Centennial Olympic Park Alive Again

(ATR) Nearly all Covid restrictions were lifted in Atlanta this Memorial Day.

A sign of the "new normal" was confirmed in and around Centennial Olympic Park: across the street the Ferris Wheel is spinning again.

In a few weeks, the Park will be 25 years old, just like the Atlanta Olympic Games.

After closing last summer due to the severe scourge of the Covid pandemic the venue reopened to the public a few days ago, albeit partially.

"Mom, take a picture" exclaims a boy of about nine as he runs with three other friends towards the monument of the five Olympic rings in front of which a long line of people wait their turn under a blazing sun for a "post Covid" souvenir snapshot.

These five large rings are in the north of the Park, the only area open for the moment, with playgrounds and wide expanses of lawns welcoming hundreds of families on this afternoon

The southern section, which houses the Fountain of the Rings, an amphitheater and a visitor center, is still closed. "A reopening is expected soon," one of the site's caretakers tells Around the Rings.

As pandemic restrictions ease and statistics improve with mass vaccination, the caretaker's prognosis for the sprawling 21-acre plaza could come true.

Centennial Park has been one of the most prominent legacies of the 1996 Olympic Games.

Surely the days to come will provide a new context to revisit the economic, social, sporting and cultural impact of the Olympics for the city, now affected by a disease that has forced human beings to speak of a world before and after Covid.

Homepage photo: ATR

Written by Miguel Hernandez

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