The plan was to clear the park’: An oral history of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing
SI interviews several witnesses, plus Eric Rudolph, confessed and convicted bomber
- Photo Illustration/Joeff Davis
- BLUNT FORCE: The Centennial Park bomb was so powerful it embedded a nail in a statue dedicated to the spirit of the Olympics 180 feet away from the blast zone. The shrapnel remains embedded in the statue still today.
Add this to your reading list. Sports Illustrated has put together an interesting oral history about the night a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park during Atlanta’s hosting of the 1996 Olympic Games. The attack killed two people and injured more than 100 others.
Among those interviewed: the musicians playing at the park that night, athletes in attendance, news reporters, and Billy Payne, the business executive who organized the games. SI’s Nick Zaccardi also spoke by phone in May with Eric Rudolph, the confessed and convicted bomber, who’s now serving a life prison sentence for the crime. Said Rudolph:
The plan was to clear the park, and hopefully after clearing the park and the explosion, this would create a state of instability in Atlanta, potentially shut the Games down or at least eat into the profits that the Games were going to make. The idea was to use them as warning devices, not to target people. ... In retrospect, it was a poor decision.
Zaccardi also spoke with the mother of Richard Jewell, the security guard who was later (wrongly) accused of planting the bomb. Jewell sued several media outlets, including the AJC, for labeling him the suspect.