Centennial Olympic Stadium

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Centennial Olympic Stadium

Location	755 Hank Aaron Drive SE Atlanta, Georgia 30315
Broke ground	July 10, 1993
Opened	July 19, 1996
Closed	August 27, 1996
Demolished	August 27, 1996 (Reconfigured as Turner Field)
Owner	Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	$207 million
Architect	Heery International; Rosser International; Williams-Russell and Johnson; Ellerbe Becket
Tenants	1996 Summer Olympics
Capacity	85,000 (49,000 Post Olympics)

Centennial Olympic Stadium was the 85,000-seat main stadium of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Construction of the stadium began in 1993, and it was complete and ready for the Opening Ceremony in July 1996.

During the week-long athletics program, the stadium bore witness to Donovan Bailey of Canada winning the 100 m in a world record time of 9.84 s; Michael Johnson winning both the 200 and 400 metres titles, breaking the 200 m world record in the process; and France's Marie-José Perec also winning the 200/400 double. Meanwhile, Carl Lewis won his fourth consecutive Olympic title in the long jump, becoming only the second person, after Al Oerter, to win the same athletics event at four consecutive Games.

After the closing ceremony of the 1996 Paralympics, reconstruction began to turn the stadium into a new home for the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which was renamed Turner Field. The southwest corner of the stadium was prebuilt and configured to accommodate the baseball infield and seating, and this is easily seen in aerial views and diagrams of the stadium in its Olympic configuration. The track was removed, and the north half of the stadium demolished, reducing the capacity to 45,000.

After reconstruction was complete in 1997, the 1960s-era Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was imploded.