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- B NATION, Page 47American NotesSPORTSWinning the Gold
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- Six years before they begin, the 1996 Summer Olympics have
- their first winner: Atlanta. The International Olympic
- Committee voted last week in Tokyo to make the city site of the
- '96 Games. Athens was long considered the favorite by virtue
- of its claim that the 100th anniversary edition of the modern
- Games should take place in the nation where the Olympics were
- born. But most I.O.C. members succumbed to their misgivings
- about the Greek capital's pollution and potential safety
- problems. Atlanta promised smoother sailing, to say nothing of
- the likelihood of the kind of neat profit from commercial
- sponsorship perfected at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
- Complained Melina Mercouri, actress and former Greek Minister
- of Culture: "Coca-Cola won over the Parthenon."
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- Eager to reassure I.O.C. members who felt the 1984 Los
- Angeles Olympics had gone too far in commercializing the Games,
- the committee liked to stress the city's appeal as a symbol of
- racial harmony. Now comes the tricky part: making room for both
- Coca-Cola and the spirit of the Parthenon.
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