Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic games, the Postal Service issued twenty 32-cent 1996 Centennial Olympic Games stamps on May 2, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia.
The stamps feature twenty Olympic athletes in action during men's cycling, women's diving, women's running, men's canoeing, the decathlon, women's soccer, men's shot-put, women's sail boarding, women's and men's gymnastics, freestyle wrestling, women's softball, women's and men's swimming, men's sprinting, men's rowing, beach volleyball, men's basketball, equestrian, and men's hurdles. Explanatory text is printed on the back of each stamp.
The modern Olympic games, conceived by Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, were held for the first time in Athens, Greece. The Olympic games are one of only two places today where people from all parts of the world gather, the other being the United Nations. These athletes represent an almost complete economic cross-section of the world's population.
Designed by Richard Waldrep of Sparks, Maryland, the stamp was issued in a pane of twenty. Stamp Venturers, Inc., printed the stamp in the gravure process.
