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It’s Atlanta!: Read the AJC story announcing the 1996 Olympic Games

An Atlanta 1996 banner makes its way north along Peachtree Street Monday during an Olympic Parade celebrating Atlanta's winning bid for the 1996 Games. Joey Ivansco/AJC File

Credit: Joey Ivansco

Credit: Joey Ivansco

An Atlanta 1996 banner makes its way north along Peachtree Street Monday during an Olympic Parade celebrating Atlanta's winning bid for the 1996 Games. Joey Ivansco/AJC File
Updated Sept 18, 2020

As dreams go, this one seemed preposterous.

But 30 years ago today, Sept. 18, 1990, in an enormous, ornate ballroom in Tokyo, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch made a simple announcement:

“The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic Games to the city of … Atlanta."

In what has been described as one of closest competitions ever, the IOC took five rounds of votes to reach a decision.

Atlanta trailed Athens on the first ballot, 23-19. Belgrade was knocked out, then Manchester, then Melbourne. When Toronto, which held 22 votes, was eliminated in the fourth round, Atlanta soared to 51 votes.

As one key player in the effort told reporters afterward: “In a world seemingly more uncertain and unpredictable every day, there will be no uncertainty about the Atlanta Games.”

ExploreClick here to read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's coverage from that fateful day, including then-reactions from notables such as Andrew Young
ExploreClick here to read a column from AJC Managing Editor Bert Roughton Jr., reflecting on how "nothing since has been the same"
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