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 federal government; the country's economic crisis; health and safety concerns surrounding the Zika virus and significant pollution in the Guanabara Bay; and a state-sponsored doping scandal involving Russia, which affected the participation of its athletes in the Games. Tokyo, Japan will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, making it the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games twice. Forty-two sports, spanning 55 disciplines, have been part of the Olympic program at one point or another. Twenty-eight sports have comprised the schedule for three of the recent games, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics. Due to the removal of baseball and