Switzerland at the 2004 Summer Olympics Switzerland at the 2004 Summer Olympics Switzerland competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. Swiss athletes competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, except when they boycotted the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne as a protest to the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The Swiss Olympic Association sent a total of 98 athletes to the Games, 59 men and 39 women, to compete in 18 sports. Swiss athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at
Olympic Games national anthems are played: the flag of the current host country; the flag of Greece, to honour the birthplace of the Olympic Games; and the flag of the country hosting the next Summer or Winter Olympic Games. The president of the organising committee and the IOC president make their closing speeches, the Games are officially closed, and the Olympic flame is extinguished. In what is known as the Antwerp Ceremony, the mayor of the city that organised the Games transfers a special Olympic flag to the president of the IOC, who then passes it on to the mayor of the