Bids for the 1996 Summer Olympics

Athens Athens entered as the "sentimental favorite" for these games, because Greece, the home of the ancient and first modern Olympics, was considered by many observers the "natural choice" for the Centennial Games. Atlanta Atlanta was selected by the USOC over bids from Nashville, San Francisco and runner-up Minneapolis to be the U.S. representative in international bidding. The city entered the competition as a dark horse, being up against stiff competition against Athens. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) also proposed a substantial revenue-sharing with the IOC, USOC, and other NOCs. Layton's opposition to the Olympics later came back to affect his 1990 mayoral campaign, as Toronto bid organizer Paul Henderson publicly accused Layton and his allies of costing Toronto the event. == Aftermath ==

Allegations were quick to emerge in the Greek and Australian media that Atlanta had won the Games due to a conspiracy organized by global beverage company Coca-Cola, a longtime sponsor of the Olympic Games headquartered in Atlanta. Coca-Cola executives, however, had feared that a successful Atlanta bid would hurt their business. While they produced commemorative pins of the six candidate cities, with the intent of handing out the winning city's pins to IOC delegates, this backfired as others alleged that Coca-Cola had predicted which city had won; indeed sales of the beverage in Greece dropped for the next few years. Many felt that Athens should have had the right to host the games to mark the centennial anniversary of the modern Olympics. == Reaction in Athens ==

Athens was angry at their defeat to Atlanta. Greek officials, including President Constantine Caramanlis, called the selection of Atlanta one of "rage and disgust" and committed "flagrant disregard of Olympic history." An Athenian daily newspaper declared the "Olympic flame will not be lit with oil, but with Coca-Cola," while the Athens bid chair, Spyros Metaxas, said that the city would never again bid for the Games. However, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki chief of the successful bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics, later admitted that Athens bid was flawed, saying that Atlanta won the Games because "desire and heritage alone would not guarantee...election to host the Games. We realized...we should improve our city...our environment...our infrastructure." Finally, Athens would host the 2004 Summer Olympics, after 108 years of Olympic history. == Notes ==