ATLANTA — It was 30 years ago that Team USA’s women’s basketball team was setting records at the 1996 Olympics here in Atlanta.
You can now see amazing pieces of all the action at the Atlanta History Center.
From the first Olympic headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, through years of planning and development, and all the biggest moments of the games, including Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic cauldron.
RELATED STORIES:
- Atlanta Olympic Park Bombing | Former officer spent night standing over bomb remnants
- Atlanta Olympic Park Bombing: Witness says he was standing on top of bomb moments before blast
- Richard Jewell’s wife remembers late husband, getting his name cleared in Atlanta Olympic bombing
- 30 years after Atlanta Olympics, Summerhill neighbors fight to keep Olympic Cauldron
“Nobody will forget that. That’s the greatest moment in sports,” said Sheffield Hale, president and CEO of the Atlanta History Center.
Hale walked Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer through the new exhibit, even showing her where some of the Olympic athletes actually made their marks!
“This was in the Olympic Village, and the Olympians had paint,” Hale said, showing Stouffer the mural that the athletes had created.
The History Center’s vice president Paul Crater then took Stouffer behind the scenes of the exhibit and into the extensive storage area that holds hard-copy records, decorations and even “non-official” extra Olympic medals.
“Wow. It’s heavier than I would have guessed,” Stouffer said as Crater let her hold one of the extra gold medals.
“This is a piece of history,” he told her. “Kerry Strug, Michael Johnson, the basketball team, Charles Barkley, it’s what they would have worn on their dais when they won their medals.”
Also on display, personal documents from the estate of Richard Jewell -- the security guard once suspected of something he didn’t do -- the Olympic Park Bombing.
“(This is) a handwritten note that he wrote to his mother apologizing for the frenzy of coverage,” Crater said, showing Stouffer the document.
Then a later commendation, saying Jewell deserves to be remembered as a hero.
Also there, the 1996 Olympic Mascot, Izzy.
“So was it the first imaginary mascot,” Stouffer asked Crater.
“Yes, and animated,” he said.
On display through all the Olympic memories was also Atlanta’s knack for self-promotion.
“We’re shameless about it, and it’s what I love about us, and it works,” Hale said. “It absolutely works. It’s that positive thinking and claiming, and we’re gonna overclaim, and a lot of times we get it. I mean the Olympics was an overclaim. What the hell were we? We got it, and what else can we not do? Nothing,” Hale said.
“We can do anything,” Stouffer told Hale.
“We can,” he responded.