Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics Venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics For the 2004 Summer Olympics, a total of thirty-five sports venues were used. Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 that included venues such as Panathinaiko Stadium and the city of Marathon for whom the long-distance race would be named for. From the end of the 1896 Games until the late 1970s, Greece underwent numerous political changes that included the Balkan Wars, two World Wars, a civil war, and a military coup that resulted in a junta that lasted from 1967 to 1974. A change in democracy in 1975 resulted in Greece's
2009 Summer Universiade the 2009 Summer Universiade games began in early 2004. Together with Belgrade another two cities bid for the event - Monterrey in Mexico and Poznań in Poland. Working in Belgrade's favour were the various major sporting events the city was awarded to host in the upcoming 2005, 2006 and 2007 such as Eurobasket 2005, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship, the 2006 European Water Polo Championship, and the European Youth Olympic Festival 2007. Furthermore, the city launched two unsuccessful candidate bids to organize the Summer Olympic Games: for the 1992 Summer Olympics Belgrade was eliminated in the third round of International