Gilliam, a Gainesville attorney, served as co-chairman of Gainesville-Hall '96, a steering committee of 45 community leaders that was formed in early 1993 and served as a support group for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG).
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the games.
Gilliam remembers, however, that when Gainesville and Hall County first entertained the idea of seeking a piece of the Olympic pie, rowing and canoe/kayak events were not at the top of the list of possibilities.
"No, we were going after equestrian but we didn't get it because we did not have the facilities."
However, much of what was needed for water-related events was already here with the lake and what Olympics officials deemed a perfect setting: the waters around Clarks Bridge Park.
"There was very little wind (at the Clarks Bridge site) that would interfere with the racers," Gilliam said. "They were sort of protected on both sides and the river current there is very, very small."
Gainesville-Hall '96 chairman Jim Mathis, Jr., got the call from ACOG in the early afternoon on Dec. 22, 1993 that the committee's efforts and those of others in the community had paid off: Lake Lanier had been chosen as the venue for rowing and flat water canoe/kayak events.
Soon, construction began on the facilities that would be needed for the competition - facilities that would be left to the community as a lasting legacy and Gainesville-Hall '96 faced a number of daunting tasks - lining up housing (for some of the athletes who would be competing here and their families) and transportation and security and medical services for them as well as thousands of spectators.
Not everyone was happy that the Olympics were coming to Gainesville.
People who lived near the venue and regularly used Clarks Bridge Road were upset, especially in the beginning, that their lives were going to be disrupted for 15 days that summer ten years ago. Security checkpoints were set up on either side of the venue and no through traffic was allowed. Only spectators, athletes, the media and others with business at the venue were allowed through, along with people who live adjacent to the site or nearby.
But, Gilliam recalls that resistance from most of those living on the lake with a view of the venue and the course that was used for the events eased once they learned that they would have a front-row seat, at no charge, for what for most would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They were allowed to invite friends and family to sit with them in their backyards and take it all in. But, to this day, there are still complaints, especially from motorists, boaters and fishermen, when events at what is now known as the Lake Lanier Olympic Center close the waters and road around the venue or curtail their use by the general public.
For Gilliam, personally, two of the highlights - the ones that he said give him goose bumps - were getting to carry the Olympic Torch as the relay passed through Gainesville a few days before the opening ceremonies and when NBC's Charlie Jones, in closing coverage of the Lake Lanier events on the final day of competition, called Gainesville "the hospitality capital of the world."
"There were other Olympic venues," Gilliam said, "Atlanta, Athens, Columbus and Savannah, but it was Gainesville that was described to the whole country as 'the hospitality capital of the world.' "
Gilliam says credit for the success of Gainesville-Hall's part in the Olympics rest squarely with the people of the community - with lots of input from the Lake Lanier Rowing Club and the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club - and their overwhelming support of the effort to attract some of the competition and their support during the 15-day run of the events. Gilliam says Jack Pyburn of the rowing club was among the first to realize the potential for holding rowing and canoe/kayak events on Lanier.
"(It was) an outpouring of support from this community to welcome the world in the sports of canoe/kayak and rowing - a community that came together, governmental entities that came together, that said 'we're going to make this happen'."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/7/107451