American Notes SPORTS

Six years before they begin, the 1996 Summer Olympics have their first winner: Atlanta. The International Olympic Committee voted last week in Tokyo to make the city site of the '96 Games. Athens was long considered the favorite by virtue of its claim that the 100th anniversary edition of the modern Games should take place in the nation where the Olympics were born. But most I.O.C. members succumbed to their misgivings about the Greek capital's pollution and potential safety problems. Atlanta promised smoother sailing, to say nothing of the likelihood of the kind of neat profit from commercial sponsorship perfected at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Complained Melina Mercouri, actress and former Greek Minister of Culture: "Coca-Cola won over the Parthenon."

Eager to reassure I.O.C. members who felt the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics had gone too far in commercializing the Games, the committee liked to stress the city's appeal as a symbol of racial harmony. Now comes the tricky part: making room for both Coca-Cola and the spirit of the Parthenon.