The ephemeral moment, two decades ago this week, is still an exquisite, glass of good wine flashback.

September 18, 1990, packed and headed to the Colorado Springs airport with my USOC colleague, Dave Ogrean. But, before closing  the front door, we watched on CNN as IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch approached the podium in a Tokyo hotel with an envelope in his hand, within it the name of the city that would host the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996, the 100-Year anniversary of the birth of the Modern Games.

Athens was the consensus favorite, the city that had hosted those 1896 Games at ancient Olympia, where a team of just 14 Americans arrived by boat to join 245 athletes from 14 nations. Toronto was favoured by others with a respected, longstanding organisation and resources.

Atlanta was America's candidate, joining Athens, Toronto, Melbourne, Manchester and Belgrade in the chase to host the Games. But the world knew that Athens was the likely winner and that the others would be disappointed.

Atlanta was a maverick, a city best-known to many Europeans as a movie set in Gone With The Wind. We had selected Atlanta to carry America's hopes over Minneapolis-St. Paul on April 29, 1988, in a tension-filled ballroom at the Washington Hilton where the USOC Board of Directors, still energised by the startling success of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, was basking in the USA-led renaissance of the Games.

The evening before the vote was memorable, with both cities hosting the USOC Board in separate ballrooms with food, drink and arm-twisting with backdrops themed  to tell their stories and the character of their cities. There was an old-fashioned "taste of Atlanta" in one room with its distinct Southern charm and in the other, the flavor of the Land of Lakes and the hardy citizens of the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota group had expended some $350,000 (£227,000) on its campaign with the USOC over 15 months, while Atlanta dropped just $250,000 (£162,000) on its quest, led by the charismatic Billy Payne, a former Georgia football star who said that he had been in church in 1987 when the vision of an Atlanta Olympics came to him.

He had  pursued the USOC doggedly for almost two years with his improbable dream. Even on the day the USOC chose Atlanta as its candidate in Washington, there was doubt.

"It would be an upset of major proportions," if an American city wins the 1996 Games, said USOC Executive Director Baaron Pittenger to a group of reporters, and many USOC officials felt that the bid would be too close on the heels of the Peter Ueberroth-led Los Angeles success to be favorably received.

"We don't believe that in Atlanta," said an irritated Payne (pictured), and he and his formidable team, men and women including Andrew Young, Charlie Battle, Horace Sibley, Ginger Watkins, Linda Stephenson, Shirley Franklin, Maynard Jackson and others, set out on a three-year odyssey that spanned the globe, meeting IOC members and international sport leaders to tell their story, wherever it took them.

Young was a compelling force as he met with IOC members from African, Middle Eastern and Asian nations with the heady prospect of their votes on the line.

The regal former pastor, civil rights leader and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King was a huge player in a game that would cost the six finalist cities almost $100 million (£65 million) total, a modest  sum when placed next to the reported $26 million (£17 million) alone that London spent to garner the 2012 Olympic Games.

But on this early September morning in 1990, this was all behind, and thousands gathered on a plaza in downtown Atlanta in front of a giant screen to see Samaranch approach the podium in Tokyo with his envelope. It was quiet enough to hear the sound of gum being chewed among that throng, or the pounding  hearts of Atlanta's citizens and those of Payne and his delegation in the Japanese ballroom.

The aristocratic Samaranch tore at the envelope, looked at the card that emerged in his hands with a bemused look, and spoke softly into the glare of the lights.

"The 1996 Olympic  Games are awarded to the city of At..." (I swear to this day, watching the big screen in my home, his lips were forming the word "Athens,"), but then, after a pause, came "Atlanta." (final tally, Atlanta 51, Athens 35).

Atlanta erupted, and I locked the front door and headed off to New York for something now forgotten, stunned and delighted  by what had taken place and what lay ahead for all of us at the USOC, another home Games and all the good things that would come with that, the hard work, frustration and joys.

The 1996 Olympic Games remain an enigma today, a resounding success, unfairly hammered by European journalists for "commercialism" and breakdowns in some systems, particularly their own media transportation and housing.

For those of us at the USOC then, most of our memories centre around the marvelous success of our Olympic team, which returned to the top of the medal count among the 197 participating nations with 101, to 65 for Germany and 63 for the new Russia.



It began with the inspiring appearance of Muhammad Ali to light the Games' flame at the Olympic Stadium and the elevating music of John Williams' "Summon the Heroes,"  then continued with the golden triumphs of Michael Johnson on the track, Carl Lewis' fourth long jump gold medal at the age of 35, Amy Van Dyken's four gold medals in the pool at Georgia Tech, and the brilliance of America's female athletes in gymnastics - Keri Strug and the Magnificent Seven - softball and the Mia Hamm-led US women's soccer team in the inaugural appearance of the sport in the Games.

The Games were shaken by the tragic Olympic Park bombing on July 27 that killed one woman and injured 111 people, and at the Closing ceremony, Samaranch disappointed millions of Americans and all of Atlanta by calling the Games, "most exceptional," breaking his tradition of labeling each Games that he had presided over, "the best Olympics ever,"  which he resumed in Sydney in 2000.

The truth is that these Games of Billy Payne and Atlanta were superb in the majority of categories. The 197 nations on hand was a record, Palestine competed for the first time, Hong Kong won a medal, and so did the former Soviet state of Georgia. The resplendent venues, Olympic Stadium (to become Turner Field), the Georgia World Congress Center, the Georgia Dome, Stone Mountain, splendidly refurbished facilities at Morehouse College and Emory University, the Georgia International Horse Park and others, were magnificent.

A record  nine million tickets were sold, the Games turned a profit of some $10 million (£6.5 million), and Atlanta became a true international city. Centennial Olympic Park welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors each day and remains a treasured city landmark today.

Now, Payne is the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the estimable Masters tourney. Samaranch passed away in April of this year, Young remains revered for his humanitarian work. Today, the Braves are chasing the National League East crown in what was the Olympic Stadium, and the $1.7 billion (£1.1 billion) spent on the Games remains one of the best investments ever made by an American city.

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.