Closing Ceremony of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games

Sunday, 29 August 2004 last day of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad

As the Greatest Celebration of Humanity reached its final phase, host-city Athens bade a final farewell to the athletes and its guests. The Ceremony was held on 29 August at the Athens Olympic Stadium, under Attica's full moon.

Just like D. Papaioannou had said, the Closing Ceremony is “a human celebration, full of music and singing”, dances in “the Greek way”, and “a patchwork of music from all over Greece on a continuous flow, just like an energy river".

“Let the dances last” was the first song to be heard in the Olympic Stadium today, and many other followed, by some of the the best Greek singers, like Charis Alexiou, Dimitra Galani, Marinella, George Dalaras, Giannis Parios, Chronis Aidonidis and many more.

Afterwards, the medal ceremony for the Men’s Marathon took place. It was the first time ever that a medal ceremony was included in an Olympic Games Closing Ceremony.

Then, the flag-bearers entered with all the countries’ flags, followed by the athletes, who rushed in the Stadium without distinction of nationality, to celebrate unified the end of the greatest celebration of humanity and to set the foundations for new competitions at the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games.

After short speeches by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and Jacques Rogge, the national anthems of Greece and China were heard and the Olympic flag was handed over to the mayor of Beijing. Immediately after, the IOC President declared the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games closed.

In the Closing Ceremony of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games participated 3,691 volunteers performers from 15 countries and 2,200 support volunteers from 32 countries.