2004 Athens Olympic Games

2004 Athens Olympic Games
Official logo
City	Athens, Greece
Venue	Olympic Indoor Hall
Team Gold Medalist	Romania Oana Ban Alexandra Eremia Cătălina Ponor Monica Roşu Nicoleta Daniela Şofronie Silvia Stroescu
All-Around Gold Medalist	Carly Patterson (USA)
Vault Gold Medalist	Monica Roşu (ROU)
Uneven Bars Gold Medalist	Émilie Le Pennec (FRA)
Balance Beam Gold Medalist	Cătălina Ponor (ROU)
Floor Exercise Gold Medalist	Cătălina Ponor (ROU)
Preceded by	2000 Sydney Olympic Games
Succeeded by	2008 Beijing Olympic Games

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, took place in Athens, Greece from 13 to 29 August 2004 with the motto, "Welcome Home". Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance. It was also the first time since 1896 (other than the since-downgraded 1906 Intercalated Games) that the Olympics were held in Greece. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Olympic Indoor Hall on August 14–23.

Format of Competition

The competition format was largely the same as the 2000 Summer Olympics. All participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included:

• The team competition, in which the eight highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. For the first time, each team of six gymnasts could only have three gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and all three scores counted toward the team total.
• The all-around competition, in which only the twenty-four highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. For the first time, each country was limited to only two gymnasts in the all-around final.
• The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

Competition Schedule

August 15	Qualifications
August 17	Team Final
August 19	All-Around
August 22	Vault Event Final
	Uneven Bars Event Final
August 23	Balance Beam Event Final
	Floor Exercise Event Final

Results

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team	Romania Oana Ban Alexandra Eremia Cătălina Ponor Monica Roşu Nicoleta Daniela Şofronie Silvia Stroescu	USA Mohini Bhardwaj Annia Hatch Terin Humphrey Courtney Kupets Courtney McCool Carly Patterson	Russia Ludmila Ezhova Svetlana Khorkina Maria Kryuchkova Anna Pavlova Elena Zamolodchikova Natalia Ziganshina
All-Around	Carly Patterson United States of America (USA)	Svetlana Khorkina Russia (RUS)	Zhang Nan China (CHN)
Vault	Monica Roşu Romania (ROU)	Annia Hatch United States of America (USA)	Anna Pavlova Russia (RUS)
Uneven Bars	Émilie Le Pennec France (FRA)	Terin Humphrey United States of America (USA)	Courtney Kupets United States of America (USA)
Balance Beam	Cătălina Ponor Romania (ROU)	Carly Patterson United States of America (USA)	Alexandra Eremia Romania (ROU)
Floor Exercise	Cătălina Ponor Romania (ROU)	Nicoleta Daniela Şofronie Romania (ROU)	Patricia Moreno Spain (ESP)

Notable Moments

• Carly Patterson became the first American gymnast to win the all-around at a fully attended Olympics. She outperformed Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, who, the previous year, had won the World All-Around title over Patterson.
• Emilie Le Pennec became the first French female gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal, and the first French gymnast to win gold in over a hundred years.
• Patricia Moreno became the first female Spanish gymnast to win an Olympic medal.
• The highest recorded score was 9.787, by Catalina Ponor during the balance beam event final.

Controversy

• Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, who was in her third Olympics specifically to win the all-around, came in second to USA's Carly Patterson. After the all-around, Khorkina stated that she believed Patterson's win was "fixed", due to the amount of time it took to calculate Khorkina's score on vault.

Medal Count

Rank	Country				Total
1	Romania	4	1	1	6
2	USA	1	4	1	6
3	Russia	0	1	2	3
4	France	1	0	0	1
5	China	0	0	1	1
6	Spain	0	0	1	1

Gallery

• Team Medalists (from left): USA, Romania, Russia
• All-Around Medalists (from left): Svetlana Khorkina (RUS), Carly Patterson (USA), Zhang Nan (CN)
• Vault Medalists (from left): Annia Hatch (USA), Monica Roşu (ROU), Anna Pavlova (RUS)
• Uneven Bars Medalists (from back): Terin Humphrey (USA), Émilie Le Pennec (FRA), Courtney Kupets (USA)
• Balance Beam Medalists (from left): Carly Patterson (USA), Cătălina Ponor (ROU), Alexandra Eremia (ROU)
• Floor Exercise Medalists (from left): Nicoleta Daniela Şofronie (ROU), Cătălina Ponor (ROU), Patricia Moreno (ESP)

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