The Olympic Rings situated at the front of Centennial Olympic Park are a fairly recent addition to the city of Atlanta, but are already iconic. The 11 foot tall interactive sculpture that almost always has people climbing on it. I went to take my picture with it at 1pm on a Monday and even then there was a line for photos.

The Rings were installed in 2019 in an effort to further commemorate the 1996 Olympics, which of course took place in Atlanta. This particular set of rings has a formal name of “The Spectacular,” even though everyone just calls it the Olympic Rings.

They serve as an entry point to a beautiful 22-acre park. The land that Centennial now sits on was previously rundown lots, but were transformed to serve as a social hub for the Games. Now the Park connects several major tourist spots in the city, such as the Aquarium, Coca-Cola Factory, College Football Hall of Fame, and more. The Rings is a great place to enter the park, especially on a nice day out.

I personally have always loved this park since I first came to GSU. Back when I lived on campus, I would come every few days when the weather was nice to read in the park, and I always stopped and stood by “The Spectacular” for a bit. It was always nice seeing tourists taking pictures with the rings before going on to the Coke Factory or Aquarium.

My tie with this park even go back further than when the Rings were first installed. My mom was a graduate student at UGA when the Games were happening, and she had a job as a driver for some of the athletes that had events that were held in Athens. She received free memorabilia such as a shirt, hat, and even a pair of shoes and I always found that so cool. It apparently even went one step further. My mom was told that her and the rest of the workers had their names engraved on one of the bricks in the park, but she had no idea where it was. I had always wanted to find her brick but after finding a brick locator site, I unfortunately found out that people that to pay for engraved bricks. So while it was disappointing to learn that my mom’s name wasn’t somewhere in the park, I have still always loved this area of the city.