[2] The games featured 271 events in 26 sports across 37 disciplines, including the Olympic debuts of beach volleyball, mountain biking and softball.
[3][4][5] A total of 24 countries made their Summer Olympic debuts in Atlanta, including 11 former Soviet republics participating for the first time as independent nations.
[7][8] Armenia,[9] Belarus,[10] Burundi,[11] Costa Rica,[12] Croatia,[13] Czech Republic,[14] Ecuador,[15] Hong Kong,[16] Kazakhstan,[17] Nigeria,[18] Slovakia,[19] Syria,[20] Thailand,[21] and Ukraine won their nations' first Summer Olympic gold medals.
[22] They were also the first Summer Olympic medals of any kind for Armenia,[23] Belarus,[24] Burundi,[11] Czech Republic,[14] Ecuador,[25] Hong Kong,[26] Kazakhstan,[27] Slovakia,[19] and Ukraine.
[44] Events in boxing resulted in bronze medals being awarded to each of the competitors who lost their semi-final matches, as opposed to them taking part in a third place tiebreaker.