Date: 19 July - 04 August 1996
NOCs (Nations): 197
Athletes: 10,318 (3,512 women, 6,806 men)
Sports: 26
Events: 271
Volunteers: 47,466
Media: 15,108 (5,695 written press, 9,413 broadcasters)
The 1996 Games were given a dramatic start when the cauldron was lit by Mohammad Ali. A terrorist bomb killed one person and injured a further 110 people, but the Atlanta Games are best remembered for their sporting achievements. A record-setting 79 nations won medals and 53 won gold. Carl Lewis became only the fourth person to win the same individual event four times and the fourth person to earn a ninth gold medal. Naim Suleymanoglu became the first weightlifter to win a third gold medal. Michael Johnson smashed the 200m world record to complete a 200m and 400m double.
The Centennial Olympic Games held in Atlanta, the United States, in August 1996 saw a large gathering of athletes from 197 countries and regions around the world. After 16 days of competitions, China collected 16 golds, 22 silvers and 12 bronzes, ranking fourth both in gold medals tally and in the total number of medals won.
China missed the gold in some of the events in which it excelled. This was compensated by victories in other eventss through the unremitting struggles of its contestants. But success or failure, the Chinese participants' untiring efforts and go-getting spirit did win the hearts of spectators on the scene and TV viewers the world over.
Woman judoist Sun Fuming made a good start for the Chinese sports delegation in Atlanta by taking the gold medal in the +72kg heavyweight judo on the first day of competition. Le Jingyi, a swimmer from Shanghai, won the women's 100m freestyle in 54.50secs, a new Games record.
Of the 15 new world records set in weightlifting, nearly two-thirds of the total of the whole Games, four were set by the Chinese lifters. In the men's 59kg category, China's Tang Lingsheng was almost a dark horse. As a fifth-place finisher in the two-lift total at the World Championships held in Guangzhou in 1995, Tang had only been expected to maintain the fifth place and, should everything go fine with him, earn a bronze medal in Atlanta. However, he not only emerged the winner but also toppled the world mark of 305kg set by Bulgaria's N. Peshalov in 1993. In the men's 70kg class, China's Zhan Xugang led silver medallist Kim Myong-Nam of Democratic People's Republic of Korea by 12.5kg and bronze-medallist A. Feri of Hungary by 17.5kg, in addition to setting three world records to make his gold medal all the more valuable.
18-year-old diver Fu Mingxia proved his superiority in both the women's 3m springboard and 10m platform diving and rose as a new "queen of diving" since the retirement of Gao Min after the Barcelona Olympics. Her teammate Xiong Ni, a silver medallist at the '88 Seoul Olympics, clinched the men's 3m springboard title after training hard for eight long years.
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