Games of the XXVIII Olympiad: Athens 2004
KEY FACTS
Opening date:
13 August 2004
Closing date:
29 August 2004
Country of the host city:
Greece
Candidate cities:
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Cape Town (South Africa)
Rome (Italy)
Stockholm (Sweden)
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.
Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Olympic Games Athens 2004
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
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Watch a video from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Olympic Games ATHENS 2004