1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics took place in the evening on Friday 19 July in the Centennial Olympic Stadium, Atlanta, United States. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal and ceremonial opening of this international sporting event, including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation’s culture and history. The Olympic cauldron was lit by former gold medalist and boxing champion Muhammad Ali. The ceremony features Award-winning and Grammy Award-time nominated film composer, John Williams, French
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games sold. Although the Wii version of "Mario and Sonic" was awarded the "Best Wii game of 2007" at the Games Convention in Leipzig, it received mixed reactions from game critics; the DS version had a similar reception. A common complaint was that Sega and Nintendo failed to set the first matchup between their mascots in the genre that made them famous—platform games. Instead, the two companies threw Mario and Sonic into an Olympic-themed party video game, a move which Tae Kim of "GamePro" criticized as "a marketing tool" to popularize the XXIX Olympic Games. Although the Wii version of the