Centennial Park was supposed to be a major gathering point in downtown Atlanta during the Olympics. But our visit there was delayed when the park was closed following the bombing just hours after our arrival in Georgia. When it re-opened Tuesday morning, we were there. It was a sweltering hot day, so the most popular part of the park was the walk-through fountain which, when viewed from above, forms the Olympic rings. David (at right, in black shirt, shorts, and baseball hat) and other Olympic revelers took full advantage of the refreshing spray.
Not far from the fountain was the tower where the bomb exploded and a Georgia woman was killed by shrapnel. Visitors by the thousands walked silently past the site, leaving flags, flowers, and signs. One sign read, "The world's heart cried for a nite, but you didn't break it."
Here are Mom and I (toward the left side of the picture) outside the Georgia Dome, which on Wednesday was the site of the women's basketball quarterfinals. Each ticket covered two of the four games, and we lucked out by getting the session that included the gold-medal-bound United States team!
I know it's hard to see, but here are the U.S. women at the near end of the court, taking warmups before their quarterfinal win. As a the television announcer pointed out, this team was so good that UConn superstar Rebecca Lobo spent most of the Olympics on the bench. She played later in this game, a real treat for us New Englanders.
To avoid two weeks of traffic jams during the games, we and the other spectators used public transportation, special shuttles, and our feet to get to and from events. Throughout the downtown area, pedestrians jammed city streets like this one, blocked off to traffic and made pedestrian ways.
That's all for now, folks! If you'd like to get a better idea of what it's like to attend an Olympic Games, you can check it out for yourself when Salt Lake City hosts the winter games in 2002.
This page updated on May 14, 1997
© 1997 Kelly A. Jefferson.