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90-452: NBC, which had broadcast rights to the Games, believed that viewers would be willing to pay US$ 95 to $ 170 to watch events live, which would normally be shown on tape delay on the network in prime time . It partnered with Cablevision, a prominent New York cable provider, to create three channels, dubbed Red, White, and Blue. A special three-button remote control with the colors of the channels as

180-452: A Jeopardy! international tournament , and three weeks of Wheel of Fortune episodes filmed on-location at Atlanta's Fox Theatre . The Games were affected by several instances of ambush marketing —in which companies attempt to use the Games as a means to promote their brand, in competition with the exclusive, category-based sponsorship rights issued by the Atlanta organizing committee and

270-715: A bleep noise or other substitute sound can be inserted. This is more difficult to do with live content, however, and more often appears on recorded material. 1996 Summer Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad , also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games ) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta , Georgia , United States . These were

360-463: A commemorative plaque was unveiled for Centennial Olympic Park to honor the 20th anniversary of the Games. Following the Braves' departure from Turner Field to Truist Park in 2017, Georgia State University acquired the former Olympic Stadium and surrounding parking lots. It reconfigured the stadium for a second time into Center Parc Stadium for its college football team . The 1996 Olympic cauldron

450-421: A deferred live . Such a delay may be to prevent mistakes or unacceptable content from being broadcast. Longer delays lasting several hours can also be introduced so that the material is aired at a later scheduled time (such as the prime time hours) to maximize viewership. Tape delays lasting several hours can also be edited down to remove filler material or to trim a broadcast to the network's desired run time for

540-714: A British colony (1842–1997). This meant that for the only time, the colonial flag of Hong Kong was raised to the accompaniment of the British national anthem " God Save the Queen ", as Hong Kong's sovereignty was later transferred to China in 1997. The U.S. women's soccer team won the gold medal in the first-ever women's football event. For the first time, Olympic medals were won by athletes from Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Burundi , Czech Republic , Ecuador , Georgia , Hong Kong , Kazakhstan , Moldova , Mozambique , Slovakia , Tonga , Ukraine , and Uzbekistan . Another first in Atlanta

630-519: A broadcast slot, but this is not always the case. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity , bloopers , nudity , or other undesirable material from making it to air. In this instance, it is often referred to as a "seven-second delay" or "profanity delay". Longer delays, however, may also be introduced, often to allow a show to air at the same time for the local market as is sometimes done with nationally broadcast programs in countries with multiple time zones . Considered as time shifting , that

720-425: A four-year suspension in 1998 for tampering with a urine sample, though her medals and records were allowed to stand. In track and field, Donovan Bailey of Canada won the men's 100 m, setting a new world record of 9.84 seconds at that time. He also anchored his team's gold in the 4 × 100 m relay . Michael Johnson won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m, setting a new world record of 19.32 seconds in

810-686: A lasting impact on the city; Centennial Olympic Park led a revitalization of Atlanta's downtown area , and has served as a symbol of the legacy of the 1996 Games; the Olympic Village buildings have since been used as residential housing for area universities; and the Centennial Olympic Stadium has since been redeveloped twice, first as the Turner Field baseball stadium, then as the Center Parc American football stadium. Atlanta

900-561: A local cauldron lighting event on the first day of the Games (headlined by a performance by country musician Trisha Yearwood ). In 1994, African-American artist Kevin Cole was commissioned to create the Coca-Cola Centennial Olympic Mural, and the 15-story mural took two years to complete. The ceremony began with a 60-second countdown, which included footage from all of the previous Olympic Games at twenty-two seconds. There

990-565: A new IOC practice implemented in 1994 to hold the Summer and Winter Games in alternating, even-numbered years. The 1996 Games were the first of the two consecutive Summer Olympics to be held in a predominantly English-speaking country , preceding the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. These were also the last Summer Olympics to be held in North America until 2028 , when Los Angeles will host

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1080-569: A pioneering radio talk show in New York City in 1954, was one of the early users of a tape delay system that was invented by his engineer, Russell Tinklepaugh. Another announcer who was said to use a tape-delay was talk show pioneer Jerry Williams at WMEX in Boston in the late 1950s. In 1977, the capacity of RAM ( random-access memory ) had reached 16  kilobits per chip, enough to think about using computerized digital audio means to create

1170-812: A result, until today, many live programs, such as music and talent competition shows, are usually tape delayed for the western half of the country and aired as-live (although they may include edits to streamline the broadcast or resolve technical faults). Australian network television schedule is largely patterned from the U.S. format. In countries that span multiple time zones and are the most populous in their western or central regions, like Brazil , Russia and Indonesia , all television schedules nationwide are simultaneous with their broadcast sources, enabling full nationwide live telecasts regardless of time zones (although Russia conducts separate live primetime newscast versions for each range of time zones in that country). The continents of Europe and Africa, which both fall in

1260-639: A statement, saying: "the purpose of the attack on July 27th was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand." He received four life sentences without parole , to be served at USP Florence ADMAX near Florence, Colorado . Preparations for the Olympics lasted more than seven years and had an economic impact of at least US$ 5.14 billion. Over two million visitors came to Atlanta, and approximately 3.5 billion people around

1350-484: A successful 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and Melbourne, Australia, who hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and after Brisbane, Australia 's failed bid for the 1992 games (which were awarded to Barcelona ) and prior to Sydney, Australia 's successful 2000 Summer Olympics bid. This would be Toronto's fourth failed attempt since 1960 (tried in 1960, 1964, and 1976, but was defeated by Rome, Tokyo and Montreal). Greece ,

1440-426: A sufficient delay for content deletion. By storing audio digitally, it was possible to move a "virtual tape head" along recorded audio. Eventide, Inc. created the first digital broadcast delay for this purpose. The device (known colloquially as a "dump box") had a large "DUMP"/"DELAY DUMP" button that would bring the delay to zero, thus removing unwanted segments. In addition to this convenience, it would also "rebuild"

1530-556: A team rhythmic gymnastics event. In women's gymnastics, Ukrainian Lilia Podkopayeva became the all-around Olympic champion. Podkopayeva also won a second gold medal in the floor exercise final and a silver on the beam – becoming the only female gymnast since Nadia Comăneci to win an individual event gold after winning the all-around title in the same Olympics. Kerri Strug of the United States women's gymnastics team vaulted with an injured ankle and landed on one foot, winning

1620-469: Is often achieved by a "tape delay", using a video tape recorder , modern digital video recorders , or other similar technology. Tape delay may also refer to the process of broadcasting an event at a later scheduled time because a scheduling conflict prevents a live telecast, or a broadcaster seeks to maximize ratings by airing an event in a certain timeslot. That can also be done because of time constraints of certain portions, usually those that do not affect

1710-454: The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer ) were: Armenia , Belarus , Czech Republic , Georgia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Moldova , Slovakia , Ukraine and Uzbekistan . The Czech Republic and Slovakia attended the games as independent nations for the first time since the breakup of Czechoslovakia , while the rest of the nations that made their Summer Olympic debut were formerly part of

1800-529: The 2004 Summer Olympics seven years later on September 5, 1997. The total cost of the 1996 Summer Olympics was estimated to be around US$ 1.7 billion. The venues and the Games themselves were funded entirely via private investment, and the only public funding came from the U.S. government for security, and around $ 500 million of public money used on physical public infrastructure including streetscaping, road improvements, Centennial Olympic Park (alongside $ 75 million in private funding), expansion of

1890-451: The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, have caused some to offer more positive reappraisals of the management of the 1996 Summer Games. Former JPMorgan Chase president (and torchbearer) Kabir Sehgal noted that in contrast to many later Olympics, those of 1996 were financially viable, had a positive economic impact on the city, and most of the facilities constructed continued to be used after

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1980-811: The Academy Awards , Golden Globe Awards , Grammy Awards , Emmy Awards and Tony Awards , yearly specials like the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants, and major sporting events like the Olympic Games , FIFA World Cup and the National Football League 's Super Bowl , air to totality live on both television and the internet virtually all across the world's time zones in and out of their countries of origin. In addition, television networks nowadays mandate prime time rebroadcasts (featuring edits as desired by broadcasters) for regions that are not covered by

2070-571: The Soviet Union . 10,339 athletes from 197 NOCs participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics. The 1996 Olympics were marred by the Centennial Olympic Park bombing , which occurred on July 27. Security guard Richard Jewell discovered the pipe bomb and immediately notified law enforcement, helping to evacuate as many people as possible from the area before it exploded. Although Jewell's quick actions are credited for saving many lives,

2160-756: The Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008, daytime events were occurring at early morning hours in the Americas, Africa, and Europe but were aired in the afternoon and evening hours live entirely in Asia, Australia, and Oceania. That made some broadcasters show high-profile events twice (live and then rebroadcast during prime time), but others withheld the same event to be broadcast solely during prime time. Often, tape-delaying of those events would mean editing them down for time considerations, highlighting what

2250-467: The Women's artistic gymnastics team all-around . The Games were marred by violence on July 27, 1996, when a pipe bomb was detonated at Centennial Olympic Park (which had been built to serve as a public focal point for the festivities), killing two and injuring 111. Years later, Eric Rudolph confessed to the bombing and a series of related terrorist attacks, and was sentenced to life in prison. Nonetheless,

2340-479: The closing ceremony , IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch said in his closing speech, "Well done, Atlanta" and simply called the Games "most exceptional." This broke precedent for Samaranch, who had traditionally labeled each Games "the best Olympics ever" at each closing ceremony, a practice he resumed at the subsequent Winter Games in Nagano in 1998 . A report prepared after the Games by European Olympic officials

2430-439: The 1992 Summer Games Afghanistan and Cambodia returned to send delegations to Atlanta. The 14 countries making their Olympic debut were: Azerbaijan , Burundi , Cape Verde , Comoros , Dominica , Guinea-Bissau , Macedonia , Nauru , Palestinian Authority , Saint Kitts and Nevis , Saint Lucia , São Tomé and Príncipe , Tajikistan and Turkmenistan . The ten countries making their Summer Olympic debut (after competing at

2520-444: The 1996 Olympics turned a profit, helped by record revenue from sponsorship deals and broadcast rights, and a reliance on private funding, among other factors. There were 8.3 million tickets sold for events at this Olympics, a record broken only in 2024. There was some criticism of the perceived over-commercialization of the Games, with other issues raised by European officials, such as the availability of food and transport. The event had

2610-461: The 200 m. Marie-José Pérec equaled Johnson's performance, although without a world record, by winning the rare 200 m/400 m double. Carl Lewis won his 4th long jump gold medal at the age of 35. In tennis, Andre Agassi won the gold medal, which would eventually make him the first man and second singles player overall (after his eventual wife, Steffi Graf ) to win the career Golden Slam , which consists of an Olympic gold medal and victories in

2700-585: The American Meter Company and electroplated by Erie Plating Company . Each torch weighed about 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) and was made primarily of aluminum, with a Georgia pecan wood handle and gold ornamentation. The 1996 Summer Olympic program featured 271 events in 26 sports. Softball , beach volleyball and mountain biking debuted on the Olympic program, together with women's football , lightweight rowing , women's swimming , women's fencing , and

2790-629: The American youth and a typical Saturday college football game in the South, including the wave commonly produced by spectators in sporting events around the world. There was another showcase entitled "Summertime" which focused on Atlanta and the Old South , emphasizing its beauty, spirit, music, history, culture, and rebirth after the American Civil War . The ceremony also featured a memorable dance tribute to

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2880-616: The Athletes' Village, which distributed Nike-branded flags to visitors (presumably to be used at events). IOC marketing director Michael Payne expressed concern for the campaign, believing that athletes could perceive them as being an insult to their accomplishments. Payne and the United States Olympic Committee 's marketing director, John Krimsky, met with Howard Slusher, a subordinate of Nike co-founder Phil Knight . The meeting quickly turned aggressive, with Payne warning that

2970-714: The Dream ", accompanied by Foster on the piano, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Centennial Choir (comprising Morehouse College Glee Club , Spelman College Glee Club and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus). Gladys Knight sang Georgia's official state song , " Georgia on My Mind ". There was a showcase entitled "Welcome To The World", featuring cheerleaders , Chevrolet pick-up trucks , marching bands , and steppers , which highlighted

3060-587: The French Open title in 1999, making him the first men's singles tennis player to complete the Golden Slam ; Donovan Bailey , who set a new world record of 9.84 for the men's 100 meters ; Lilia Podkopayeva , who became the second gymnast to win an individual event gold medal after winning the all-around title in the same Olympics; and the Magnificent Seven , who dramatically won the first ever U.S. gold medal in

3150-563: The Games were held in Atlanta. The 1996 Summer Olympics relied heavily on commercial sponsorship. The Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company was the exclusive provider of soft drinks at Olympics venues, and built an attraction known as Coca-Cola Olympic City for the Games. As part of a sponsorship agreement with Columbia TriStar Television , the syndicated game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune both produced episodes with Olympics tie-ins (including branded memorabilia and contests) for broadcast between April and July 1996. These included

3240-519: The Games. Sehgal contrasted the 1996 Games' "grassroots" effort backed almost entirely by private funding, with the only significant public spending coming from infrastructure associated with the Games, to modern "top-down" bids, instigated by local governments and reliant on taxpayer funding, making them unpopular among citizens who may not necessarily be interested. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will rely almost entirely on private funding, with

3330-593: The IOC (which grants the rights to use Olympics-related terms and emblems in marketing). The Atlanta organizing committee threatened legal actions against advertisers whose marketing implied an official association with the Games. Several non-sponsors set up marketing activities in areas near venues, such as Samsung (competing with Motorola ), which ambushed the Games with its "96 Expo". The city of Atlanta had also licensed street vendors to sell products from competitors to Olympic sponsors. The most controversial ambush campaign

3420-485: The IOC could pull accreditation for Nike employees and ban the display of its logos on equipment; he also threatened to organize a press conference where silver medallists from the Games, as well as prominent Nike-sponsored athlete Michael Johnson (who attracted attention during the Games for wearing custom, gold-colored Nike shoes), would denounce the company. Faced with these threats, Nike agreed to retract most of its negative advertising and public relations stunts. At

3510-462: The Olympic swimming pool, the first American woman to win four titles in a single Olympiad. Penny Heyns , swimmer of South Africa, won the gold medals in both the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events. Michelle Smith of Ireland won three gold medals and a bronze in swimming. She remains her nation's most decorated Olympian. However, her victories were overshadowed by doping allegations even though she did not test positive in 1996. She received

3600-771: The Olympic Village, which became the first residential housing for Georgia State University (Georgia State Village), are now used by the Georgia Institute of Technology (North Avenue Apartments). As designed, the Centennial Olympic Stadium was converted into Turner Field after the Paralympics, which became the home of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team from 1997 to 2016. The Braves' former home, Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium ,

3690-457: The Olympic rings while the youth of Atlanta formed the number 100. Famed film score composer John Williams wrote the official overture for the 1996 Olympics, called " Summon the Heroes "; this was his second overture for Olympic games, the first being " Olympic Fanfare and Theme " written for the 1984 Summer Olympics . Céline Dion performed David Foster 's official 1996 Olympics song " The Power of

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3780-625: The Olympics in 1996 we will never bid again to host them." However, the Athens bid was described as "arrogant and poorly prepared," being regarded as "not being up to the task of coping with the modern and risk-prone extravaganza" of the current Games. Athens faced numerous obstacles, including "political instability, potential security problems, air pollution, traffic congestion and the fact that it would have to spend about US$ 3 billion to improve its infrastructure of airports, roads, rail lines and other amenities." Athens would later be selected to host

3870-543: The Olympics started, many criticized the business model. On July 16, nine days before the Opening Ceremony, one Philadelphia Inquirer writer called it "the biggest marketing disaster since New Coke ". The Triplecast was deemed by The New York Times "sports TV's biggest flop" and that NBC and Cablevision were "bereft in sanity" in operating it. By 1994, it was referred to as "the Heaven's Gate of television". Albert Kim,

3960-476: The South helped to impress the IOC officials. Coca-Cola , a long-standing partner of the Olympics, was also a strong advocate to bring the Games to its hometown. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) also proposed a substantial revenue-sharing with the IOC, USOC, and other NOCs. Atlanta's main rivals were Toronto, whose front-running bid that began in 1986 had chances to succeed after Canada had held

4050-472: The Southeast. The Olympiad's official theme, "Summon the Heroes", was written by John Williams , making it the third Olympiad at that point for which he had composed (official composer in 1984, NBC's coverage composer in 1988). The opening ceremony featured Céline Dion singing " The Power of the Dream ", the theme song of the 1996 Olympics. The closing ceremony featured Gloria Estefan singing " Reach ",

4140-619: The Summer Games since 1960 is $ 5.2 billion. Unlike Atlanta 1996, Beijing and Sochi were primarily funded by their respective governments. Events of the 1996 Games were held in a variety of areas. A number were held within the Olympic Ring, a 3 mi (4.8 km) circle from the center of Atlanta. Others were held at Stone Mountain , about 20 miles (32 km) outside of the city. To broaden ticket sales, other events, such as Association football (soccer), were staged in various cities in

4230-455: The Triplecast. Cable providers took a lower profit cut than they normally do for pay-per-view events. A national center was also set up (1-800-OLYMPIC) to take calls, but it often had trouble telling if a viewer's cable system was participating. In January 1992, for instance, Chuck Dolan , head of Cablevision, tested the ordering system, which could not tell if his Cablevision Long Island system

4320-413: The Triplecast. Midway through the Games, discounts were applied for single-day service and weekend packages were added. But these attempts to boost the subscriber numbers largely failed. Another attempt to boost interest was made by airing a three-way split screen of the Triplecast channels in hour-long blocks on CNBC , but with no audio. The final tally of Olympics Triplecast subscribers was 200,000. It

4410-450: The United States, it decided to use cable television partners for its subsequent telecasts. CBS , which had the broadcast rights to the 1992 , 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic Games , also used a cable partner, TNT . NBC currently holds the U.S. rights to the Olympics through 2032. Broadcast delay In radio and television , broadcast delay is an intentional delay when broadcasting live material, technically referred to as

4500-567: The airport, improvements in public transportation, and redevelopment of public housing projects. $ 420 million worth of tickets were sold, sale of sponsorship rights accounted for $ 540 million, and sale of the domestic broadcast rights to NBC accounted for $ 456 million. In total, the Games turned a profit of $ 19 million. The cost for Atlanta 1996 compares with costs of $ 4.6 billion for Rio 2016, $ 40–44 billion for Beijing 2008, and $ 51 billion for Sochi 2014 (the most expensive Olympics in history). The average cost for

4590-463: The athletes and to the goddesses of victory of the ancient Greek Olympics, using silhouette imagery. The accompanying music, "The Tradition of the Games", was composed by Basil Poledouris . Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic cauldron and later received a replacement gold medal for his boxing victory in the 1960 Summer Olympics . For the torch ceremony, more than 10,000 Olympic torches were manufactured by

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4680-634: The bombing killed spectator Alice Hawthorne, wounded 111 others, and caused the death of Melih Uzunyol by a heart attack. Jewell was later considered a suspect in the bombing but was never charged, and he was cleared in October 1996. Fugitive Eric Rudolph was arrested in May 2003 and charged with the Olympic Park bombing as well as the bombings of two abortion clinics and a gay nightclub . At his trial two years later, he confessed to all charges and afterwards released

4770-472: The broadcaster feels are the most interesting portions of the event, or advertising, resulting in reduced desired TV coverage for the given multiple sporting events. However, since many live events became available via social media in the late 2000s, tape delays have become increasingly irrelevant because of live television 's resurgence as a broadcast format. Since the mid-2010s, several high-profile entertainment programs with huge live global audiences like

4860-480: The broadcaster time to censor the audio (and video) feed. This can be accomplished by cutting directly to a non-delayed feed, essentially jumping past the undesired moment (something that can be quite jarring to a viewer or listener). In other cases, dedicated hardware units similar to the original digital unit but with improved quality and editing capability can be used. These products can even "build up" delay with difficult program material such as music. Alternatively,

4950-455: The buttons was offered by some cable operators for free as a lure to sign up for the service. Channels aired twelve hours per day (from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET ) then repeated their content for the other twelve hours. Programs came from the world feed. As an added inducement for viewers to order the package, Triplecast coverage featured star announcers and pundits, such as Chick Hearn for basketball and Bob Papa for boxing. Several issues plagued

5040-426: The delay time by unnoticeably lengthening the normal pauses in spoken material. Thus, a minute or so later, the broadcaster would again have full delay, often leaving the listener unaware that material had been deleted. In modern systems, a profanity delay can be a software module manually operated by a broadcast technician that puts a short delay (usually, 30 seconds) into the broadcast of live content. This gives

5130-421: The display of advertising within venues, and that "you have to look to the private sector for at least a portion of the funding, and unless you're looking for handouts, you're dealing with people who are investing business assets, and they have to get a return." In 1997, Athens was awarded the 2004 Summer Olympics . Along with addressing the shortcomings of its 1996 bid, it was lauded for its efforts to promote

5220-423: The editor of Entertainment Weekly , went on National Public Radio and called it "an unmitigated disaster for NBC". It was a loss of about $ 100 million (half of which was covered by Cablevision under agreement) for the two parties. It also shaped NBC's strategies in the coverage of future Olympics. NBC did not use pay-per-view to cover any future games. While NBC alone broadcast the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in

5310-572: The events were aired on the main network. Original Triplecast advertising promoted that the service was "live with no interruptions" — though half of the broadcast day was a repeat. The New York City Consumer Affairs Department charged NBC and Cablevision with deception in advertising as a result. Eventually, the parties settled, with NBC and Cablevision agreeing to clarify the advertising. In addition, about 10 percent of NBC's 205 affiliates refused to run Triplecast advertising because they did not want to promote competition for their broadcast. Even before

5400-519: The first time as independent nations. With a total of 101 medals, the United States topped both the gold and overall medal count for the first time since 1984 (and for the first time since 1968 in a non-boycotted Summer Olympics), also winning the most gold (44) and silver (32) medals out of all the participating nations. Notable performances during the competition included those of Andre Agassi , whose gold medal in these Games would be followed up with

5490-537: The first women's team gold medal for the US. Shannon Miller won the gold medal on the balance beam event, the first time an American gymnast had won an individual gold medal in non-boycotted Olympic games. The Spanish team won the first gold medal in the new competition of women's rhythmic group all-around . The team was formed by Estela Giménez , Marta Baldó , Nuria Cabanillas , Lorena Guréndez , Estíbaliz Martínez and Tania Lamarca . Amy Van Dyken won four gold medals in

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5580-528: The former Olympic Stadium and surrounding lots, there has been proposals and growing calls to move the Olympic cauldron to Centennial Olympic Park . The Olympic cauldron was re-lit in February 2020 for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The 1996 Olympics are the most recent edition of the Summer Olympics to be held in the United States. Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics , 32 years after

5670-495: The fourth Summer Olympics to be hosted by the United States, making it the first country to have three different cities host the Summer Olympics. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games . These were also the first Summer Olympics to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympics since the Winter Olympics commenced in 1924, as part of

5760-504: The games for the third time. 10,318 athletes from 197 National Olympic Committees competed in 26 sports, including the Olympic debuts of beach volleyball , mountain biking and softball , as well as the new disciplines of lightweight rowing , women's swimming 4 x 200 freestyle relay , women's fencing , team rhythmic gymnastics , and women's association football . A total of 24 countries made their Summer Olympic debuts in Atlanta, including 11 former Soviet republics participating for

5850-573: The highest, while IOC members said that it could guarantee large television revenues similar to the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , the most recent Olympics in the United States. Additionally, former US ambassador to the UN and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young touted Atlanta's civil rights history and reputation for racial harmony. Young also wanted to showcase a reformed American South . The strong economy of Atlanta and improved race relations in

5940-512: The home of the ancient and first modern Olympics , was considered by many observers the "natural choice" for the Centennial Games, due to its "divine right" in history. Athens bid chairman Spyros Metaxas gave repeated warnings to the IOC and demanded to give them the games to mark the centennial, saying "You don't hold a 100th birthday in someone else's home. The Centenary Games should be held in Athens." He also warned that "if we don't get

6030-547: The official theme song of the 1996 Olympics. The mascot for the Olympiad was an abstract, animated character named Izzy . In contrast to the standing tradition of mascots of national or regional significance in the city hosting the Olympiad, Izzy was an amorphous, fantasy figure. A video game featuring the Games' mascot, Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings , was also released. Atlanta's Olympic slogan "Come Celebrate Our Dream"

6120-458: The original live primetime broadcasting and previously and solely relied on delayed telecasts on prime time among these otherwise live events. In certain professional competitions, like chess, broadcast delays may be used to prevent cheating or other irregularities. The radio station WKAP in Allentown, Pennsylvania , introduced a tape delay system consisting of an external playback head, which

6210-432: The outcome of the show, are edited out, or the availability of hosts or other key production staff only at certain times of the day, and it is generally applicable for cable television programs. In countries that span multiple time zones and have influential domestic eastern regions, such as Australia , Canada, Mexico, and the United States , television networks usually delay the entirety of their schedule for stations in

6300-430: The same range of time zones, are receptive to each other's live telecasts, while most of Asia from India eastwards, which includes China alongside the most populous time zone in the world , also receive simultaneous live telecasts within those cluster of regions. International tape delays of live global events, intended by major television networks, dominated world television until the early 2010s. For example, during

6390-460: The service. The Triplecast service took a very austere, no-frills approach to broadcasting that included event play-by-play and commentary, but few graphics and absolutely no feature stories or background vignettes. According to some Triplecast viewers, this made the primary NBC coverage seem "schmaltzy and overproduced". Additionally, NBC's main coverage was denigrated to an extent due to Triplecast viewers knowing some results ten hours or more before

6480-491: The singles tournaments held at professional tennis' four major events ( Australian Open , French Open , Wimbledon , and US Open ). There were a series of national firsts realized during the Games. Deon Hemmings became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal for Jamaica and the English-speaking West Indies . Lee Lai Shan won a gold medal in sailing, the only Olympic medal that Hong Kong ever won as

6570-399: The time prohibited the broadcasting of a live telephone conversation. However, there was no rule prohibiting a taped playback of a telephone call, provided that a "beep" tone was heard by the caller every 15 seconds so that the caller knew he was being recorded. The six-second delay constituted a "taped" telephone conversation, thus complying with FCC regulations. The broadcast profanity delay

6660-512: The traditional values of the Olympic Games, which some IOC observers felt had been lost due to the over-commercialization of the 1996 Games. However, the 2004 Games heavily relied on public funding and eventually failed to make a profit, which some have claimed contributed to the financial crisis in Greece . The financial struggles faced by many later Games, such as the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and

6750-522: The west, so prime time programming can be time shifted to air in local primetime hours to improve accessibility and viewership. Although Mexico and Canada have now regularly televised their live programs in real time simultaneously across all of their territories, in the U.S., "east" feeds usually target the Eastern and Central time zones, while "west" feeds are usually oriented towards the Pacific time zone . As

6840-488: The world watched at least some of the events on television. Although marred by the tragedy of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing , the Games were a financial success, due in part to TV rights contracts and sponsorships at record levels. Atlanta also set a new record for the most tickets sold at a single Games (8.3 million), and held it until 2024. Beyond international recognition, the Games resulted in many modern infrastructure improvements. The mid-rise dormitories built for

6930-648: Was about 10,318. Twenty-four countries made their Olympic debut this year, including eleven of the ex-Soviet countries that competed as part of the Unified Team in 1992 . Russia participated in the Summer Olympics separately from the other countries of the former Soviet Union for the first time since 1912 (when it was the Russian Empire ). Russia had been a member of the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics together with 11 post-Soviet states. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia competed as Yugoslavia . After missing

7020-471: Was carrying the Triplecast. The biggest issue with the Triplecast was low uptake . NBC had estimated some two million people would subscribe to the programming. But Triplecast projections were only around 200,000-250,000, and the Pay-Per-View Update industry newsletter estimated 125,000. Early reports of slow sales even inspired David Letterman , then hosting NBC's Late Night , to make jokes about

7110-409: Was critical of Atlanta's performance in several key areas, including the level of crowding in the Olympic Village, the quality of available food, the accessibility and convenience of transportation, and the Games' general atmosphere of commercialism. IOC vice-president Dick Pound responded to criticism of the commercialization of these Games, stating that they still adhered to a historic policy barring

7200-482: Was demolished in 1997 and the site became a parking lot for Turner Field; the Omni Coliseum was demolished the same year to make way for State Farm Arena . The city's permanent memorial to the 1996 Olympics is Centennial Olympic Park , which was built as a focal point for the Games. The park initiated a revitalization of the surrounding area and now serves as the hub for Atlanta's tourism district. In November 2016,

7290-475: Was enough of a flop that Chuck Dolan was already acknowledging by August 6 that "the public didn't find enough incremental value for the Triplecast over what they could get on NBC" and that "we blew it from an economic point of view." It also surfaced that research figures were enhanced. While one percent of surveyed viewers said they would "definitely" buy the Triplecast, that number was enhanced in press materials by adding those who declared they would "probably" buy

7380-489: Was invented by C. Frank Cordaro (July 13, 1919 – February 20, 1997), who was Chief Engineer of WKAP during the 1950s and early 1960s. Ogden Davies, then-General Manager of WKAP, assigned Cordaro the task of developing a device whereby profanity during a "live" conversation could be deleted by the radio talk show host before it was broadcast. This new device was to be used on the Open Mic radio talk show. The device Cordaro developed

7470-409: Was originally built and placed at the intersection of Fulton Street and Capitol Avenue, near the Centennial Olympic Stadium. After the Paralympics, in order to make room for the stadium conversion, the Olympic cauldron was moved (except its ramp, which was demolished) to the intersection of Capitol Avenue and Fulton Street in 1997, where it has stayed since. Since Georgia State University's acquisition of

7560-541: Was selected on September 18, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan , over Athens, Belgrade, Manchester, Melbourne, and Toronto at the 96th IOC Session . The city entered the competition as a dark horse , being up against stiff competition. The US media also criticized Atlanta as a second-tier city and complained of Georgia's Confederate history . However, the IOC Evaluation Commission ranked Atlanta's infrastructure and facilities

7650-414: Was spaced far enough away from the record head to produce a six-second delay. A system of rollers guided the tape over the playback head before it wound up on the take up reel. This system was introduced in 1952, when WKAP started a talk show called Open Mic . It is believed that this was the first time a telephone call-in show was broadcast with the telephone conversation "live" on the air. The FCC rules at

7740-414: Was that this was the first Summer Olympics ever that not a single nation swept all three medals in a single event. These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1996 Games.   *    Host nation ( United States ) A total of 197 nations, all of the then-existing and recognized National Olympic Committees, were represented at the 1996 Games, and the combined total of athletes

7830-460: Was the first tape delay system. WKAP was one of several stations owned by the Rahal brothers of West Virginia (later Rahal Communications). First tested and used at WKAP, this tape system for broadcast profanity delay was then installed at the other Rahal-owned radio stations. From the Rahal brothers' stations, the broadcast profanity delay went into common usage throughout the US. John Nebel , who began

7920-455: Was then a flashback to the closing ceremony of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona , showing the then president of the IOC , Juan Antonio Samaranch , inviting the athletes to compete in Atlanta in 1996. Then, spirits ascended in the northwest corner of the stadium, each representing one of the colors in the Olympic rings. The spirits called the tribes of the world which, after mixed percussion, formed

8010-463: Was undertaken by Nike, Inc. , which had begun an advertising campaign with aggressive slogans that mocked the Games' values, such as "Faster, Higher, Stronger, Badder", "If you're not here to win, you're a tourist", and "You don't win silver, you lose gold." The slogans were featured on magazine ads and billboards it purchased in Atlanta. Nike also opened a pop-up store known as the Nike Center near

8100-477: Was written by Jack Arogeti, a managing director at McCann-Erickson in Atlanta at the time. The slogan was selected from more than 5,000 submitted by the public to the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Billy Payne noted that Jack "captured the spirit and our true motivation for the Olympic games." The city of Savannah, Georgia , host of the yachting events, held its own local festivities, including

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