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. 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. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports.

"The theme of the 1st volume is Homecoming of the Games and Organization and Operations and the 2nd volume is totally devoted to the Games. "

Dear Friend of the Olympic Movement,
The preparation and organisation of the 2004 Olympic Games were an immense undertaking. Greece was the smallest country ever to host the largest event of the world. The Greek Government, Public Agencies and the Organising Committee united their efforts to prepare the necessary infrastructure and to provide the necessary resources to host the Games.

The 2004 Olympic Games were a Unique Homecoming of the Games to the country where they were born and the city where they were revived in 1896. The people of Greece worked tirelessly to provide to the athletes of the world the best possible conditions to prepare and compete, to the spectators from all over the world a secure and celebratory environment, to the 4 billion viewers worldwide an amazing voyage that combined the ancient with the present, and to you a historical event that showcased ancient Olympic values in a contemporary and culturally enhancing manner The IOC President during the Closing Ceremony stated that we organised and presented an "Unforgettable, Dream Games".

When we were bidding for the honour to host the 2004 Games back in 1997, we asked the IOC and the international community for the right to make our dream come true.

We delivered on our pledge: athletes competed in state-of-the-art facilities such as the Olympic Stadium, ancient venues such as Ancient Olympia, the Panathinaiko Stadium and the original Marathon route, bridging the history of the Games with their future. The first ever global Olympic Torch Relay sent a message of unity and peace through sport, to all five continents.

In the Official Report you will discover in detail our endeavours and efforts to prepare and organise the Games through words and pictures. But when you close your eyes and think about the Athens Games, imagine that, from the magical Opening Ceremony until the festive Closing Ceremony, the world had a unique opportunity to celebrate sport and truly the best that humanity has to offer All of us in Greece who were part of this great celebration, and our friends abroad who shared in this homecoming, will treasure those 17 days for the rest of our lives.

Hoping that you visit Greece and our Olympic heritage,

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki
President, ATHENS 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games

Download Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad: Volume 1

PDF format, 48MB, 544Pages. From the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

Contents Official Report, Volume I:

Part A - Homecomming of the Games
Greece and the Olympic Games
Hellenic Sporting Tradition
Bidding for the Games
Organisation, Legislative and Regulatory Framework

Part B - Organisation and Operations
The Organising Committee
Financial Resources
Legal Framework
The Venues
Security
Human Resources
Relationship with Olympic Stakeholders
Collaboration with Institutional Stakeholders and Social Partners
Environment
Image and Messages of Athens
Sports
Technology
Games Services
Games Support Services
Venue Operations
Games Operations
Sources

Download Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad: Volume 2

PDF format, 59MB, 545Pages. From the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

Contents Official Report, Volume II:

The Games
Games Command
Athens and Olympic Cities
Hospitality and Services
Torch Relay
Opening Ceremony
The Games
Aquatics
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Canoeing
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Football
Gymnastics
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table Tennis
Teakwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Weightlifting
Wrestling
Closing Ceremony
Paralympic Games
ATHOC Financial Report
Legacy
Appendices

Greece and the City of Athens

Greece, Cradle of Olympism

The first Olympic Games in antiquity, in 776 BC, mark a particular point in the history of world sports and civilisation. The values and ideals conceived by the Ancient Greek intellect found fertile ground in the Roman era, as the Romans succumbed to the appeal of Greece, the land they had conquered, and its cultural offspring.

The following centuries, however; would set aside the ideals of Olympism, and gradually lead to their obscurity. This oblivion would prove to be only temporary.

In 1894 Pierre de Coubertin and the Congress in Paris took a giant step towards reviving the Olympic Games in modern times. The choice of Athens as the first Olympic City, as well as the enthusiasm with which the Greeks greeted the Games in 1896, contributed decisively to the effort of establishing a Modern Olympic Movement. From the end of the nineteenth century to the dawn of the twenty-first, Greece and the Games have both changed completely.

However, in 2004 the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens would underline once more, after 108 years, the very real connection between Olympism and Humanity.

Athens: Voyage into Myth

Through the mists of time and deep into myth, the establishment of Athens is credited to its founder and first king, Kekrops. Two Olympian gods, Poseidon and Athena, sought patronage over the city, offering respectively, a spring of salt water and an olive tree. The inhabitants, or, in certain versions, the other gods of Olympus, voted; thus Athena was made guardian and namesake of the city. Thus begins the glorious history of the city of Pallas Athena, mixed with Ancient Greek traditions. Erechthonius, half-man and half-serpent, the King of Athens, who rose from the Athenian land, is a myth used to structure the claim that the Athenians were an indigenous people, who had always lived in the area. In fact, another appealing myth connects Erechthonius to Kekrops and his daughters.

At the sight of this hybrid infant, whom Athena had placed in a basket and entrusted to Aglauros, daughter of Kekrops, her sisters, Herse and Pandrosos, and their mother Agraulos fled, leaping in fear off the Acropolis. Aglauros herself, in an act of self-sacrifice, also fell from the Athenian Acropolis, in order to save the city from foreign invaders. In the later periods of this early age, several mythical heroes, Cranaos, Pandion, Erechtheus, Aegeus would be linked to the city's historical course; the most renowned being Theseus, considered the son of Poseidon.

Theseus was associated with important points in Athenian history: he slew the Minotaur on Crete, putting an end to the homage tax his fellow citizens paid to King Minos, in the form of human lives. Furthermore, Theseus is credited with the synoecism or unification of Athens, the policy of uniting the settlements of Attica around the Acropolis of Athens, an early appearance of the city-state

The many deeds of Theseus (battling the Amazons and the Centaurs, kidnapping Helen from Sparta, descending into Hades), as told by myths, form a prelude to the many activities and dominant position Athens would hold during the classical period. The reign of Theseus is usually placed in the later Mycenaean period (14th - 13th century BC), when Athens was one of the most important centres of the Mycenaean "Empire", the seat of a monarch with a palace and cyclopean fortifications. ...

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