On the 5th of September 1997, at the 106th IOC Session in Lausanne, Athens was elected as the host City for the Games of the XXVIIIth Olympiad in 2004.

Eleven cities publicly asserted their interest in hosting the 2004 Olympic Games. They were (in an alphabetical order): Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Istanbul, Lille, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Juan, Seville, Stockholm and St. Petersburg.

Because of the large numbers of candidates, the 102nd Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1994 decided to have a two-phase election procedure; in the first, five finalist cities were chosen from the eleven: Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome and Stockholm.

In the second phase, the IOC members were given the opportunity to visit the finalist cities before voting. The election took place by secret ballot at the 106th IOC Session. In each voting round, the members voted for just one city. According to the procedures, if, after the first round, no city obtains an absolute majority of votes, the city with the fewest votes is eliminated and successive rounds are held until one city has the majority. However, if only two cities remain, the one with the greatest number of votes is elected.