S Zebulon Baker, Whatwuzit?: The 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics Reconsidered

After Eric Rudolph's pipe bomb was detonated in Centennial Olympic Park midway through the two-week event, killing two people and injuring one hundred-thirteen more, S. L. Price of Sports Illustrated observed that "the bombing irrevocably changed the tenor of the 1996 Olympics." The bombing itself crystallized these problem-plagued Olympic Games. "Atlanta," he noted, "a booster's paradise that sought through these Games to confirm its status as a major city, now suffers the civic bruising feared by Montreal, Moscow, Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona. Cruelly, Atlanta will be known for years as the city that bragged about the largest peacetime security operation in U.S. history - but couldn't protect the Olympics."
(Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/events/1996/olympics/weekly/960805/tragedy.html)

With a nod to southern hospitality, New York Times columnist George Vescey noted at the Games' conclusion how "like any good host, Atlanta tried to show the world a good time, and, for the most part, succeeded. When you stand at the doorway and your host and hostess say, 'Y'all come back,' you talk about the succulent roast chicken and not about the biscuits that might have been slightly burnt."
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/specials/olympics/0805/oly-wrapup-vecsey-column.html)

Gwen Knapp of the San Francisco Examiner lamented the Games' conclusion. Buying into the international image Atlanta attempted to project, she mourned, "I can always come back to Atlanta, but it will be an empty shell then, a world without Australian accents to greet me at the swimming pool, without 197 national flags flapping hard against each other in the latest windstorm, without Brazilian basketball fans grooving to 'Jailhouse Rock' during a timeout."
(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/examiner/article.cgi?year=1996&month=08&day=04&article=SPORTS6259.dtl)

When the Closing Ceremonies were over, Crumpacker stated bluntly in his final "'Packer's Journal" entry, "I'll miss Atlanta like a boil on the butt." In spite of these Games' organizational problems, "In a city with no charm, no grace and no ambience, the Centennial Olympic Games were nevertheless marvelous. The athletes and their performances rose above the corporate clutter and county-fair schlock of downtown Atlanta like a brightly colored hot-air balloon. Above it all."
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/examiner/article.cgi?year=1996 &month=08&day=05&article=SPORTS13484.dtl)