Thirty years have passed, but for Fallon Stubbs, that night has never truly ended. One trip to the Atlanta Olympics gave her a lifetime of memories and took away the person she loved most.

Monday marked three decades since the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics, an attack that claimed two lives and injured 111 others. For Stubbs, who was just 14 years old at the time, the anniversary brought back memories she says remain as vivid as ever. In a recent interview with CBS News, Stubbs said, “I can recall that night like it happened yesterday. Like I can hear the bomb go off. I can see all of the things.”

The trip had started as a dream. Stubbs and her mother, Alice Hawthorne, drove in their Corvette nearly three hours from Albany, Georgia, to experience the Olympics together. Knowing her daughter’s love for basketball, Hawthorne made sure they watched the iconic U.S. men’s “Dream Team” before heading to Centennial Olympic Park to soak in the atmosphere.

“She just wanted to make the memory for me,” Stubbs recalled. “We had never had such a thing there.”

That joyful evening turned into tragedy within moments. Just after Stubbs snapped a photograph of her mother, a pipe bomb exploded inside the park. Hawthorne was killed, while her daughter survived with injuries. Looking back, Stubbs believes her mother shielded her from the worst of the blast.

“My mother, even in that moment, she took all of the shrapnel,” she said. “I do have scars. But they’re not nearly what I would have had if my mother was not in front of me to take the bulk of it.”

Even after three decades, Stubbs refuses to let her mother’s story be defined by the tragedy. Instead, she remembers Hawthorne as a woman who broke barriers during segregation, earned a college education, built businesses, and spent her life creating opportunities for others. “We want to remember the incident and the death, but that’s not the important part,” Stubbs said, insisting that her mother’s legacy continues to live on through the lives she touched.

Former DEA agent recalls the 1996 Olympic bombing

Among those closest to the explosion that night was former DEA agent Ken Magee, who had stopped by Centennial Olympic Park despite being off duty. Standing just 40 to 50 feet from the blast, Magee immediately rushed toward the chaos after hearing a young girl crying for help.

“I heard a little girl screaming, and it turned out to be Fallon,” Magee recalled. With shrapnel wounds to her arm and leg, Stubbs desperately searched for her mother as Magee stayed by her side until paramedics arrived. “She was talking to me about her mother: where’s her mom? I said we’ll talk about your mom in a little while… just keeping her alive, keeping her aware until we could get paramedics and an ambulance to her.”

The bond forged in those terrifying moments never disappeared. Three decades later, Magee and Stubbs remain close. Looking back, Stubbs believes his instincts as both a father and a law enforcement officer took over immediately. “He saw a young girl in need,” she said. “Immediately, he wanted to protect me.”

For Magee, watching Stubbs rebuild her life has been nothing short of remarkable. “Imagine being a 14-year-old girl and losing your mother in a terrorist attack while you are severely wounded yourself, and to go on and become a successful businesswoman and God-loving individual,” he said. “It’s just truly remarkable.”

Another survivor, Jeffrey Mitchell, also carries unforgettable memories of that night. Standing only inches away from the backpack containing the bomb, he was ordered away by security guard Richard Jewell moments before the explosion. “Get down, get down now,” Jewell shouted. Seconds later, the bomb detonated.

Mitchell has never forgotten the man who likely saved his life. While Jewell was wrongly thrust into the national spotlight as a suspect during the FBI’s investigation, Mitchell has always viewed him differently. “In my mind, Richard Jewell is a hero,” he said. “He saved my life, and I will never forget him.”

Thirty years on, the Atlanta Olympic bombing remains one of the darkest chapters in Olympic history. Yet through survivors like Fallon Stubbs, its legacy is no longer defined solely by loss. It is also remembered through courage, sacrifice, and the people who chose to protect strangers when it mattered most.