Athens 2004 Olympics

THE UNFORGETTABLE DREAM GAMES

The Athens Olympics of 2004 was one of the best Olympics ever made, and as the President of the IOC said was the Unforgettable Dream Games. The Athens Olympics create a new world record that of the Volunteers ,160.000 of Olympic Volunteers from all over the world came to Athens and help in many fronts during and before the Games.

The Olympic Summer Games 2004 took place from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens. After the first Olympic Games of the modern era 1896 and the unofficial matches between 1906, it was the second time Athens hosted the Olympic Games.

Athens was voted as the hosting capital of the 2004 Olympics in 1997 , among other countries that had participated in the International Olympic Committee session of 1997, that was held in Lausanne, was Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Stockholm, and Rome. During this time the IOC president was Juan Antonio Samaranch and the general administration of the Athens Olympics had Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki. The preparations and constructions of new stadiums, roads, the Olympic Village the transformation of the OAKA  roof from the famous Spanish architect Calatrava etc started in the year 2000 . Among the largest construction projects in Athens was the Athens metro, the Attica highway, the new Airport in Spata and the tram. Many have thought that Athens wont be ready for the Olympics of 2004 but the enormous and well organised efforts of the Greek governments both of the PASOK and Nea Demokratia managed Athens to be ready at the right time for one of the best organised games in the History of the Olympic games. On 10 August 2004, the Tuesday before the opening, was a  ticket sales record with 88,317 tickets. The Opening ceremony was a dream the Athens Olympic stadium was packed with more then 80000 audients. The president of the Greek republic Stefanos Stefanopoulos walked to the stage with Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki and a small child to announce the beginning of the XXVIII Olympiad. I had the luck to be there and enjoy this unforgettable event . See our pictures from the Opening ceremony

Athens Olympic Volunteers: During the Athens Olympics was an enormous number of people who applied as volunteers (160.000) finaly was chosen 60000. All volunteers who accepted the offers made to them by ATHENS 2004 attended training programmes.
These programmes were specially designed to address the requirements of the Games, but also to provide participants with broader knowledge and practical experience

Olympic 2004 Mascots: Athena and Phoebos were the mascots of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. They represent the Greek godess of wisdom Athena and the god of the Sun and music Apollo, who one of its most common nicknames was Phoebos. They were assisted by the Greek designer Spyros Gogos.
The two mascots were twins and symbolize brotherhood among all participants of the games. The blue and orange colors of them represent the Greek sea and the Greek sun.

2004 Olympic Venues: Aquatics Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoeing Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics Handball Hockey Judo Modern pentathlon Rowing Sailing Shooting Softball Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling

GREEK MEDALS COUNT

GREECE WINS THE FIRST GOLD MEDAL IN MALE SYNCHRONISED SPRINGBOARD WITH Nikolaos Siranidis and Thomas Bimis TUESDAY 17/8/2004 GREECE GOLD MEDAL IN JUDO Ilias Iliadis SATURDAY 21/8/2004 GREECE GOLD MEDAL IN DOUBLE HANDED DINGY WOMEN'S Emilia Tsoulfa and Sofia Bekatorou GREECE SILVER MEDAL IN WOMEN'S DISCUS THROW Anastasia Kelesidou GREECE BRONZE MEDAL IN MEN'S WEIGHT LIFTING +75 k PYRROS DIMAS 3 TIMES GOLD MEDALIST IN BARCELONA ATLANTA SYDNEY SUNDAY/22/08/2004 GREECE BRONZE MEDAL IN ROWING Vasilis Polymeros Nikos Skiathitis GREECE GOLD MEDAL IN MEN'S RING Dimosthenis Tampakos MONDAY/23/08/2004 GREECE GOLD MEDAL IN 20 km WOMEN'S RACE WALK Athanasia Tzoumeleka GREECE SILVER MEDAL WOMEN'S TRIPLE JUMP Hrysopigi Devetzi WEDNSDAY/25/08/2004 GREECE SILVER MEDAL IN MEN'S MISTRAL Nikos Kaklamanakis GREECE GOLD MEDAL IN WOMEN'S 400 HURDLES Fani Halkia GREECE BRONZE MEDAL IN GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING Artiom Kiouregkian THURSDAY/26/08/2004 GREECE SILVER MEDAL IN WOMEN'S WATER POLO FRIDAY/27/08/2004 GREECE BRONZE MEDAL IN WOMEN'S JAVELIN THROW Mirela Manjani SATURDAY/28/08/2004 GREECE SILVER MEDAL IN WOMEN'S TAEKWONDO Elisavet Mystakidou GREECE SILVER MEDAL MEN'S TAEKWONDO Alexandros Nikolaidis

28th Olympiad Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 13th-29th, 2004 Opening Ceremony: Friday, August 13th, 2004 Closing Ceremony: Sunday, August 29th, 2004

12th Paralympic Games Athens 2004 September 17th-28th, 2004
For the first time, the Olympic and Paralympic summer Games were organised by a single Organising Committee after the signing of the IOC – IPC Cooperation Agreement.

The Olympic Torch relay The Olympic Torch travel along the following countries before return to Athens ,it will start at Ancient Olympia in Greece (March 24th, 2004) , Sydney (June 4th) , Melbourne (June 5th) , Tokyo (June 6th) , Seoul (June 7th) , Beijing (June 8th) , Delhi (June 10th) , Cairo (June 11th) , Cape Town (June 12th) , Rio de Janeiro (June 13th) , Mexico City (June 15th) , Los Angeles (June 16th) , St. Louis (June 17th) , Atlanta (June 18th) , New York (June 19th) , Montreal (June 20th) , Antwerp , Brussels (June 22nd) , Amsterdam (June 23rd) , Geneva (June 24th) , Lausanne (June 24th) , Paris (June 25th) , London (June 26th) , Barcelona (June 27th) , Rome (June 28th) , Munich (June 29th) , Berlin (June 30th) , Stockholm (July 1st) , Helsinki (July 2nd) , Moscow (July 3rd) , Kiev (July 5th) , Istanbul (July 6th) , Sofia (July 7th) , Nicosia (July 8th).

OLYMPICS 2004 MEDALS COUNT TOP TEN COUNTRIES