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How Olympics landed on Lake Lanier's shores
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Billy Payne, center, president and chief executive officer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, breaks ground at the rowing and canoe/kayak site at Clark’s Bridge Park on Feb. 2, 1995. From left to right are Gainesville Major George Wangemann; Steve Gilliam, vice chair of Gainesville-Hall ‘96; Steve Kelly, competition manager for canoe-kayak; Payne; Brenda Branch, Hall County commission chair; Mara Keggi, competition manager for rowing; and Jim Mathis Jr., chairman of Gainesville-Hall ‘96.
Atlanta’s Olympic organizers had a bit of a problem as they identified venues for the 1996 Olympic Games they were awarded in 1990. While the metro Atlanta facilities and venues were well underway, planners faced a dilemma on where to hold the rowing and flatwater canoe-kayak events. The first option was the lake at Stone Mountain, but an island obstacle in the middle of the lake’s clearest straightaway would prove logistically impossible to overcome.