USA Atlanta
XXVI Summer International Olympic Games

The Atlanta Summer Olympics was celebrated in the centennial year of the Olympic Movement founded by Pierre de Coubertin. May be, therefore it had beaten many records. 10,318 athletes including 3,512 female ones of 197 nations competed at the Atlanta Olympics. Totally 271 sets of medals had been played for in 35 sports at the XXVI Games.
For the first time after an 84-year interval, a new country with old name Russia competed at the Olympics independently. Athletes of CIS countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine made their debut as members of individual national teams.
After a long interval, athletes of Afghanistan returned to the Games. The Czech Republic and Slovakia attended the Games as independent nations for the first time since the breakup of Czechoslovakia. Athletes of Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Dominica, Cambodia, Cabo Verde, Comorosm Nauru, Palestine, San Tome e Principe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia made their first appearance at these Summer Olympics. Former Yugoslav republic Macedonia was represented by an individual national team.
The Olympic Flame was lit at the Atlanta Stadium by great American boxer Muhammad Ali. The Athlete’s Oath was voiced by American basketball player Teresa Edwards, and the Judge’s Oath, by diving judge Hobie Billingsley.
The Games of the XXVI Olympiad were officially opened by USA President Bill Clinton.

WINNER MEDALS
Organizers of the anniversary Olympics in Atlanta were wise enough to maintain the obverse design traditional as it was made by Giuseppe Cassioli.
The reverse side design had been altered – it was devoted to the 100-th anniversary of the modern Olympics. The medal has a wide lug for a wide ribbon decorated with a laurel branch embroidered in its lower part.
OBVERSE: a figure of the Greek Goddess of Victory, holding a laurel wreath in her right hand, hand raised, and a palm leaf in her left hand. On the left of the goddess, there is a Panathenaean amphora standing on a shelf rock, with depicted competing athletes. A view of an amphitheatre looking like the Roman Coliseum appears on the right of the goddess. A horizontal threeline inscription in English reading “XXIV – Olympiad – Atlanta 1996” is engraved in the right upper segment, with the Olympic rings between the second and third lines.
REVERSE: the Atlanta Summer Olympics logo - the stylized torch head constructed (bottom-up) of the inscription “Atlanta 1996”, anniversary figure “100”, Olympic rings and flame with stars flying upward. The logo is ornamented with two stylized olive branches with a pictogram of the sport concerned below the logo between the branches.
A legend in English around the rim reads: ”Centennial Olympic Games”. 

COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL
OBVERSE: the official logo of the Atlanta Summer Olympics in the center with the legend in English around the rim “Games of the XXVI Olympiad”.
REVERSE: quilt of leaves in the center with the legend in English around the rim “Centennial Olympic Games”.