Whatwuzit?: The 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics Reconsidered

Abstract

This gateway looks back at Atlanta's Olympic Games ten years after the 1996 Opening Ceremony. Many of the links featured have become internet historic sites, not updated since the Olympic flame was extinguished. They establish a lasting reminder of both how news organizations reported the Games and how the Games, as the first Olympics prominently featured on the worldwide web, have been digitally preserved. Featured sections examine the Atlanta Games and the Olympics' engagement with civic, regional and national identities. All illustrations on this gateway were created by Kerry Soper and are taken from the 1996 Southern Changes article, "The Disposable Olympics Meets the City of Hype," by Preston Quesenberry. They help to illustrate sentiments critical of the Games' impact on the Atlanta landscape by highlighting the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games' attempts to "clean up the city" for the Olympics and by the extensive commercialization of the Olympic movement.

Keywords

• Politics and Government
• Journalism
• Residential
• Travel and Tourism
• Urban and Suburban Studies
• Atlanta Studies