Atlanta Tries to Relive the Dream

(ATR) Atlanta celebrates 20 years since the Centennial Olympic Games.

Three days ahead of the actual anniversary of opening ceremony on July 19, CentennialOlympic Park was the scene for the commemoration on a hot Atlanta Saturday night. Stormy weather delayed the start of the program by an hour, perhaps trimming the size of the crowd expected. Plans were made for 15,000 to fill the park instead of the 2,000 who turned out.

Volunteers from the Atlanta Games were easy to spot in their uniforms from 1996, like Terry Anderson. He tellsAround the Ringsit's unbelievable to think 20 years has passed since he last wore the outfit.

"It’s unbelievable, all my kids were small and now they’re grown," Anderson says. "Twenty years has gone by so fast, I used to come down to the park every night... it was a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience that I couldn’t pass up. "

"It was an unbelievable experience to meet different people from different countries and collaborate with them. Atlanta was really great."

Retired Atlanta TV anchor Monica Pearson emceed the program and sang thenational anthem.

Speech making came from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and another Casey, Los Angeles 2024 bid leader Casey Wasserman.

In his remarks, Andrew Young, considered the spiritual leader of the Atlanta Games, recognized the contribution of the man who came up with the idea of bidding for the Olympics.

"[Billy] Payne had an ideal and an idea that could change the city, change the south and indeed inspire the world," said Young. "Billy Payne and his wife Martha, knowing he was certifiably insane, decided that we could bring the Olympics to Atlanta."

"We see humanity in this park," Young echoed over the loudspeakers.

"We have shown the humanity of Atlanta to the world, and the world will take that humanity wherever the flame of the Olympics goes, and we have to thank for that a young man who didn't have sense enough to know his limitations. But to realize that with God, a good wife and a wonderful set of friends in the city of Atlanta, there is no such thing as impossible. Billy, we thank you."

"It was a kind of dream that people felt was impossible, and Atlantans are given to fulfilling impossible dreams," he continued. "I felt there was a certain destiny about the very idea of the Olympics coming to what people did not yet know to be a new south."

A closing prayer from Young, once a minister, and fireworks closed the program.

Olympians and Paralympians from 1996 were among those invited to the anniversary,including Carl Lewis, Janet Evans, Amy Van Dyken, Teresa Edwards, Mitch Richmond, five of the "Magnificent Seven" USA Gymnastics team, Lenny Wilkens, LeAnn Shannon, Curtis Lovejoy and Al Mead.

"This is awesome; it’s really cool to be back in Olympic Park," said Amy Van Dyken, the most decorated athlete of the Atlanta Games winning four golds in swimming. "For me to see this out of my hotel window is the coolest thing ever, to be back in the city where my life changed forever over the course of five days, five swims."

"I walked in here and no one knew who I was and left the most decorated athlete of the Games," she tells ATR. "It is cool to see how this city has grown, how I’ve grown and how everybody else has grown. This town will always have a place in my heart."

Written by Kevin Nutley

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