In July and August 1996, the world sent its finest athletes to Atlanta. Some athletes came as familiar names from familiar nations. Others had toiled in obscurity. Each came proudly to Atlanta, and Atlanta received them in the same manner. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of those Summer Games, the AJC offers 20 memorable athletes and performances.
The first in the series: Beach volleyball makes its debut on the beaches of Clayton County.
Where volleyball legends Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes once pounded spikes into the sand on their way to Olympic gold, the space now yields to the likes of Al Smith’s Jam Session featuring Tony Hightower and special guests.
In 1996, on property that used to be a water park, a sport that has become a staple of Olympic broadcast programming took its first well-tanned steps. The Atlanta Games were the first in which beach volleyball was a medal sport, and it’s now difficult to imagine the Summer Games without it.
Beach volleyball is one of six sports that NBC features during its prime-time broadcasts. In 2012, beach volleyball gold medalist Misty May-Treanor was the fifth most clicked athlete on NBC’s Olympics website, drawing nearly as many page views as swimmer Michael Phelps.
The past 20 years for the stadium that helped launch it have not been quite as eventful. Left behind in Clayton County is a 6,200-seat permanent stadium that rises above what is known as the Beach, a massive pool with water slides, water trampoline, picnic tables, pavilions and an actual beach.
The Jonesboro stadium, now recognized as the Lakeside Amphitheater, is essentially intact 20 years later, although artificial turf has been laid over what was once the sand court.
The county spent $11 million to purchase the park from a private developer and upgrade it to serve as the beach volleyball venue. The purchase provided a literal moment in the sun and memories for county residents.
“It was amazing being here and seeing everything and being a part of it, all the different people that came through,” said Amy Keeney, a spokeswoman for the county parks and recreation department, who was in the county’s employ at the time of the Olympics and assisted with the VIP suites at the stadium.
County officials once dreamed that it would host professional beach volleyball tournaments, though as quickly as 1998 they acknowledged it wasn’t going to happen, as Clayton County was too far from downtown Atlanta for the tastes of tournament organizers. Amateur tournaments, the next hope, have not come the county’s way, either.
What the county has instead is a park that has been developed over the years, adding a tennis facility, a senior center, walking and biking trails. There are softball fields and fishing lakes. The stadium gets use with free concerts for the community. Space underneath the stands has been converted into a meeting area and reception hall. One of the rooms that once was a suite for Olympic dignitaries and celebrities is now a bridal suite.
It has fared better than other Olympic beach-volleyball venues. The stadium used for the 2004 Olympics in Athens lay unused until it reportedly was ceded to the country’s ministry of justice, to be converted into a courtroom. The Beijing beach-volleyball venue reportedly has been left deserted and unmaintained.
Clayton County began a weekly “Sip & Sound” concert series in mid-July at the former home of Olympic beach volleyball, free music events running on Thursdays through Sept. 8.
