The Summer Olympics begin here one year from Wednesday, and the countdown is being marked with everything from pomp and ceremony to plain ol' hype.
Formal invitations to 197 participating nations, including the former Soviet republics, Palestine and Cambodia, were sent during a ceremony Wednesday from International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland."It has now become a tradition for the IOC to reconfirm the invitation launched at every closing ceremony calling on the youth of the world to assemble in Atlanta," said IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. "We are sure they will present the world with the best Games ever."
In Atlanta, about 2,000 employees of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games gathered near the Olympic Stadium construction site for early morning fireworks and balloons.
Former Mayor Andrew Young told the group that when the idea of having the Olympics in Atlanta was first born, "it took a bunch of lunatics to believe that we could pull it off. Well, welcome to the crazy house - ain't it wonderful."
The Games will take place from July 19 to Aug. 4, 1996, marking the 100th anniversary of the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece.
As the hoopla unfolded, organizers were focusing on unfinished business, including completion of a $500 million construction program and raising enough money to meet a precariously tight $1.58 billion budget. Unlike most Olympics, Atlanta's is being financed without major government help.
There have been some glitches. Hotels are accused of flouting a law designed to bar price-gouging, though no charges have been brought. Barrow County refused to let Somali athletes train, a payback for wrongs against U.S. troops on a humanitarian mission in 1993. The Somali team quickly found a new training home in Gordon County.
People across the state were angered that politicians got a break on hard-to-get tickets. And two Olympic Village dormitory buildings are settling excessively, sinking as much as 9 inches into the ground.
Supporters have been unfazed.
"Nobody thought Atlanta had a chance of winning the Olympics," said Mayor Bill Campbell, "and I think it's that same cynical sense that causes people to doubt our ability to do it."