Milestone

In 1994, at the International Olympic Committee's 102nd Session, the IOC decided to split the host city election procedure for the 2004 Olympic Games into two phases. In the first phase, the IOC Evaluation Commission prepared a report which then became public. A selection college composed of the IOC Executive Board members (minus those members whose country was submitting a bid), a representative of the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees (NOC), the chairman of the Evaluation Commission and the doyen of the IOC members, was created to select a number of finalist cities on the basis of the Evaluation Commission's report. In the second phase, the IOC members were given the opportunity to visit the finalist cities before voting.

The election took place by secret ballot at the 106th IOC Session. In each round of voting, members voted for just one city. According to the established procedure, if, after the first round, no city obtains an absolute majority of votes, the city with the fewest votes is eliminated and successive rounds are held until one city has a majority. However, if only two cities remain, the one with the greatest number of votes is elected.

Five finalists cities were selected from among the eleven candidate cities. On 5 September 1997 at the 106th IOC Session in Lausanne, Athens was elected the Host City for the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in 2004.

(Credit: IOC / Olympic Museum)