In accordance with the Olympic Char

In accordance with the Olympic Charter which governs the Closing Ceremony, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch called on the youth of the world to assemble in Sydney, in four years, for the next Summer Olympics. In his speech, he denounced the Centennial Olympic Park bombing stating that terrorism cannot stop the Olympic spirit. Samaranch asked for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the bombing, as well as the 11 Israeli athletes of the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics.[1] He said that those tragedies will never be forgotten and said:

No act of terrorism has ever destroyed the Olympic movement and none ever will. More than ever we are fully committed to building a better, more peaceful world in which forms of terrorism are eradicated.[2]

Although this was first official IOC recognition of the Munich tragedy since 1972,[1] commentators mentioned 1972 quite often, mainly because the next Olympics were taking place in Nagano, Japan and Japan last hosted an Olympics that year, hosting the Winter Games in Sapporo.

Furthermore, Samaranch thanked Atlanta with the phrase "Well done, Atlanta", and calling them "most exceptional." He broke with precedent and did not say they had been the best Olympics ever, as he did at every previous Olympic closing ceremony while he was IOC president. However, 4 years later he called the Sydney Olympics the best ever, suggesting that this was an intentional omission 4 years earlier.[3]

Before Samaranch declared the games officially closed, R&B singer Stevie Wonder sang a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" in memory of the victims of the Cenntennial Olympic Park bombing.[1]

This part of the program culminated in the "Antwerp Ceremony" (so called because the original Olympic flag, which was used for transfer of the Games, was first used at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp), which is the transfer of the Olympic Flag, from the mayor of Atlanta, Bill Campbell, to Samaranch, and then to the mayor of Sydney, Frank Sartor. Immediately succeeding the transition, an elaborate presentation of the host city Sydney commenced. It featured many dancers dressed up as aborigines, plants, and animals native to Australia. Four inflated balloons arose to form an imaginary Sydney Opera House while more dancers ran around to form the sea.

Afterwards, Atlanta native mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, along with the Morehouse College Glee Club and the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra sang the Olympic Hymn while the Olympic flag was lowered. This flag would be raised again in Nagano during the opening ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Olympics; opening ceremony there took place on February 7, 1998.