Today in History-August 13, 2022
On August 13, 2004, the28th Athens Summer Olympic Games openedIn the episodeon July 21, we mentioned the first ancient Olympic Games; in the program onAugust 8, we mentioned the 2008 Beijing Olympics; in the program on August 10,we mentioned the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. You can listen to these programs byyourself. Today, we're going to talk about the Olympics again. We will talkabout the 2004 Athens Olympics.Greeceis the birthplace of the Olympic Games, and Athens is the capital of Greece.Athens used to be the host city of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.Therefore, in 1989, Athens bid to host the 1996 Olympic Games, because ithappened to be 100 years after 1896, which is of great significance. But itstill failed in the end! In 1993, Athens once again bid to host the 2000Olympic Games, because this year was the beginning of a new century, and thesignificance was even more significant, but it still failed.Finally,in 1997, Athens successfully bid for the Olympic Games and became the host cityof the 2004 Olympic Games! After 108 years, the modern Olympic Games hasfinally returned to its hometown!However,the preparatory work after the Olympic bid has been surprisingly slow. In 2000,the International Olympic Committee once considered changing the venue of theGames. Since then, the Greek organizers have accelerated the pace of work. Theyare well aware of how difficult it is to bid for the Olympic Games. No onewants to miss this hard-won opportunity. On the eve of the start of the Games,they finally managed to complete the preparatory work so that the Olympic Gamescan go smoothly. However, because the swimming competition venue is too late tobuild the roof, the athletes participating in the afternoon can only withstandthe test of the scorching sun and the scorching heat. Fortunately, the mostimportant competitions such as the semi-finals and finals are arranged in theevening when the water temperature and temperature are relatively slightlylower, so that the athletes can play their highest level in the most importantcompetitions.Themen's and women's shot put competitions in the track and field events of thisGames were held in the ancient Olympia Stadium, which can make people relivethe sanctity and splendor of the ancient Olympic Games. The PanathinaikoStadium, which once hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, has beenrefurbished to host the archery and marathon finishing competitions of thiscompetition; the Kaleskaki Stadium, which once served as the cycling venue forthe first modern Olympic Games in 1896, has been renovated. Afterwards, itbecame the venue for the men's and women's football matches; the course of themarathon is completely the original route that the Greek warrior Philipides ranin 490 BC when he delivered the news!A totalof 11,099 athletes from the 201 member associations of the InternationalOlympic Committee participated in the Olympic Games in a total of 28 majorevents, 37 sub-events and 301 sub-events. Compared with the Sydney OlympicGames, 1 event in boxing, 2 events in men's wrestling and women's foil teamevent have been reduced, and 4 events in women's wrestling and women'sindividual saber event have been added. A total of 21,500 journalistsparticipated in reporting the tournament, including 5,500 photographers/textreporters and 16,000 broadcast reporters. A total of 160,000 volunteers wererecruited! This number is staggering!Due tothe rampant international terrorist activities in recent years, the AthensOlympic Games has further strengthened the security work, and the OrganizingCommittee has used a total of 45,000 security personnel. Involved in theprotection work are personnel from the police, military, coast guard, firebrigade, private bodyguards and specially trained volunteers. Despite thestrict security measures, the sales of tickets for the conference are still notideal. Until the official opening of the event on August 13, less than half ofall 5.2 million tickets were sold. In the first few days of the tournament,there are thousands of empty seats in the stands at many events. But thissituation soon improved, especially for the track and field games at night,when the stands, which can accommodate 70,000 people, were full. The venues forother events were almost full during the final week of the conference.Thetorch relay before the opening of the Olympic Games created a number of firsts.In order to commemorate the return of the Olympic Games to their hometown, theOrganizing Committee has carefully designed the torch relay route. For thefirst time, the Olympic torch spread across the five continents of the world,and reached Africa and South America for the first time, so that people fromall over the world have the opportunity to participate in and experience thisgrand event. The Torch Pass traverses all the cities that have hosted theSummer Olympics in history, so that these cities have the opportunity towitness the Olympic flame again and experience the joy brought by the OlympicGames again. In addition, the torch has also reached some cities of specialsignificance, such as Brussels, the central city of the European Union, Lausanne,the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, and Beijing, the hostof the next Olympic Games. The entire torch relay process took 78 days,traveled 78,000 kilometers around the world, and spread throughout alladministrative regions and all states of Greece.TheGames of the Olympic Games are two days ahead of the opening ceremony, startingon August 11. The opening ceremony on August 13 was brilliant. Greek actorsshowed the romance of the Aegean Sea and the civilization of ancient Greece withpoetic and dreamlike performances. The unique torch lighting ceremony pushedthe warm atmosphere of the opening ceremony to a climax. The torch was lit bythe outstanding Greek windsurfer Nikolaos Kakramanakis. After Greek PresidentKostis Stefanopoulos announced the opening of the Games, swimmer Domis Kazy andbasketball referee Volyadis took the oath on behalf of the athletes andreferees respectively.TheChinese delegation participated in all 26 major events except baseball andequestrian, and achieved an unprecedented record. With 32 gold medals and atotal of 63 medals, the Chinese delegation ranked second in the medal list (Among them, the total number of medals ranks third), the number of gold medalsand the total number of medals both set a single record for China since itsparticipation in the Olympic Games, and both exceeded the historical bestresults created at the Sydney Olympic Games four years ago. Moreover, thenumber of gold medals has also reached a record high, and the number of goldmedal-winning projects has increased to 13 major events.At theClosing Ceremony on August 29, IOC President Jacques Rogge declared to theGreek people: "You have won. You have won by handling the challenges welland hosting a successful Olympic Games. It was an unforgettable, fantasticGames."Subsequently,the conference held a flag handover ceremony, and the Olympic five-ring flagwas passed from Athens to Beijing, China, the host city of the next OlympicGames. Everything that follows, you must already know!
