Italy at the 2004 Summer Olympics the nation's best finisher four years earlier, dropped one place in the rankings. However, the two Olympic rookies both placed better than Gemignani had in the first race. Italy at the 2004 Summer Olympics Italy competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from the 13th to the 29th of August 2004. This nation has competed at every Summer Olympic games in the modern era, except for the sparsely attended 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. The Italian National Olympic Committee (Italian: "Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano, CONI") sent the nation's largest ever delegation in history to the Games. A
Summer Olympic Games demand for tickets to all levels of each event, there was controversy when seats set aside for sponsors and National Delegations went unused in the early days. A system of reallocation was put in place so the empty seats were filled throughout the Games. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the third city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the Olympic Games after Melbourne, Australia, in 1956 and Sydney, Australia, in 2000, and the first South American city to host the Olympics. The preparation for these Games was overshadowed by controversies, including the instability of Brazil's