ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Boston Globe
This time, the gang's all here. The Haitians and the Cambodians, the Tajiks and the Monegasques. Not to mention the Iraqis, Rwandans, Cypriots, Nepalese and Cook Islanders. For the first time in Olympic history, every country that was invited - a record 197, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - is attending this quadrennial Coke ad.
Tonight, they'll march into the 83,000-seat future home of the Braves and President Clinton will declare open the Games of the 26th Olympiad, one century after they were revived in Athens by Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
The last time the Summer Olympics were held in the United States, in 1984, the movement had been torn asunder by three consecutive boycotts, with the entire Soviet bloc (save Romania) staying home from LA.
This time, there is no Soviet Union. There is no German Democratic Republic, no Yugoslavia, no Czechoslovakia. The new world order has swollen the ranks of Olympic participants.
Most of the 26 countries the International Olympic Committee has recognized since 1992 are former Soviet republics who competed together as a makeshift Unified Team in Barcelona. They'll march as 15 sovereign states, alongside countries that didn't exist when Ronald Reagan opened the 1984 Games: Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Palestine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
They've assembled in a steamy city that is playing host to these Games in part to show the world that humanity can survive its differences. Atlanta was burned to the ground during the Civil War and lived through the racial tensions of the 1960s.
Inspired by the memory of native son Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta billed itself as the ``city too busy to hate.'' For the past six years, since it outbid favored Athens for these Games, Atlanta has been too busy to catch its breath.
Unlike the 1896 Games, which were a glorified track meet with 311 athletes - all male - from 13 countries, these Olympics are daunting in their size and sweep - more than 10,000 athletes competing for 1,838 medals in 271 events in 26 sports in front of approximately 10 million spectators, with 2 billion more watching on TV. ``As I think back, I can't say honestly I envisioned what it would be like toward the end,'' said Billy Payne, the lawyer and former University of Georgia defensive end who sold the city on bidding for the Olympics.
These Games are bigger, more expensive (a $1.7 billion budget) and more commercialized, with more visitors (1.4 million) crowding the streets than Coubertin could have imagined.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP U.S. gymnast Dominique Moceanu practices on theby CNBbalance beam Thursday at the Georgia Dome, where competition begins
Sunday. color.