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First Day Cover Text - 2004 Olympic Games

For more than 2,000 years, the Olympic Games have set the scene for competition and camaraderie, endurance and excellence. Today, the Olympic Games continue to draw people from all over the world together in the spirit of fair play, peace and friendship, as the world's greatest athletes try to live up to the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stronger). Athens will host the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad from 13 August to 29 August 2004, marking the first time the modern Games have returned to Greece, their place of origin, in over one hundred years.

Track and field events have always been one of the mainstays of the Olympic Games, with sports enthusiasts all over the world watching breathlessly as runners strive to outdo each other, achieving incredible speeds and setting new records. Hongkong Post is issuing this stamp sheetlet comprising images of track athletes to commemorate this year's Games. This is the fourth set of stamps issued by Hongkong Post to commemorate the Olympic Games. The previous issues were in 1992, 1996 and 2000.

The two unique $5 denomination stamps illustrate a runner from bygone times and a modern-day sprinter in action. Both stamps appear in a sheetlet set against a backdrop of various Olympic graphics, including a discus thrower and The Parthenon, a major landmark in the city of Athens and a timeless icon of the ancient civilisation that originated the Olympic Games.