 proposals submittedby the Organizing Committee of the Games (ATHOC) .

The two mascots are twins (although Artemis, and not Athene, is Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology) and thus symbolize the brotherhood among all participants in the games. The colors blue and orange represent the Greek sea and the Greek sun.

In the design, Athena and Phoibos are modeled on a terracotta doll from the Archaic Age (around 7th century BC). These daidala were bell-shaped and had movable limbs. The originals are on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Pictograms

The pictograms were designed by Yiannis Kouroudis, they show the various sports in an abstract manner, the type of abstraction is borrowed from antique vase drawings.

Medals

While the design of the front of the medals had not changed since 1928, the organizing committee received approval to introduce a new design. The new design came from the graphic designer Elena Votsi .

From 1928 to 2000, the front of the medal depicted the goddess of victory Nike, sitting with an olive wreath in her hand. Since 2004 and at future Olympic Games, Nike has been flying to the Panathinaikon Stadium to bring victory to the best athlete. The back shows the emblem of the Athens Games and the Olympic flame , as well as the opening verse of the eighth Olympic Ode.

Postage stamps and coins

The design team also created postage stamps for the Greek post office ELTA and commemorative coins for the games.

architecture

In the beginning, a lot of sports facilities were already available and suitable, but the decision was nevertheless made to create an architectural master plan, which above all was to give a uniform overall architectural image. In contrast to the graphic design, a single architect, the star architect Santiago Calatrava, was entrusted with the designs of the important buildings (including the Athens Olympic Sports Complex ), while the design assignments for the scattered buildings went to various architects, such as the Liana tennis stadium Nella-Potiropoulou.

The Olympic Stadium was not intended to be redesigned in the original plan, but was given a new roof, as it is already being used intensively. At the rarely used Aquatic Center, on the other hand, the roof was painted for cost reasons, officially for reasons of time.

Torch relay and Olympic flame

Ceremony to ignite the Olympic flame
Map of the torch relay
The Olympic torch

The Olympic flame was lit on March 25, 2004 in ancient Olympia . The torch relay of the 2004 Olympic Games was the first to also pass through South America , Africa and India and thus reach every continent. All of the former summer Olympic venues were on the route of the torch relay. The Olympic flame was transported in a specially equipped Boeing 747 named Zeus .

The stations of the torch relay were:

  1. Sydney , Australia ( 2000 )AustraliaAustralia 
  2. Melbourne , Australia ( 1956 )AustraliaAustralia 
  3. Tokyo , Japan ( 1964 )JapanJapan 
  4. Seoul , South Korea ( 1988 )Korea SouthSouth Korea 
  5. Beijing , China ( 2008 )China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
  6. New Delhi , IndiaIndiaIndia 
  7. Cairo , EgyptEgyptEgypt 
  8. Cape Town , South AfricaSouth AfricaSouth Africa 
  9. Rio de Janeiro , Brazil (2016)BrazilBrazil 
  10. Mexico City , Mexico ( 1968 )MexicoMexico 
  11. Los Angeles , United States  ( 1932 / 1984 )United StatesUnited States 
  12. St. Louis , United States ( 1904 )United StatesUnited States 
  13. Atlanta , United States ( 1996 )United StatesUnited States 
  14. New York City , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
  15. Montreal , Canada ( 1976 )CanadaCanada 
  16. Antwerp , Belgium ( 1920 )BelgiumBelgium 
  17. Brussels , BelgiumBelgiumBelgium 
  1. Amsterdam , Netherlands ( 1928 ) NetherlandsNetherlands 
  2. Geneva , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
  3. Lausanne , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
  4. Paris , France ( 1900 / 1924 )FranceFrance 
  5. London , United Kingdom  ( 1908 / 1948 / 2012 )United KingdomUnited Kingdom 
  6. Madrid , SpainSpainSpain 
  7. Barcelona , Spain ( 1992 )SpainSpain 
  8. Rome , Italy ( 1960 )ItalyItaly 
  9. Munich , Germany ( 1972 )GermanyGermany 
  10. Berlin , Germany ( 1936 )GermanyGermany 
  11. Stockholm , Sweden ( 1912 )SwedenSweden 
  12. Helsinki , Finland ( 1952 )FinlandFinland 
  13. Moscow , Russia ( 1980 )RussiaRussia 
  14. Kiev , UkraineUkraineUkraine 
  15. Istanbul , TurkeyTurkeyTurkey 
  16. Sofia , BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria 
  17. Nicosia , CyprusCyprus 1960Cyprus 

On July 9, 2004, the Olympic flame returned to Greece after visiting Cyprus the previous day as the last international stage. The more than a month long torch relay through Greece that followed led the fire to Albanian territory while crossing a lake on the border with Albania. One of the famous torchbearers was Otto Rehhagel , who a few months earlier surprisingly won the European championship with the Greek national soccer team. He carried the torch 2500 meters over the Rio-Andirrio Bridge .

During the opening ceremony on August 13, 2004 in Athens, the Greek Olympic champion in surfing Nikolaos Kaklamanakis lit the Olympic flame in the form of a 31 meter high torch in the Olympic Stadium.

Attendees

Participating Nations
Number of athletes

A new record was set in Athens with 202 participating nations. The old record came from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , where 199 nations started.

A conciliatory signal was the joint invasion of North and South Korea during the opening ceremony. In the competitions, the two warring countries competed separately.

The Iraqi Olympic team received special support. The Australian Air Force provided an airplane to transport the Olympic team and the Japanese National Olympic Committee provided clothing for the 48 Iraqi team members.

Europe (5601 athletes from 48 nations)
America (1950 athletes from 42 nations)
Asia (1826 athletes from 44 nations)
Africa (836 athletes from 54 nations)
Oceania (679 athletes from 14 nations)
(Number of athletes)
* first participation in summer games

Competition gate

In Athens and the surrounding area

Beach volleyball stadium

Outside Athens

Stadiums for football matches

Competition program

301 competitions (166 for men, 125 for women, 1 mixed and 9 open competitions) in 28 sports / 40 disciplines were held. Compared to Sydney 2000 , the sporting program remained almost the same, the number of competitions only increased by one on balance. The following changes were made:

  • In boxing , a weight class (light middleweight) was deleted.
  • In fencing , saber singles became Olympic for women - the foil team was omitted.
  • In freestyle wrestling , four weight classes were added for women (fly, light, medium and heavyweight), while flyweight was omitted for men.
  • In Greco-Roman wrestling , a weight class (flyweight) was deleted.
  • In sailing , the Yngling boat class for women replaced the Soling open class and the Star open boat class became a men's class.

A total of 301 competitions were held in 28 sports:

Olympic sports / disciplines

Number of competitions in brackets

Time schedule

Time schedule
discipline Wed
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Decision-
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August
Olympic rings without rims.svg Opening ceremony
Badminton pictogram.svg badminton 2 1 2 5
Baseball pictogram.svg baseball 1 1
Basketball pictogram.svg basketball 2 2
Archery pictogram.svg Archery 1 1 1 1 4th
Boxing pictogram.svg Boxing 5 6th 11
Fencing pictogram.svg fencing 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 10
Football pictogram.svg Soccer 1 1 2
Weightlifting pictogram.svg Weightlifting 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 15th
Handball pictogram.svg Handball 2 2
Field hockey pictogram.svg hockey 1 1 2
Judo pictogram.svg Judo 2 2 1 3 2 2 2 14th
Canoeing Canoeing (flatwater) pictogram.svg Canoe racing 6th 6th 12
Canoeing (slalom) pictogram.svg Canoe slalom 2 2 4th
Athletics pictogram.svg athletics 2 4th 5 6th 5 3 6th 7th 7th 1 46
Modern pentathlon pictogram.svg Modern pentathlon 1 1 2
Cycling Cycling (track) pictogram.svg train 2 2 1 1 3 3 12
Cycling (mountain biking) pictogram.svg Mountain bike 1 1 2
Cycling (road) pictogram.svg Street 1 1 2 4th
Equestrian sport Equestrian Dressage pictogram.svg dressage 1 1 2
Equestrian Jumping pictogram.svg Leap 1 1 2
Equestrian Eventing pictogram.svg versatility 2 2
Wrestling Wrestling Freestyle pictogram.svg Freestyle 4th 4th 3 11
Wrestling pictogram.svg Greco-Roman 4th 3 7th
Rowing pictogram.svg rowing 7th 7th 14th
Shooting pictogram.svg shoot 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 17th
Swimming sport Swimming pictogram.svg swim 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 4th 32
Synchronized swimming pictogram.svg Synchronized swimming 1 1 2
Water polo pictogram.svg Water polo 1 1 2
Diving pictogram.svg Diving 2 2 1 1 1 1 8th
Sailing pictogram.svg sailing 1 3 2 2 1 2 11
Softball pictogram.svg Softball 1 1
Taekwondo pictogram.svg Taekwondo 2 2 2 2 8th
Tennis pictogram.svg tennis 1 3 4th
Table tennis pictogram.svg Table tennis 1 1 1 1 4th
Triathlon pictogram.svg Triathlon 1 1 2
Gymnastics Gymnastics (artistic) pictogram.svg Gymnastics 1 1 1 1 5 5 14th
Gymnastics (rhythmic) pictogram.svg Rhythmic sports gymnastics 1 1 2
Gymnastics (trampoline) pictogram.svg Trampoline exercise 1 1 2
volleyball Volleyball (beach) pictogram.svg beach volleyball 1 1 2
Volleyball (indoor) pictogram.svg volleyball 1 1 2
Olympic rings without rims.svg Closing ceremony
Demonstration competitions
Wheelchair athletics 2
decisions 13 12 13 12 19th 15th 22nd 31 27 19th 12 18th 18th 20th 33 17th 301
Wed
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Color legend

  • Opening ceremony
  • Competition day (no decisions)
  • Competition day (x decisions)
  • Closing ceremony
  • Ceremonies

    Opening ceremony

    The opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games took place on Friday, August 13, 2004. 74,000 viewers watched the show, in which around 4,000 actors were involved. The leitmotifs of the opening ceremony were Human Heartbeat and Running .

    The opening ceremony began with a 28-second countdown , with each second representing a previous location for the Summer Olympics . Two drummers, one in the Olympic Stadium, one in ancient Olympia, which could be seen on the stadium screen, symbolized the heartbeat. An arrow that appeared to have come from ancient Olympia on the canvas ignited the Olympic rings that were in the flooded center of the stadium.

    The theme of the opening ceremony was Greek history with its mythological origins. The first to march in was a group of Greek drummers, which also included the two drummers in ancient Olympia and the Olympic Stadium. They should clarify the connection between the past and present of the Olympics. A comet fell from the canvas into the water in the stadium where the burning Olympic rings were located. Next, a young boy sailed into the stadium on a paper boat, waving the Greek flag. At the same time, various beings from Greek myths appeared, such as a centaur who threw a spear of light into the center of the stadium, where a Cycladic idol appeared. Various geometric figures were projected onto the face of this figure using lasers . Then this figure broke and its fragments floated away on the water. A small representation of a kouros from the archaic epoch remained, which also broke, so that a human sculpture from the classical epoch of ancient Greece . When this figure also broke, a cube emerged from the water, on which an actor balanced while it was moving. Images of men, women and children of various ethnicities and ages were projected onto the floating fragments of the figures. The fragments appeared at the end of this first part of the opening ceremony as symbols of the Greek islands.

    In the next scene, the Greek god of love, Eros , appeared over a couple in the water. Then he hovered over a parada of historical scenes and figures. This representation began with the Minoan culture , then followed the Mycenaean culture , the Classical epoch and the Hellenistic epoch , the representation of which was introduced by an actor in the role of Alexander the Great . This was followed by the representation of Byzantine art , the Greek War of Independence and the Greek culture of the 20th century. At the end of the parade, a woman stepped into the water and lasers made it appear that the water reflected stars. The lights gathered around the woman, forming a strand of DNA that rotated around the actress. At the end of this scene, all the actors went into the lake, from the middle of which an olive tree emerged.

    The Olympic flame

    In order for the athletes to march into the stadium, the 2.1 million liters of water were drained from the center of the stadium within three minutes. Since Greece is traditionally the first nation to march in at the Olympic Games, but the host is last, the Greek flag bearer, the weightlifter Pyrros Dimas, carried the Greek flag first into the stadium, but the Greek athletes marched in last. The invasion of the nations followed the Greek alphabet , which is why St. Lucia was the first nation to invade. The two Korean states marched together under one flag. The entry of the athletes was accompanied by electronic music by the Dutch DJ Tiësto .

    Now the ceremonial part of the opening ceremony followed with the speeches of the OC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and the IOC President Jacques Rogge . The Games were officially opened by the Greek President Konstantinos Stefanopoulos with the sentence prescribed by the Olympic Charter: “I declare the Athens Games, to celebrate the XXVIII. Olympiad of the new era for opened. "

    The Greek swimmer Zoi Dimoschaki and the Greek basketball referee Lazaros Voreadis took the Olympic oath .

    The Olympic torch was carried into the stadium by Nikos Galis , a former Greek basketball player. There the Greek football legend Dimitrios Domazos , the hurdle Olympic champion from 1992 Paraskevi Patoulidou , the weightlifting Olympic champion from 1992 , 1996 and 2000 Akakios Kachiasvilis and the gymnastics Olympic champion from 1996 Ioannis Melissanidis wore it . The last torchbearer was the 1996 Olympic sailing champion Nikolaos Kaklamanakis , who lit the Olympic flame at 11:05 p.m. CET, in Athens it was already 0:05 a.m.

    Award ceremonies

    After an award ceremony

    Based on the first modern Olympic Games and the ancient Olympic Games, the winners of the competitions were given a wreath made from branches of the olive tree in addition to the obligatory medals.

    Closing ceremony

    Closing ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games

    On August 29, 2004, the closing ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games took place in the Athens Olympic Stadium in front of around 70,000 spectators. The award ceremony for the last competition, the marathon, won by the Italian Stefano Baldini , took place there. Then the standard bearers of all nations marched in, followed by the athletes who were not separated by origin. There were short speeches by the head of the organizing committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and IOC President Jacques Rogge , who described the Athens players as "unforgettable, dreamlike games". He broke with the tradition of naming the Games as the best of all time in the IOC President's closing speech, as his predecessor Juan Antonio Samaranch always did.

    The focus of the ceremony was the handover of the Olympic flag of the Olympic Games of 1920 in Antwerp from the Mayor of Athens to the Mayor of the next venue, Beijing . The anthems of the two countries were played and their flags were hoisted. After the flag was handed over, the People's Republic of China presented itself with a short program with dancers, artists and musicians, during which the band Nüzi shier yuefang also performed. After these appearances, Rogge declared the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens over.

    A young Greek girl held a small lamp with the Olympic flame and passed it on to other children before blowing out the Olympic flame. The closing ceremony ended with the appearance of the Greek singers Anna Vissi , Sakis Rouvas , Eleftheria Arvanitaki , Alkistis Protopsalti , Marinella , Giorgos Dalaras , Dimitra Galani and Haris Alexiou .

    Competitions

    badminton

    The badminton competitions were dominated by the Asian teams. The men's singles were won by Indonesian Taufik Hidayat, ahead of Shon Seung-mo from South Korea and Sony Dwi Kuncoro , who also came from Indonesia. The best European was the Dane Peter Gade in fifth place. Teams from South Korea won gold and silver in men's doubles. The duo from Indonesia took bronze. The Danish pair of Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard Hansen just missed a medal with fourth place.

    Won the women's Zhang Ning from China before Mia Audina from the Netherlands and her compatriot Zhou Mi . The first two places in the women's doubles went to Chinese teams. Koreans won bronze.

    The mixed tournament was won by the Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling in front of the team Nathan Robertson / Gail Emms from Great Britain and Jens Eriksen / Mette Schjoldager from Denmark.

    baseball

    The team from Cuba won the 2004 Olympic Games baseball tournament. In the final she defeated the Australian team 6-2, which won the silver medal. In the game for third place, Japan defeated Canada 11: 2 and thus took bronze.

    Host Greece finished seventh out of eight participants in the preliminary round. The first four qualified for the semi-finals.

    basketball

    Archery

    On August 12th, the ranking round in the individual archery competition for men and women also took place at the Dekelia Air Force Base.

    Boxing

    The most successful boxing nation was once again Cuba with five Olympic champions. The Russians were also surprisingly strong with three Olympic champions. The other Olympic champions came from the USA, Thailand and Kazakhstan. Only two German boxers reached the medal ranks, but failed in the semifinals and won bronze.

    fencing

    Soccer

    Two days before the official opening of the Olympic Games, the competitions began with the first preliminary rounds in the women's soccer tournament. The German women's national football team won their first game in this tournament against China 8-0. Birgit Prinz contributed four goals alone , who scored in the 13th, 21st, 72nd and 88th minutes. The Swedes, who lost the World Cup final to Germany in 2003, surprisingly lost 1-0 to Japan. There were also the encounters Greece - USA (0: 3) and Brazil - Australia (1: 0).

    There were also the first encounters in the men's soccer tournament. The game Mali against Mexico ended in a draw 0-0. Tunisia and Australia also drew 1: 1. Argentina and Serbia and Montenegro drew 6-0. In the game between Greece and South Korea (2-2) there was a picture loss on Greek television after five minutes, which lasted 25 minutes.

    One day before the opening, the Iraqi national soccer team surprisingly defeated Portugal 4-2. Paraguay and Japan (4: 3), Ghana and Italy (2: 2) and Costa Rica and Morocco (0: 0) also met.

    Weightlifting

    Handball

    Two handball tournaments were held.

    In the women's final , Denmark was able to secure the gold medal with a 38:36 victory over South Korea . Ukraine won the game for third place by beating France 21:18 .

    Croatia won the men's final 26:24 against the German selection . Russia secured the bronze medal with a 28:26 against Hungary .

    Information on the venues, the results of the preliminary round and the team line-ups can be found in this article .

    hockey

    The possible gold hat trick after their title wins in Atlanta and Sydney was denied to the Dutch: Australia won the men's final 2-1 after extra time. Star striker Jamie Dwyer scored the first golden goal in an Olympic final and helped the Australian hockey men to their first Olympic victory in history. The reigning world and European champions Germany won bronze with a 4-3 win against Spain, also with a golden goal.

    The German team surprisingly won the women's hockey tournament against the favorite team from the Netherlands. With two goals in the first half, Germany took the lead 2-0 (goal scorers Anke Kühn , Franziska Gude ). In the second half, after a penalty corner, the Netherlands managed the 1: 2 connection goal by Maartje Scheepstra . The compensation that would have meant an extension, however, no longer fell. With the title, Germany's hockey ladies wrote sporting history at the same time, because with this victory a German ladies team won a gold medal for the first time at an Olympic hockey tournament. The world champions from Argentina won bronze.

    Judo

    Julia Matijass won the first German medal with bronze in women's judo up to 48 kilograms. With an uchimata , an inner thigh throw , she won the battle for third place.

    Claudia Heill was the first Austrian to win an Olympic medal in judo.

    The first sporting controversy was sparked by the Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili , who, out of sympathy with the Palestinians, decided not to start at the games because he should have played against the Israeli Ehud Vaks in the first round . As world champion in 2001 and 2003, the Iranian was one of the favorites for a medal.

    canoe

    athletics

    Modern pentathlon

    Olympic champions were Zsuzsanna Voros (Hungary) and Andrej Moisejew (Russia).

    Cycling

    In the men's road race , the Italian Paolo Bettini won after 5:41:44 h ahead of the Portuguese Sérgio Paulinho and the Belgian Axel Merckx . Just four seconds behind, Erik Zabel took fourth place as the winner of the sprint of the main field. The defending champion Jan Ullrich only reached 19th place. Jens Voigt was another German starter, 64th place. Andreas Klöden had to give up the race with cramps. The spectator interest in the road bike race was quite low, which could have been due to the heat of up to 40 degrees. The American Tyler Hamilton won the individual time trial over 48 kilometers with a time of 57: 37.74 minutes ahead of the Russian Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Yekimov . Bronze went to Bobby Julich , also from the USA. The best German was Michael Rich with fifth place. Jan Ullrich, who won silver in the Sydney time trial, finished seventh. It was found later that winner Hamilton's A-sample was positive. There was no punishment because the B-sample had been stored incorrectly and could therefore not be used. In August 2012, however, Hamilton was subsequently stripped of the Olympic victory, so that the following drivers moved up and Jekimov received the gold medal.

    Sara Carrigan from Australia won the women's 118.8 kilometer road bike race ahead of the German Judith Arndt and the Russian Olga Sljussarewa . Arndt got into the headlines because she showed her middle finger when crossing the finish line. She wanted to protest against her association, which had not nominated her partner, Petra Rossner , despite good performance in advance. In the individual time trial over 24 kilometers, which was won by the Dutchman Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel , the Swiss Karin Thürig took bronze. German drivers could not place in the front ranks.

    The Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle won the women's mountain bike race . The German Sabine Spitz was third, Ivonne Kraft was seventh. In the men's mountain bike race, Julien Absalon won . Sixth and seventh place went to the two Swiss Ralph Näf and Thomas Frischknecht ahead of the German Manuel Fumic .

    The track cycling competitions were dominated by the Australians: They won four of the eight competitions. Among other things, they secured the sprint with Ryan Bayley and won the team pursuit over 4000 meters. The only German gold medal in the track cycling competitions was won by Jens Fiedler , Stefan Nimke and René Wolff with 43.980 seconds in the Olympic sprint. In addition, Germany was able to record three bronze medals, won by René Wolff in the sprint, Stefan Nimke in the 1000 meter time trial and Guido Fulst in the points race. Franco Marvulli and Bruno Risi won silver in the two-man team driving and thus achieved the only Swiss medal on the track.

    The four women's track cycling competitions were won by four nations. The German starter Katrin Meinke took eleventh place in the 500-meter time trial with 35.088 s and eighth place in the points race. Her best placement was sixth in the sprint. The Swiss Karin Thürig reached fifth place in the 3000 meter individual pursuit with 3: 34.831 minutes.

    horse riding

    Wrestling

    rowing

    shoot

    The first medal decision was made by the shooters in the air rifle. The German favorite Sonja Pfeilschifter only reached sixth place and thus disappointed the hope for the first medal placed in the German shooters. In the men's air pistol competition, Wang Yifu from China won ahead of the two Russians Mikhail Nestruyev and Vladimir Issakov .

    In the last competition held at the Olympic Games on the running target , Manfred Kurzer from Frankfurt (Oder) set a new world record with 590 rings in the preliminary fight and was six rings ahead of the second placed participant before the final. In the final fight Kurzer was able to defend the lead despite two very bad shots and was Olympic champion ahead of Alexander Blinow and Dmitri Lykin .

    Ralf Schumann was the first shooter to win gold medals in three Olympic Games in the Olympic Rapid Fire Pistol discipline . Schumann won the silver medal in Seoul in 1988, at the time for the GDR team .

    swim

    The German 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay for women in swimming disappointed with fourth place. The German relay with Franziska van Almsick , Antje Buschschulte , Petra Dallmann and Daniela Götz was 3: 37.94 minutes behind the gold medalists from Australia, who improved the world record set by the Germans at the European Championships in 2002 with 3: 35.94 minutes . the USA and the Netherlands. At the last change, the German 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay was still in third place, but Franziska van Almsick couldn't keep up with Dutch Inge de Bruijn .

    Water polo

    In the men's category, the Hungarian team won gold, silver went to Serbia and Montenegro and bronze to Russia . The women's team from Italy won gold, Greece silver and the USA bronze.

    Diving

    sailing

    Softball

    Taekwondo

    tennis

    Table tennis

    Triathlon

    The Olympic triathlon competitions consisted of the sub-disciplines of 1.5 kilometers swimming , 40 kilometers cycling and 10 kilometers running . In the men's category, New Zealander Hamish Carter won gold ahead of fellow countryman Bevan Docherty . Third was the Swiss Sven Riederer . The best German was Andreas Raelert in sixth place, who was just ahead of second Swiss starter Olivier Marceau in eighth place. The Bautzen Maik Petzold reached the 19th place. The third German starter, Sebastian Dehmer , placed 26th . The third Swiss, Reto Hug , crossed the finish line in his forties.

    The women's triathlon was won by Austrian Kate Allen , followed by Loretta Harrop from Australia and Susan Williams from the USA. Brigitte McMahon from Switzerland took tenth place ahead of the German Anja Dittmer , who was eleventh. Joelle Franzmann , the second German starter, came in 16th and was three places ahead of the second Swiss Nicola Spirig . The second Austrian starter landed in 28th place.

    do gymnastics

    Rhythmic sports gymnastics

    Trampoline exercise

    Anna Dogonadze won gold for the German team. Even Henrik Stehlik was the victory of the Ukrainian Yuri Nikitin quite convincing with his bronze medal.

    volleyball

    Volleyball (hall)

    In men's indoor volleyball, Brazil won the gold medal for the third time in its twelfth participation. In the final, the South Americans defeated Italy 3-1. Russia secured the bronze medal against the USA . In the women's category, China dethroned Cuba, who had previously been victorious three times in a row, and became Olympic champion for the second time with a 3-2 win in the final against Russia. The Cubans won the bronze game against the USA.

    beach volleyball

    In the men's beach volleyball competition, the winning duo did not come from the USA for the first time. The Brazilians Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego won the final against the Spaniards Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera Allepuz 2-0. The Swiss Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel secured the bronze medal. In the women's category, the Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May crowned their successful streak with an Olympic victory. Just like four years earlier, the Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede only got the silver medal. Bronze went to the second US team, Holly McPeak / Elaine Youngs .

    Outstanding athletes

    • The most successful athlete was the American Michael Phelps . He won eight medals (six gold, two bronze) in swimming competitions. Besides Alexander Ditjatin ( Turnen , 1980), he is the only athlete who has won so many medals at one venue.
    • The most successful athlete was the Australian swimmer Petria Thomas with three gold and one silver medal.
    • The canoeist Birgit Fischer also won a gold medal at her sixth Olympic Games, as in the five previous participations. With a total of eight gold and four silver medals, she is the most successful German Olympic athlete. Birgit Fischer won her first Olympic gold 24 years earlier, at the 1980 Games in Moscow .
    • One of the unlucky people of the games was Matthew Emmons , who, clearly in the lead, shot at the neighboring target of the Austrian Christian Planer in the last shot of the small-caliber three-position fight . With 0 points in the last shot, it was only eighth. With this missed shot, Planer got bronze. However, Emmons won gold prone.

    Controversy

    • After a protest by France, the German eventing riders were deprived of their gold medal and a penalty of 12 points was given for exceeding the time limit, as the German final rider Bettina Hoy made a mistake at the beginning of the course. As a result, the team fell to fourth place in the overall standings. Hoy accidentally crossed the starting line during a short warm-up lap. The time measurement during her victory ride started incorrectly only after crossing the start line a second time. As a rule, this should have happened after the first time it was exceeded.
    Therefore, after Germany's own objection to this judgment, the gold medal was awarded again for reasons of sportiness. The jury should have indicated the beginning of the time measurement to the final German rider when she first crossed the start line. This would have given Hoy the chance to finish the short lap faster and could have stayed in the allowed time of 90 seconds.
    After a renewed objection from the following nations France, Great Britain and the USA , the decision was referred to the International Court of Justice . The latter decided on August 21st that both medals should be revoked from Germany. The court justified the decision , which was heavily criticized from many sides, with the fact that the arbitration panel of the FEI , which awarded the German team and Bettina Hoy the medal again after the German objection, should not have overturned the decision of the ground jury of the world federation, because it was up it was a factual decision.
    On August 25, the World Equestrian Federation (FEI) submitted a petition to the IOC to award the gold medal twice, but not to officially evaluate the German medals. This pardon was rejected by the IOC on August 27th. The decision is then final.
    • After the final of the individual all-round gymnastics , three judges were suspended by the World Gymnastics Federation. It turned out that the third-placed South Korean Tae Young Yang had an initial value that was too low. Instead of a base of 10.0 points, it started with just 9.9 points. If everything had gone correctly, the South Korean would have won and not the American Paul Hamm . The CAS decided that the result will no longer be changed because Yang did not protest immediately after the grading, but only after the end of the competition. The responsible judges were suspended by the FIG.
    • A hitherto unique incident occurred during the gymnastics competition on the horizontal bar. After the extremely difficult exercise of the Russian Alexei Nemow , the Olympic champion of Sydney 2000, with an almost perfect execution, only a small lunge on the exit could cause a deduction in the grading. Instead of the 10.0 there was only a 9.725 because of the small mistake at the end of the exercise. A loud storm of protest broke out in the audience and lasted for more than 20 minutes. The competition was interrupted and after a few minutes the jury corrected the score to 9.762 without Nemow improving his ranking (5th place). After the American Paul Hamm received a better grade for a visibly less good exercise, the protest of the audience continued. Nemow himself reassured the audience with soothing gestures. Finally the Italian Igor Cassina won . Nemow was awarded the Fair Play Prize in 2005 for his behavior.
    • During the last competition of the Games, the men's marathon , a serious incident occurred. The leading Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima was dragged from the road by a madman eight kilometers from the finish. At that point, de Lima was 48 seconds ahead and lost about 20 seconds because of this incident. Five kilometers from the finish he was overtaken by the Italian Stefano Baldini and the American Meb Keflezighi . De Lima was third in the end.
    It later became known that the madman was the Irish Cornelius Horan , a religious fanatic who repeatedly causes incidents at sporting events. For example, in 2003 at the Formula 1 GP in Silverstone, he ran the race track during the race.
    Jacques Rogge , President of the IOC , presented de Lima with the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for exemplary sportsmanship.

    doping

    By intensifying and improving doping controls , a large number of athletes tested positive at these Olympic Games. After the athletes are transferred, their performance will be denied. There will be a disqualification from all other competitions by the IOC Disciplinary Commission and you must expect a competition ban for several years .

    In the months leading up to the Olympic Games, many potential Olympians tested positive, including Swiss professional cyclist and ex-world champion Oscar Camenzind (July 22, EPO ), Irish long-distance runner Cathal Lombard (EPO), and Spanish cyclist Janet Puiggrois Miranda (July 17 , EPO), the Spanish European Championship third in the kayak - Jovino Gozalez (July 16, EPO), US sprinter Jerome Young (July 23, EPO, now suspended for two years due to previous doping), the Belgian mountain bike world champion Filip Meirhaeghe (June 25, EPO), the Australian weightlifter Caroline Pileggi (refused doping test in June) and numerous cases of doping with tetrahydrogestrinone (GHG) in US athletics in connection with the doping scandal surrounding the US doping analysis laboratory BALCO . Sprint world champion Torri Edwards was not allowed to compete, the American had tested positive for the stimulant nikethamide at a meeting on the Caribbean island of Martinique .

    • August 9th: The first official doping cases of the Athens Games are the baseball players Andreas James Brack and Derek Nicholson from the Greek team. The Greco-Americans starting for Greece were tested on August 5th after arriving in Athens. All Olympians convicted after the opening of the Olympic Village on July 30th are officially doping cases of the Games. Brack was convicted of taking the banned anabolic drug stanozolol , which Ben Johnson was already doped with in 1988 . Nicholson tested positive for diuretics , which, for health reasons, have to be officially declared when taken according to IOC regulations, as it is often used to disguise steroid doping.
    • August 17th: At Nan Aye Khine from Myanmar , fourth place in weightlifting (up to 48 kg) for women, traces of an anabolic steroid were detected. She admitted that she regularly took an herbal extract , but she did not have the composition analyzed. Nan Aye Khine was the first doping offender who had already participated in the competition to be subsequently excluded from the games.

    A scandal occurred in the run-up to the games that was to shake the Greek sports world. After a bogus motorcycle accident, the Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou had themselves taken to an Athens hospital for alleged treatment. At that time, however, a doping control was scheduled, which they avoided. It turned out that they had previously evaded two other controls in Chicago and Tel Aviv . The anti-doping rules state that the refusal of a doping test is automatically counted as a positive sample. At an IOC hearing on August 18, they anticipated an exclusion from the Olympic Games in Athens and announced that they would not participate. Meanwhile, Christos Tzekos , former coach of Kostas Kenteris, is believed to be the main culprit behind this scandal. Greek authorities found around 1,400 packages of anabolic steroids and other banned substances in his offices .

    • August 20: Uzbek Olga Shchukina was excluded from qualification in the shot put. Shchukina tested positive for Clenbuterol in a training control on August 14, 2004 . Sanamacha Chanu , an Indian weightlifter, also tested positive . Furosemide (diuretic) was found in a control of August 15, 2004 . She was stripped of fourth place in weightlifting in the 53 kilogram class.
    • August 21: The Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis , who had won bronze in the class up to 62 kg, was found to have greatly increased testosterone levels in the A and B samples after a control. Sabanis was then stripped of the bronze medal. In addition, weightlifters Nital Sharipov from Kyrgyzstan and Russian vice world champion Albina Khomitsch tested positive during training controls . With Christoforos Choidis , another Greek sprinter did not appear for a doping test. Greek media reported that Choidis had already left the Olympic village.
    • August 26th: The Hungarian weightlifter Zoltán Kovács refused a doping test on August 25th after he prematurely ended the competition in the 105 kg class. He was banned from the games. The Ukrainian women's double foursome loses his bronze medal because the team doctor prescribed a banned stimulant for the rower Olena Olefirenko . Therefore, the medal was only withdrawn but not excluded from the Olympic Games.
    • August 29th: The Hungarian hammer thrower Adrián Annus is deprived of the gold medal because of manipulations during the first doping control after the competition and the refusal to give a new doping test.

    In spring 2012, in response to public pressure , the IOC had new test methods carried out on doping samples stored for this purpose from the Athens Games. This led to five further doping findings, including those of the Belarusian hammer thrower Iwan Zichan , who then did not compete in the 2012 Olympic Games .

    In December 2012, the IOC announced that it had examined samples again before the eight-year control period had expired and had four athletes withdrawn their medals for doping with anabolic steroids, including the shot putter Jurij Bilonoh , the discus thrower Iryna Jattschanka , the shot putter Svetlana Kriweljowa and hammer thrower Ivan Zichan .

    safety

    During the planning phase, the new security situation had to be taken into account, which had changed significantly, especially after the terrorist attacks in the USA in 2001 and in Madrid in 2004 . These measures resulted in security spending of over a billion euros instead of the planned amount of 250 million.

    The NATO participated in the security measures with AWACS aircraft intended to secure the air space, as well as seven warships and a submarine to secure the Aegean and the Ionian Sea to the security measures. A zeppelin equipped with cameras and other electronics circled over the city and was supposed to provide information to the security forces. The airship was chartered in Switzerland for 1.2 million euros . Over 70,000 police officers were on duty and over 1,000 surveillance cameras were installed. Patriot batteries were set up in the Athens area to shoot down aircraft that would have entered the 75-kilometer security zone around the sports facilities in an emergency.

    From Pope John Paul II. The desire has been declared for peaceful games.

    On Saturday, August 14, 2004, a false bomb alarm went off in front of the Press Village, which was inhabited by 1,600 journalists, near the Olympic Stadium. The suspicious suitcase only contained normal travel items.

    costs

    After the games were awarded to Athens in 1997, the organizing committee reckoned it would cost 1.25 billion euros. A profit of 33 million euros was also expected. The socialist government, which was voted out in March 2004, assumed 4.6 billion euros for the sports facilities. In total, however, they then cost almost seven billion euros. The primary cause was the worsening security situation since September 2001, with various states calling for special protection both for individuals and in general.

    In connection with the games, the expansion of Athens' transport infrastructure is often seen, which cost nine billion euros and a. included two new metro lines and the reintroduction of the tram. In fact, these were projects that were already being planned and under construction, the realization of which was only accelerated by the games.

    Cultural program

    The DESTE cultural foundation organized the exhibition monument to now which offered an overview of contemporary art from all over the world.

    Commercialization

    In addition to the security checks at the visitors of the events, they also had to hand over competing products to the sponsors or put them in safe custody, for example with soft drinks.

    reporting

    Around 21,600 media representatives reported from the Athens Olympics. It was also the first major event to be broadcast on high definition television (HDTV) by the American broadcaster NBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK . The two German public broadcasters Das Erste and ZDF alternately reported around 300 hours of the Olympic Games. In addition, another 1100 hours of the Olympics were broadcast over four digital channels.

    Quotes

    • “I'm actually only here to go to the Olympic Games post office on August 22nd to pick up my gold medal.” - Maurice Greene (USA), Olympic champion in Sydney over the 100 meters, but only won bronze in Athens.

    Web links

    Commons : Olympic Games 2004  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

    Individual evidence

    1. Athens 2004 www.olympic.org
    2. https://www.sport.de/news/ne1943121/ioc-erkennt-hamilton-olympiasieg-von-2004-ab/
    3. ^ Report in SPIEGEL
    4. ^ Liz Robbins: South Korean Gymnast Appeals to Top Sports Court. In: The New York Times . August 29, 2004, accessed May 6, 2015 .
    5. Tichons refrain from starting: Positive post-test from 2004 ( memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) , Zeit Online / sid, August 3, 2012
    6. Jenny Soffel: Five Athens drug cheats to be revealed , The Independent, August 5, 2012 (English)
    7. ^ IOC Media Relations Team: IOC disqualifies four medallists from Athens 2004 following further analysis of stored samples ( English ) IOC . December 5, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2012.