2004 Summer Olympics
closing ceremony
2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
Date29 August 2004 (2004-08-29)
Time21:15 - 0:00 EEST (UTC+3)[1]
VenueOlympic Stadium
LocationMaroussi, Athens, Greece
Coordinates38°2′10″N 23°47′15″E / 38.03611°N 23.78750°E / 38.03611; 23.78750
Filmed byOBS on behalf of ERT and AOB[2]
FootageAthens 2004 Closing Ceremony - Full Length on YouTube

The closing ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on 29 August 2004 21:15 EEST (UTC+3) at the Olympic Stadium, in Marousi, Greece, a suburb of Athens.[1][3][4]

Ceremony

Victory Ceremony

The medals for the competition were presented by Jacques Rogge, IOC President; Belgium, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Lamine Diack, IAAF President; Senegal.

The final victory ceremony was held to the three Men's marathon medallists :

Stefano Baldini - Gold
Mebrahtom Keflezighi - Silver
Vanderlei de Lima* - Bronze

  • During the men's marathon, De Lima was actually lead the race to gift the final gold medal for Brazil. However, at the middle, he was attacked by Irish priest Cornelius Horan. Following that incident, he was fell to third, allowing him to receive bronze medal, the first for Brazil in this event. Afterwards, he misses Beijing 2008 four years later. 12 years later in 2016, when Brazil was the host nation, in the opening ceremony, in honour of his brave against Horan's assault, he was awarded as the final torchbearer to lit up the Olympics' cauldron in Rio de Janeiro.

Parade of Nations

The flag bearers of 202 National Olympic Committees arrived into the stadium. The flag bearers from each participating country entered the stadium informally in a single file, ordered by order of the Greek alphabet, and behind them marched all the athletes. They were led by Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, with the latter represents China as the next host nation of the games.[5]

Speeches

Newly elected athlete members of the International Olympic Committee

The four athlete members who were elected are:

  1. Frankie Fredericks (athletics, Namibia)
  2. Jan Železný (athletics, Czech Republic)
  3. Hicham El Guerrouj (athletics, Morocco)
  4. Rania Elwani (swimming, Egypt)

Handover of the Olympic flag

Mayor of Athens Dora Bakoyannis handed over the Olympic flag as the representative of Athens 2004 to the IOC President Jacques Rogge and then passed to the Mayor of Beijing Wang Qishan. He represents the committee members of the next host city, Beijing 2008, led by Liu Qi.

Then, both Greek and Chinese flags were raised after the handover was completed.

Lowering the Olympic flag

Lowering of the Olympic flag and singing of the Olympic Anthem which the Greek choirs sang in Greek. The flag was raised again two years later in Turin, Italy.

Dignitaries in attendance

Dignitaries from International organizations

Host country dignitaries

Foreign Dignitaries from abroad

Anthems

Victory ceremonies

Music performances

Notes

  1. Anthem played as part of the Men's marathon victory ceremony.

References

  1. 1 2 "Closing Ceremony Under a Full Moon". International Olympic Committee. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  2. Official website of Athens Olympic Broadcasting
  3. "Hughly successful Athens Olympics close". Chron. 29 August 2004. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  4. Sachs, Susan (30 August 2004). "SUMMER 2004 GAMES: CLOSING CEREMONY; For Greece, Olympics Leave Pride, Relief and a Huge Bill". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  5. "Athletes, fans enjoy Closing Ceremony". ESPN. 29 August 2004. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  6. Το χρυσό μετάλλιο ανήκει σε όλους τους Έλληνες, είπαν Γ.Αγγελοπούλου και Ζ.Ρογκ [The gold medal belongs to all Greeks, said G. Angelopoulou and Z. Rog] (in Greek). In.gr. 29 August 2004. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
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