2004 Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympics, officially known as the XXVIII Olympic Games and simply known as Athens 2004, was a major international multi-sport festival under the name Welcome Back held in Athens, Greece, August 13-29, 2004. The Games saw 10,625 participants participating, about 600 more than anticipated, led by 5,501 team members from the 201 nations. Across 28 different disciplines, thirty1 medal competitions were held. Athens 2004 marked the first time since the Summer Olympics in 1996 that all countries with a National Olympic Committee have participated. The 2004 Olympic Games also marked the return of the city they started in. Having previously hosted the 1896 Games, Athens was at the time one of the four cities to host the Summer Olympics on two separate occasions. A new medal obverse was introduced at these Games replacing that used by Giuseppe Cassioli during the 1928 Games. This rectified the long-lasting mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum instead of a Greek location. The current stadium contains the Panathenaic Stadium.[6] IOC President Jacques Rogge described the 2004 Summer Games as "unforgettable, fantasy games," leaving Athens with a significantly improved infrastructure including a new ring road airport, and network of subways. There have been questions about the cost of the 2004 Athens Summer Games and their possible connexion to the 2010-2018 government debt crisis in Greece, but there is little to no evidence for this connexion. The 2004 Olympics is commonly considered a success, with the rising degree of rivalry among nations all over the world. The United States led the final medal count trailed by China and Russia in 15th place with host Greece. Numerous world and Olympic records were set at these Games. Mascots have been a staple at the Olympic Games since the 1968 Winter Olympics, hosted in Grenoble, France. Two official mascots have appeared at the 2004 Olympics: Athena and Phevos. The sister and brother were named after Athena, the wisdom, preparation, and battle goddess, and Phoebus, the god of light and music, respectively. The ancient daidala which also had religious connotations as toy dolls inspired us. During the first time, major networks were permitted to offer digital coverage of the Olympics over the Internet, provided that they restricted such programming internationally, to secure broadcasting rights in other areas. For example, the BBC made all of its live programming available to UK high-speed Broadband subscribers free of charge; US subscribers could only view phased excerpts. The International Olympic Committee banned the development of unique weblogs and/or other websites for Olympic athletes, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, to preserve their personal view of the Games. We weren't allowed to post any of their voice, images, or photos. There was an example where a athlete also had a qualified website but was not explicitly set up for the Games. The NBC launched its own website, called NBCOlympics.com. It's focused on streaming Games TV, including video clips, medal lists, live scores. The main aim, though, was to provide a list of what sports had been on the different affiliates of NBC Universal. The Games were broadcasted on cable, on one network or another, 24 hours a day. As for each organisation, it relied heavily on technology to create a successful event, the Organising Committee and everyone concerned with it. Two separate data networks were run by ATHOC, one for Games planning and one for Gaming. Throughout the wireless networks is included more than 11,000 computers, more than 600 servers, 2,000 printers, 23,000 fixed-line telephone devices, 9,000 mobile phones, 12,000 TETRA machines, 16,000 TV and video facilities and 17 Video Walls connected by more than 6,000 kilometres of cable.