Nine days into the 26th Olympiad in Atlanta in 1996, a terrorist pipe bomb exploded in the city's Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring 110. The same Games, however, also saw American Carl Lewis collect his ninth gold medal with his fourth consecutive victory in the long jump. In weightlifting, Turkish featherweight lifter Naim Suleymanoglu completed his own streak with his third straight gold medal in the sport.

With wins in the 400m and 200m dashes, American sprinter Michael Johnson set an Olympic record and a world record, respectively. In the history of the Games, he is the only man to have won both events, let alone at the same Olympics. Meanwhile, Chinese diver Fu Mingxia's victories in the women's 10m platform and the 3m springboard marked the third consecutive Olympics at which a Chinese diver had won both events. In the medal count, the U.S. defeated Germany 101-65.