Column: Atlanta, the Olympics in my mind Columnists

So when the 1996 Olympics were only four hours away, we knew we had to be there.

In the days before ordering online, we joined the snail mailing list 18 months in advance to enter the ticket lottery. We participated in the drawing for several events, including gymnastics, of course. When our announcement came, we were allowed to buy tickets for only one event. Table tennis. That’s right, we were going to the Atlanta Olympics to see what most people call Ping-Pong. I was disappointed not to see gymnastics, but I was just happy to get tickets, and my whole family loved Ping-Pong.

The weekend’s Ping-Pong tournaments hosted by my dad with family friends were legendary. And it seemed appropriate for our event to be held on July 27, the birthday of my grandfather Roys!

Hotel accommodation was scarce and money scarce, so we plan to leave home at about 4 a.m., drive down, attend the mid-morning event, spend the afternoon in the full Olympic atmosphere, and drive back home that night. It would be a long day, but we drove four in turn.

When the big day finally arrived, we excitedly left home on July 27 in the dark and headed for Atlanta.

We were barely a 15 minute drive away when a radio DJ came to say that a pipe bomb had exploded in the centenary Olympic Park at 1.20. One person had died and more than a hundred were injured.