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The Olympic Stadium (Greek: Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο) (also known as the Athens Olympic Stadium, and Spiridon "Spiros" Louis Stadium, named after the man to win the first Olympic marathon race) in 1896, is a stadium that is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. It hosted the athletics events and the soccer final at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. It also hosted the Opening Ceremony on August 13, 2004, and was the site of the Closing Ceremony on August 29, 2004. The stadium's record attendance is 74,473 but it was configured to seat 72,000 during the Olympics, though only 56,700 seats were made publicly available for the track and field events and slightly more for the football final. The stadium was originally built in 1980-1982 and completed in time to host the 1982 European Championships in Athletics. It was inaugurated by the then President of Greece, Konstantinos Karamanlis. It also hosted several events of the 1991 Mediterranean Games and the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, sought in order to prove that it was capable of hosting major sporting events after the failure of Athens to win the 1996 Summer Olympics. The stadium was extensively renovated in time for the Olympics, including a controversial roof designed by Santiago Calatrava that was added atop the sidelines in order to shade fans from the strong Athens sun. The roof was completed just in time for the opening of the Games, and the stadium was then officially re-opened on July 30, 2004. The stadium will host the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2007. This stadium also hosted the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League & 1982/83 European Cup Finals (AC Milan - FC Barcelona 4-0 , Hamburger SV - Juventus 1-0) as well as the 1987 Cup Winners' Cup final (Ajax-Lokomotive Leipzig 1-0).
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