ATHENS 2004 IN BRIEF

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, were celebrated in Athens, Greece, from August 13 to August 29, 2004. It was the year where the Olympic Games returned to Greece, the home of both the ancient Olympics and the first modern Olympics.

11,099 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 202 countries. Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance (201 NOCs). There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports. The overall tally for events on the programme was 301 (one more than in Sydney 2000). Popularity in the Games reached soared to new highs as 3.9 billion people had access to the television coverage compared to 3.6 billion for Sydney 2000.

THE OPENING CEREMONY

The widely praised Opening Ceremony by avant garde choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou held on August 13, 2004 began with a twenty eight (the number of the Olympiads up to then) second countdown paced by the sounds of an amplified heartbeat. The Opening Ceremony was mainly a pageant of traditional Greek culture and history hearkening back to its mythological beginnings chronicling Greek history from the ancient Minoan civilization to modern times.

THE CLOSING CEREMONY

The Games were concluded on August 29, 2004. The closing ceremony was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, where the Games had been opened 16 days earlier. Around 70,000 people gathered in the stadium to watch the ceremony. The event was meant to highlight the pride of the Greeks in their culture and country for the world to see.

Executive production in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Olympic Games 2004 in Athens: CL Productions

The Athens 2004 Olympic Summer Games opening ceremony in numbers 1982: Construction year of the Olympic Stadium, which was reconstructed for the Olympic Games 201 NOCs (Nations) 10,625 athletes (4,329 women, 6,296 men) 301 events 45,000 volunteers 21,500 media 2,162 cubic meters of water were used to fill the main performance area, with the water covering some 9,600 square meters of the stadium floor's surface Organizers said it took 6 hours to fill the space with water, but only 3 minutes to drain via 10 high-speed drainage valves, half a meter diameter each. An underground reservoir was holding 2.3 million liters of water. 18,700: The weight of the Calatrava shelter in tones 37: The kilometers of wire rope (!) used to cover the cable network 72: The computer-controlled pulleys used to move the settings 22,500: The total weight that the cables on the pulleys could pull 58: The diameter in meters of each Olympic circle formed on the water 450: The meters of natural gas used to create the fiery circles 4,648: The volunteers who participated in the opening ceremony 75: The age of the oldest volunteer 7: The age of the youngest volunteer 31: The countries from which the volunteers were from (among others there were volunteers from Norway, Sweden, Spain, Hong Kong and Austria) 700,000: The bottles of water used during the test ceremonies 320: The hours of recorded music 370: The speakers covering the stadium 480: The amplifiers Some 10,000 meters of fabric have been used for the 2,428 volunteer performers Furthermore: 7,152: Pairs of socks 4,000: Pairs of shoes 2,500: Hangers 15: Kilometers of thread

Watch a video from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Olympic Games ATHENS 2004