Greek Olympics 2004
Greece Olympics 2004 Athens was awarded the 2004 Summer Olympics on September 5, 1997 in Lausanne, Switzerland, after surprisingly having lost the bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics, the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. It was to be the second time Athens had hosted the Olympic Games.
In 1997, Athens made a bid based largely on an appeal to Olympic history. In the last round of voting, Athens defeated Rome, 66 votes to 41. Before this, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Cape Town, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, had already been eliminated from consideration after receiving few votes.
After that, the International Olympic Committee expressed its concern over the status of the progress of construction work of the new Olympic venues. A new Organizing Committee was formed under President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and preparations began at an accelerated pace. Although the heavy cost was criticized, as is not unusual with Olympic preparations, Athens was transformed into a city that uses state-of-the-art technology in transportation and urban development. Some of the most modern sporting venues in the world were created, almost all of which were fully ready on schedule. The 2004 Games were adjudged a success, as both security and organization were good and few visitors reported problems with transportation or accommodation. The only problem noted was sparse attendance at preliminary events during the first days of competition. Total attendance was more than 3.2 M tickets sold, which was higher that any other Olympics with the exception of Sydney (more than 5M tickets).