Olympics Return To Athens In 2004 Rome Second As Games Go Back To Birthplace

This time, sentiment prevailed.

After the snub of 1996, the Olympics are returning to their Greek birthplace in 2004.

Athens was awarded the Summer Games Friday, bringing the Olympics back to the Greek capital for the first time since the initial modern Games in 1896.

“We’re giving back to the Greeks what they gave to us,” said International Olympic Committee member Jacques Rogge. “The extra value of the Greek tradition made the difference.”

The decision set off celebrations in the streets of Athens, where young people linked arms in traditional Greek dances near the Acropolis and motorists honked in joy. Ships in the western port of Patras sounded their fog horns.

Some of the jubilant Athenians said the decision was a sweet payback for Greece’s devastating loss to Atlanta for the 1996 Centennial Games.

“They owe it to us because of 1996,” said Yolanda Lalabake, celebrating in central Athens.

“There is a natural sympathy vote for Greece,” said British IOC member Craig Reedie. “If you go with your heart rather than your head, you vote for Athens.”

The sentimental factor produced a surprisingly large victory for Athens over Rome, its main rival and considered by many to have been the favorite. The other losing cities were Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa, and Stockholm, Sweden.

Greek and IOC officials said the Athens bid also benefited from its promise to take the Games closer to their roots and away from the commercial excesses that tarnished the Atlanta Games.

“As a great athletic contest, we have to provide the possibility for the Olympics to cleanse itself from rampant commercialism,” Greek Premier Costas Simitis said.

Athens beat Rome by 25 votes - 66-41 - in the fourth and final round of a secret ballot by 107 IOC members in Lausanne. It was one of the biggest winning margins in IOC history.

Buenos Aires and Cape Town tied for the fewest votes in the first round. In a tie-breaker, Cape Town won 62-44, and Buenos Aires was eliminated. Stockholm went out next with 19 votes and Cape Town was ousted in the third round with 20.

With a majority of 54 votes required for victory, Athens led in every round with 32 votes in the first, 38 in the second and 52 in the third. The margin of victory came when Athens picked up 14 votes that had gone to Cape Town.

Most of the credit for Athens’ victory went to Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the charismatic bid chief. A lawyer, former member of parliament and wife of a millionaire steel and shipping tycoon, she is the first woman ever to lead a successful Olympic bid.

By choosing Athens, the IOC returned to its traditional roots in Europe while declining to take the Games for the first time to Africa or South America.

Athens, Rome (1960) and Stockholm (1912) had all staged the Games before. There was a strong push to take the Games back to Europe in 2004 after 10 years and four Olympics away from the continent.

Personal appeals to the voters in Lausanne from South African President Nelson Mandela and Argentine President Carlos Menem failed to win over the IOC.