In Photos: Historic moments of the Olympic Games -- Atlanta 1996

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- A capacity crowd watches the igniting of the Olympic cauldron. Japan won three gold, six silver and five bronze medals in the games. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Tadahiro Nomura, who won the gold medal in the 60-kilogram division in the men's judo, raises his arms in celebration. He defeated Girolamo Giovinazzo of Italy in the final bout by ippon. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Yuko Emoto, winner of the gold medal in the 61-kilogram division in the women's judo, celebrates her victory. She defeated Gella Vandecaveye of Belgium, who was a world champion, after beating the gold and silver medalists of the previous games. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Kenzo Nakamura competes to win the gold medal in the 71-kilogram division in the men's judo. He struggled against Kwak Dae-Sung of South Korea in the final bout. Nakamura was behind Kwak, but tied in points just 3 seconds before the end of the bout and won a 2-1 decision. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Kenzo Nakamura raises his fist after winning the gold medal in the 71-kilogram division in the men's judo. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Ryoko Tamura, who failed to win the gold medal in the 48-kilogram division of the women's judo and settled for her second consecutive silver medal, is seen. Her loss in the final brought an end to her 84-bout winning streak that she had achieved after being defeated in the final at the 1992 Barcelona Games. (Mainichi/Kikuya Katayama)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Members of the Japanese men's soccer team celebrate the opening goal by Teruyoshi Ito in the 27th minute of the second half of their group stage match against Brazil. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Teruyoshi Ito, of the Japanese men's soccer team, celebrates after scoring the winning goal against Brazil. The big upset by Japan is known in the country as "the miracle in Miami." (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- The Japanese men's soccer team celebrates after finishing their match against Brazil without conceding a goal. Goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi defended well. Japan was also lucky as shots by Brazil had hit the posts and missed. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Masakiyo Maezono, right, of the Japanese men's soccer team, celebrates after earning a penalty kick against Hungary. The team won their group stage match but failed to advance to the knockout round due to goal differential. (Mainichi/Yasunori Sato)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- The Japanese baseball team, which made it through the preliminary round of the competition in third place with four wins and three losses, is seen. The team went on to defeat the United States in the semifinal, but lost the final against Cuba and had to settle for the silver medal. (Mainichi/Jun Sekiguchi)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Yuko Arimori, who took the bronze medal in the women's marathon, raises her fists in celebration. It followed her silver medal at the previous Olympic Games. She shed tears and said after the competition, "I want to praise myself for the first time." Her comment was awarded the grand prize among a list of trendy words and phrases for the year in Japan. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Yuko Arimori, right, who took the bronze medal, and Valentina Egorova of Russia, who gained the silver, praise each other after the women's marathon. Egorova and Arimori had won the gold and silver, respectively, in the previous games in Barcelona. (Mainichi/Yoshihiko Okamoto)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- The Japanese pair of Alicia Kinoshita, front, and Yumiko Shige competes to gain the silver medal in the two person dinghy in women's sailing. (Mainichi/Yoshihiko Okamoto)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- The Japanese synchronized swimming team give a ninja-themed performance in the technical routine to place third, narrowly behind second-placed Canada. The team held onto its position in the free routine and took the bronze medal. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Kimiko Date, who lost in the quarterfinal in the singles in the women's tennis, is seen. (Mainichi/Yoshihiko Okamoto)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Hiroshi Ikehata competes in the 59-kilogram division in the men's weightlifting to finish fourth. He set new national records, lifting 132.5 kilograms in the snatch and 165 kilograms in the clean and jerk. (Mainichi/Yasunori Sato)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Chire Koyama, who was defeated by Qiao Hong of China in the quarterfinal in the women's table tennis, is seen. (Mainichi/Kyoji Yamashita)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Japan's Takanobu Jumonji competes to take the bronze medal in the 1,000-meter time trial in the men's cycling. (Mainichi/Jun Sekiguchi)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Michael Johnson of the United States raises his arms in celebration. He won the gold medal in the 200 meters in the men's athletics, setting a new world record with a time of 19.32 seconds, which was 0.34 seconds faster than the previous record. He also won the 400 meters. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)

1996 Atlanta Olympics -- Carl Lewis of the United States competes to win his fourth consecutive gold medal in the men's long jump. (Mainichi/Yukihisa Hirano)