THE SIDELINES : Atlanta Presents Olympic Bid

ATLANTA — The city of Atlanta put its best foot forward as it took the next in a long series of steps in the tough competition to host the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

City officials presented a detailed proposal to the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday.

The city is among the front-runners for the Olympics, along with Toronto; Melbourne, Australia, and Athens. The host city will be selected in September in Tokyo.

William Payne, president of the Atlanta Organizing Committee, presented the city’s proposal in five bound volumes, gave a 6 1/2-minute speech, answered a couple of questions and dropped off a $100,000 entry fee check. The Atlanta proposal calls for the Games to be held July 20 to Aug. 4, 1996, and projects a profit of $156 million on spending of more than $1 billion.

The cities will make presentations again in Tokyo.