Ireland at the 2004 Summer Olympics Ireland at the 2004 Summer Olympics Ireland competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's eighteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics. The Olympic Council of Ireland sent a total of 46 athletes to the Games, 32 men and 14 women, to compete in 9 sports. The International Olympic Committee allowed athletes from Northern Ireland the option to compete at the Olympic games for either Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or for Ireland. Ireland's Olympic campaign for the Games started with a controversy, as middle-distance runner Cathal Lombard failed a
Summer Olympic Games from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations in 1896, to 306 events with 11,238 competitors (6,179 men, 5,059 women) from 206 nations in 2016. The Summer Olympics has been hosted on five continents by a total of nineteen countries. The United States has hosted the Games four times (in 1904, 1932, 1984 and 1996); this is more times than any other nation. The Games have been held three times in the United Kingdom (in 1908, 1948 and 2012); twice each in Greece (1896, 2004), France (1900, 1924), Germany (1936, 1972) and Australia (1956, 2000);