Editing 2004 Summer Olympics (section)

===Closing ceremony===
[[File:Athens 2004 Olympics Closing ceremony.jpg|thumb|Balloons falling at the Athens 2004 Olympics closing ceremony]]
{{Main|2004 Summer Olympics closing ceremony}}
The Games were concluded on 29 August 2004. The closing ceremony was held at the [[Olympic Stadium (Athens)|Athens Olympic Stadium]], where the Games had been opened 16 days earlier. Around 70,000 people gathered in the stadium to watch the ceremony.

The initial part of the ceremony interspersed the performances of various Greek singers, and featured traditional Greek dance performances from various regions of Greece (Crete, Thessaly, etc.). The event was meant to highlight the pride of the Greeks in their culture and country for the world to see.

A significant part of the closing ceremony was the exchange of the Olympic flag of the Athens Games between the mayor of Athens and the mayor of Beijing, host city of the next Olympics. After the flag exchange a presentation from the Beijing delegation presented a glimpse into Chinese culture for the world to see. [[Beijing University]] students (who were at first incorrectly cited as the [[Twelve Girls Band]]) sang [[Mo Li Hua]] (Jasmine Flower) accompanied by a ribbon dancer, then some male dancers did a routine with tai chi and acrobatics, followed by dancers from the Peking Opera and finally, a little Chinese girl [[Chen Tianjia]] singing a reprise of [[Mo Li Hua]] and concluded the presentation by saying "Welcome to Beijing!"

The medal ceremony for the last event of the Olympics, the [[Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon|men's marathon]], was conducted, with [[Stefano Baldini]] from Italy as the winner. The bronze medal winner, [[Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima]] of Brazil, was simultaneously announced as a recipient of the [[Pierre de Coubertin Medal]] for his bravery in finishing the race despite being attacked by a rogue spectator while leading with 7&nbsp;km to go.

A flag-bearer from each nation's delegation then entered along the stage, followed by the competitors ''en masse'' on the floor. All of them were led by [[Pyrros Dimas]] (weightlifter) and Liu Xiang (hurdler).

Short speeches were presented by [[Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki]], President of the Organising Committee, and by President Dr. [[Jacques Rogge]] of the [[International Olympic Committee|IOC]], in which he described the Athens Olympics as "unforgettable, dream Games".<ref name="ESPN"/>

Dr. Rogge had previously declared he would be breaking with tradition in his closing speech as President of the IOC and that he would never use the words of his predecessor [[Juan Antonio Samaranch]], who used to always say 'these were the best ever games'.<ref name="ESPN"/> Dr. Rogge had described [[2002 Winter Olympics|Salt Lake City 2002]] as "superb games" and in turn would continue after Athens 2004 and describe [[2006 Winter Olympics|Turin 2006]] as "truly magnificent games."

The national anthems [[Hymn to Liberty|of Greece]] and [[March of the Volunteers|China]] were played in a handover ceremony as both nations' flags were raised. The [[Mayor of Athens]], [[Dora Bakoyianni]], passed the Olympic Flag to the [[Mayor of Beijing]], [[Wang Qishan]]. After a short cultural performance by Chinese actors, dancers, and musicians directed by eminent Chinese director [[Zhang Yimou]], Rogge declared the 2004 Olympic Games closed. The Olympic flag was next raised again on 10 February 2006 during the [[2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony|opening ceremony of the next Winter Olympics]] in [[Turin|Torino]].

A young Greek girl, 10-year-old [[Fotini Papaleonidopoulou]], lit a symbolic lantern with the [[Olympic Flame]] and passed it on to other children before "extinguishing" the flame in the cauldron by blowing a puff of air. The ceremony ended with a variety of musical performances by Greek singers, including [[Dionysis Savvopoulos]], [[George Dalaras]], [[Haris Alexiou]], [[Anna Vissi]], [[Sakis Rouvas]], [[Eleftheria Arvanitaki]], Alkistis Protopsalti, [[Antonis Remos]], [[Michalis Hatzigiannis]], [[Marinella]], and Dimitra Galani, as thousands of athletes carried out symbolic displays on the stadium floor.