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'96 Olympic bomb victim: 'From chaos to silence'

A bomb exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park July 27, 1996, midway through the Olympics. It killed two people, injuring more than a hundred.  Calvin Thorbourne was among the injured. He still lives in Atlanta and says he visits the park regularly.  

Calvin Thorbourne survived the 1996 bombing at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.

A bomb exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park July 27, 1996, midway through the Olympics. It killed two people, injuring more than a hundred. Calvin Thorbourne was among the injured. He still lives in Atlanta and says he visits the park regularly.

"Atlanta ’96 was the place the be. It’s one of the reasons why I moved here (from New York). I just knew it was like the city that was on fire," Thorbourne said.

He was drawn by Atlanta’s emerging music scene and the worldwide attention promised by the Olympics.

"It was crowded. There were people everywhere," he said, recalling the evening at the park that had crossed into the wee hours of the morning. He was out with friends. At 1:25 a.m., they retreated to go home.

"We’re walking toward the car. We’re walking down Techwood. We hear the music on the stage, and it’s still very festive. And then we hear a boom!

"And then everybody stops. It went from complete, like noise and chaos to silence," Thorbourne said.

PHOTOS: 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta

"I thought maybe a transformer blew or something like that. So I’d seen my friend on the ground. And it was wow, OK there was an explosion. And then I was like, wow I wonder if anything hit me. And the side of my pants were soaked with blood.

"And my thought wasn’t 'oh I’m bleeding.' My thought was 'dang it. They’re gonna come and cut my jeans,'" he laughed. "So I got on the ground and took my pants off. And I’m down there with my underwear on," a photo of which, he said, subsequently appeared on the front page of USA Today

"And some guy who had been drinking beer all night came to comfort me. I’ll never forget that guy."

Thornbourn was hospitalized with injuries to both of his legs – and says he still has shrapnel in one of them.

"So out of four of us, three were hit with shrapnel," he said.

"You know how when something tragic happens, it’s the weirdest things that you remember. And I remember his beer breath," Thorbourne said.

"But I’m doing all right. Since then I’ve run four marathons. Which I had never done before. It's almost like, the fact that my legs were attacked made me want to overcome it."

"I’ve been blessed," Thorbourne said.

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