Celebration to mark award of Olympic Games to Atlanta

Centennial Olympic Park will host a reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Atlanta being awarded the Olympic Games.

The event will be held Sept. 18 and include members of the Atlanta delegation who represented the city in its final Olympic bid presentation in Tokyo. A larger public celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Games will take place in the park in July 2016.

The Sept. 18 anniversary celebration is being organized by President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Billy Payne and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.

The decision in 1990 to award the Olympic Games to Atlanta catapulted the city onto the international stage. Atlanta defeated Athens, Greece; Toronto, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; Belgrade, Serbia (then-Yugoslavia) and Manchester, England for the right to host the games.