18 Days in August, an Olympic Blog

It seems that the only "negative" that the previous articles can mention about the Athens Games, was the fact that there were empty seats in some events and that the Greek crowd only went to see their own athletes.
I think this is an extremely unfair thing to say on behalf of the international press.
First of all I do not think that there is anything wrong in wanting to see your own athletes/teams, especially if you have to pay €200-300 to see a final that your country does not compete in.
From personal experience I can say that most stadia were at least 1/2-3/4 full, with Athletics always packed. There is so much Greek people can afford...to pay for tickets, and believe me they have bought the majority of tickets sold in the last few weeks.
Okay some 9am Badminton qualifying games had few people in them, isn't that normal?
The football final at 10am on a Saturday morning had 41,000 people, I think this is an amazing crowd.
In general the Greek people had 3 strategies in buying tickets:

• See our own guys
• See sports that we will never see again, this is why Cayak slalom was completely soldout for all days (and I did not manage to see it...), same applies to Beach Volleyball but for different reasons
  
• See famous teams/athletes compete (i.e. football final)

But I also met people who went to any event that suited their timetable... this happened mostly is tha last few days when there was a mad rush of "non believers" who wanted to go to at least one Olympic event.

So who was missing from the crowds? all the foreign tourists, mainly the US, who were scared for their lives. Why didn't they come? they were scared away by the very same journalists that now complain about empty seats...
So yes we accept the apology of all these journalists that they misjudged us, but please do not accuse us for the supposedly empty, thats your fault as well!

"Our dogs are not trained to read. They are trained to find bombs." A spokesman for the Athens organisers after a reporter from a British Sunday tabloid newspaper had planted a series of false packages in the Olympic Stadium that said: "Hello. I am a bomb."

Some more wishfull thinking by one of the worst critics of Athens...Times Online - Olympics
If only they had Laura Peek publish an apology as well. For those who might not know the story, Laura Peek is the intrepid Times reporter who was caught entering the Olympic complex at night time, trying to prove that there was no security at the building site etc etc. After she was caught she tried to change her story so as not to embarass herself.
Athenians laughed at her for many days in early June. I am glad now her superiors at The Times did the right thing and apologise!

It is time to leave behind the wonderful memories of Athens in these Olympics and head back to New York, where undoubtedly more will be said about the effect of these games on the city, its people as well as the reaction of the rest of the world. However, as all of us stand now at the peak of elation from this wonderful fortnight, we can still begin to look forward to experiencing something as memorable in 2008 as the terrific moments Athens was able to offer. We are extremely lucky to have been here.

Vote for the best Games of the last 20 years CNN.com - Athens bids farewell to the Games - Aug 30, 2004

Another one has seen the light! Miracle in Athens a gold-medal drama: "2004"

Please vote on this online voting, for the medal you would give to the Athens Olympics...
MSNBC - Greece has good reason to celebrate need I say what medal that has to be?

One by one... they apologise! MSNBC - Let's give these Games a gold medal

Another praising article for Athens!
BBC SPORT | Olympics 2004 | Full marks to Athens
I think the Greek Transport ministers (past and present) should be proud of the fact that this journalist says that Athens transport systems have left Londons "in the shade"

Until I find time to write about my experiences from the magical Closing Ceremony, you can have a look at these cool photos from Greek sports site Contra

See? we told you so, but you did not believe us! Well better late than never! SI.com - Writers - Reilly: Greece overcame paranoia to stage glorious Games - Sunday August 29, 2004 1:24PM

Just a quick note to let you know, that because the Olympic Games will be over in a few hours, does not mean that this blog will cease to have new posts.
Over the last few days I have been going to loads of events, for which I had no time to write about (yet). I have loads of photos and snippets of information for you, which I will start posting once I get the time!

So watch this space!

Paula Radcliffe - not once, but twice she failed to finish a race in which she thought she was the gold favourite (only to herself and many of her unfortunately gullible compatriots). To top it all off, the whole media manipulation surrounding her (again, in the UK only, as this is a non-story in the rest of the world where real athletes exist) was sickening. From the let's-pretend-it's-Diana's-death-all-over-again brigade (any chance to break out the white hanky and tears) to her cries of victimhood (Boo hoo it's so hot in Athens - we'll make sure we change the climate to accomodate you next time Paula) to her anticipated tell-all in one of the quality British tabloids (Paula's Olympics Nightmare! How Brave Paula Will Fight On!), the whole story would be laughable if it didn't occupy the majority of the British coverage for days on end. Bottom line is that real athletes win in the Olympics - just making records in controlled conditions in races of your choosing doesn't cut it, and neither does blaming the race conditions that all other athletes toil under. Time to get the pity party out of here and stop hogging that spotlight - there are many real athletes in Athens that actually deserve it.

Hicham El Guerrouj - not only did he equal Paavo Nurmi's historic double in the 1500 and 5000 meters, but he did it with incredible style, grit, determination and poise. He had to struggle earlier this year, he lost so shockingly in the last two Olympics and his age was in question; after all this, his elation at his incredible success was all the more moving. Watching him run from the stands and shouting his name as he pushed his wiry frame down the last few stretches past his stunned opponents and on to the finish line, sharing in his joy as he leant down to kiss the ground and clapping for him when he was beaming on the winners' stand are reasons enough for the Olympics to have taken place. Michael Phelps is a great swimmer, and Kostas Kenteris in absence rocked the stadium and dominated the hearts and minds of locals, but for sheer drama, elegance, history-making and pure, unadulterated joy at a fellow human being's happiness, skill and athleticism, Hicham's story cannot be beat.

Somehow, I think we will all survive.

Respect to Iverson for his comments! MSNBC - Iverson rips Athens no-shows

When Shaq throws bricks from the free throw line, he at least has other skills (not to mention teammates) he can fall back on to pick up some of the slack, and yet he still gets roundly criticised for his lack of skills. Now imagine a whole team being inspired by Shaq's brick laying and going one better; picture 12 players not only posting Shaq-like stats from the free throw-line (you are there alone with the basket, there really is no excuse to shoot below 80%) but actually going one better and applying Shaq-like consistency to the three-pointer line. This was the game that Greece played against Argentina earlier tonight which ended up in bitter defeat and utter dejection for the rabid fans that had packed the basketball quarterfinals game. Like kids in a candy store, Greek players shot three-pointers from every conceivable angle, whether they were alone or under pressure, whether there was time to set up an offense or time was running out, whether it made sense or not. It didn't really matter; they all missed. 5/30 was the final tally, and we all hung our heads in shame and started a collection immediately to send some of the players to childrens' summer camp for straight shooting. We should probably send the coach there as well so he can acquire a playbook that is not stuck at the My First Threepointer page. As for our playmakers, repeated viewings of the cinematic masterpiece that is Space Jam might come in handy when it is time to run the offense again; they might even figure out that sometimes you pass the ball inside, especially when attacking with 12 seconds left, are two feet away from the basket and passing the ball outside for yet another three pointer to outer space might just cost you your job in a more rational basketball club. Either that, or we could adopt a couple of Lithuanians as illegitimate children of wayward Greek fathers and have them run a three-point training camp for pre-schoolers so that the next generation of basketball players does not have today's ridiculous performance as their guiding light.

Despite appearances to the contrary, life has not stopped in Greece during these games. People continue to go away for short treks to nearby islands and enjoy their food and drink in packed tavernas and cafes showing the games on tvs conveniently hoisted out in the open squares for anyone to enjoy. The buzz of the games is palpable, especially if Greece is doing well in the competition, but people do actually manage to go for a swim or three inbetween. It is only when you see scores of people dressed in Olympics clothing, brandishing tickets of various events and carrying their souvenirs with pride on the boat ride back to Athens that it hits you; there might be life outside the Olympics, but it sure as hell hurry up and be at the Olympic Stadium at 7.30pm because the evening competition is starting.

While these Olympics have gotten a lot of things right, one thing they should really have thought about twice before implementing was the entertainment between breaks in competition. We have already talked about the royal embarrassment that is the beach volleyball cheerleaders (bon voyage back home and never come back here please) but we were hoping to remain quiet on something even more atrocious, the horror that calls itself the Center Court Dancers. Imported from the lower depths of dance Hell, they inflict their arthritic pseudo-dancing on thousands of unsuspecting spectators in the basketball courts, sashaying their pitiful way through schmaltzy renditions of Greek evergreens (damned Zorba once again) and cruise-ship orchestra dreck, pirouetting out of sync to the music in their heads (which seems to stop about 3 seconds after the piped in music has stopped playing) and wearing the latest fashion creations of a particularly colour blind and schizophrenic 10-year old, these sad excuses for a dance troupe give a new meaning to the it's-so-bad-it's-good cliche; they are so beyond atrocious they are not even entertaining in their incompetence. One is strictly moved to tears and a sudden desire to sit them down with a tape of the best of the Milli Vanilli backing dancers so they can see the nethermost limits of tackiness they should aspire to; anything below this should simply not be foisted on any human for periods of more than 5 seconds for purely humanitarian reasons. Please, pretty please, go back and practice for a few hundred years and don't bother us till then.

At the end of this weekend the Olympics will be over, and no amount of wishing otherwise can change this rather sad event. Despite the cries and complaints of many Athenians, the city not only welcomed the games (especially after the second week) but helped them become something much more than just another athletic event with too many competitions (I am eagerly awaiting the introduction of synchronised underwater trampoline in the next few years). The games were never about just running, jumping, throwing, swimming or playing softball (especially not about playing softball) but about the modernisation of this wonderful ancient city that had been allowed to decline for many years, the infusion of a sense of history and culture in the proceedings and the elevation of the famous summer Athenian joie de vivre into its own art form. On all these fronts the games have succeeded magnificently, and those lucky enough to have been here will remember them for the rest of their lives. All that remains for now is one final weekend of revelry in what essentially is the best party that this country has ever seen and one last chance to soak up the atmosphere, crowds, sights and sounds of a very beautiful, very welcoming and incredibly liberating city. We are truly very lucky to be here.

Πολύ καλό άρθρο του Θέμου Η ελιά που πληγώναμε
Sorry it is Greek...

For the uninitiated I would like to inform you that weightlifting has won the most medals for Greece than any other sport in the last 20 years (maybe wrestling has a longer history).
So when I was ordering my Olympics tickets last year in the first allocation, I was hoping to get the category right and be able so see some of the members of the Greek Weightlifting Dream Team.
Alas I was totally wrong and in this session there were no Greek competitors.
I went to Nikaia Weight Lifting Hall, hoping to sell the tickets outside the venue. Things did not look good from the beginning because the bus taking us to the hall was full of similarly minded Greeks that were trying to flog their tickets.
When I arrived to the hall, the ticket office was surrounded by people waiving their tickets. Still I managed to sell one ticket to a Russian guy (who paid in Dollars!) before the Police started moving on the other people telling them that is is illegal to re-sell the tickets!
I spoke with the site manager and explained that we are not touts and that he is the only one that enforces this law. All the other Olympic sites I have been to and most of Central Athens have been converted to ticket bazaars!
Still he said that he was responsible for this site and that was that... so having to hope in recouping the rest of my money I decided to enjoy the evening.
The Weightlifting hall itself is another gem in Athens' Olympic crown.It is built in Nikaia one of the less "fortunate" areas of Athens, that have provided a steady stream of athletes for this manly sport.
If I am not mistaken it is the only custom built Weightlifting Hall in the World. Although I believe it can make a very cosy indoor concert hall as well (which Athens always lacked).
It is built on the slope of a hill so you have a magnificent view of the Pireus harbour with all its cruise ships and yachts moored there for the Olympics.
Having seen quite alot of weightlifting on TV before I went there, I felt like home in all the familiar surroundings. Things look far smaller in reality than on TV.
What surprised me was that there were loads of people there, from the competing countries (Austrians, Russians, Ukrainians, Iranians, Hungarians, etc), couple of Irish with a flag (what were they doing there?) and offcourse loads of Greeks. I was very impressed by the fact that the Greek supporters like their weightlifting and cheered all the competitors in true Olympic spirit.
We had loads of fun in the end, although the price tag (€45/90) for the tickets was not exactly value for money for 1.5 hours of competition. If you consider that Athletics is 4-5 hours for the same price, or even Equestrian which is half a day.

It seems that winners' olive tree branch wreaths are causing too much confusion to the uninitiated. Hats off to wreaths.
The officials of the US team spent too much time briefing their athletes on how to evade terrorists (a normal thing for the Olympics) rather than what to do during the medal ceremony (totaly unlikely to happen in the Olympics).

Some people are too serious... BBC NEWS | Europe | Olympic victors may be left wreathless I would say to them to get a life!

Some insight on the amazing events in gymnastics last night. Boston.com - Pressure points

Interesting article on "anti-americanism"Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/24/2004 | Athens can be chilly for U.S.

There are numerous signs that show that this second and final week of the Athens Olympics will see a huge influx of lastminute tourists.
Friends of mine from abroad said there are coming, the same thing I hae heard from other sources.

This is not surprising, Athens is only 3 hours flights from most Europan capitals. The images that Athens has sent to the TV's of the whole World were more than impressive (comments?).
All the doomsayers and misinformers have been proved wrong by a very hospitable city, a spotless organisation and great sporting results
This can be easily proven by the fact that the only negatives the critics can find are the minor doping related issues that have emerged and have nothing to do with the organisation of the Athens games themselves.

aka: Dimosthenis Tabakos
This is the man the packed with Greek supporters stadium was waiting to see. A gold medal waiting to happen, after scoring the highest point in qualifying. There were also loads of Italians and Canadians, but surprisingly very few from the US! There were also the token Chinese and North Koreans, probably fellow athletes themselves.

The rings final was the last event of the day, so all the Greek supporters had to patiently wait and in the meantime watch some superb performances by the other competitors of the day. What stands out is Khorkinas' fall...in the uneven bars. The Russian diva (which I waited with big anticipation) started with some really difficult moves...which proved too difficult in the end....a real shame.

There was a large list of celebrities in the VIP stands of the arena but also in the commoners seats (right behind us was Mr Skandalidis with his 2 kids). In the VIP stands I spotted: the whole Papandreou family, the Athens Mayoress and her husband (in sporting uniform), Mrs Fani Palli (depouty culture minister), Her Olympic Highness Gianna Angelopoulos in Olympic volunteer uniform, Nadia Comanechi and her husband (wildly celebrated the Romania medals). Mr Voulgarakis (Public order minister) and his kids. Mr Lianis (sports minister of the previous government). Last but not least a few rows in front of all these people was a member of the IOC with special ties with Greece. Mr Konstantine Degrecia, the ex king of Greece. In Tattler and Hello magazines he is quoted as the current king of Greece, who said these magazines had a grip on reality? Well he is not, the current king of Greece is Zagorakis, the captain of our football team which are the European Champions.

So Homeless Konstantine was there with his wife and a few of the kids....sorry I do not read Hello magazine to know which is which... there were 3-4 of them there though. At some point they unfolded an ancient looking Greek flag. Ancient not only because of its design (the old plain cross one) but because its blue colour looked really old! Maybe it is the only one he could salvage when the left Greece for good in a hurry in 1967.

Back to our sports, the moment the medal ceremony for the womens uneven bars finished, there was mayhem in the stadium as it was the time everybody was waiting for. I do not think that there has been so much cheering in a gymnastics competition before.
When the athletes entered the arena and walked to their position there was an amazing uproar for Tabakos. I really pittied him because he must have felt all this pressure to perform. These people were there for the gold medal and would not settle for anything less.
To complicate things further, Tabakos was the first to compete since the had the highest score in qualifying.
You could feel the anticipation in the air... people cheered him and encouraged him but there was an immediate silence the moment he touche the rings. A religious silence I may say. Which was broken the moment he touched the ground from his perfect program.
When the score was announced (9.862) the crowd went bananas... he scored an even higher score than in qualifying. As far as they were concerned he should get the medal immediately and they can go home happy!
Well it was going to be a bit harder than that.
Most of the following athletes were really good and performed their program with flair. However none was good enough to knock Tabakos from the top spot. Every time the score of a contestant was announced the crowd cheered wildly because it was always lower than Tabakos'

When Yuri Chechi of Italy, the last athlete to compete, finished, the crowd went wild again awaiting the confirmation. I think I sensed in his face that he was a bit angry about something, I do not know what the TV viewers managed to see. So Yuri got a great score and managed to get the third place which cheered up the many Italians in the crowd. The Greek crowd did not care about that... they got what there were expecting, another gold medal in their own Games. A much deserved medal for an athlete who is very modest and low profile (like most of the true champions).
For those that watched the TV coverage of the event, you might have noticed the blond girl volunteer that accompanied Tabakos in the arena and hugged him at the end of his attempt. Well she is not just a hot blooded fan... it is his biggest fan: his sister!

The medal in the medal ceremony was awarded by one of the two Greek members of the IOC (the above mentioned ex king does not count as Greek), Mr Nikolaou. By that moment the euphoria was filling up the arena. Yiannis who was next door in the main athletics stadium said that when it was announced that Tabakos had won, there was a massive cheer in the air (was that heard in the TV coverage?)

When the Greek national athem was heard in the arena, the everybody was singing it was quite amazing!
Waiting for more similar scenes in the very near future!

There is a very paradox situation concerning tickets right now in Athens, first of all some facts:

• under Greek law it is illegal to re-sell tickets for any event for more than the face value
• Athens 2004 organisers up until the start of the Games enforced a total ban on reselling in any form and price of tickets for the Games
• there is a huge number of tickets for morning and less popular events that were unsold by the big foreign distributors and sponsors that ended up in the hands of tickets touts (how?)

So we now have foreign ticket touts (mainly Australian) praying on tourists outside the sports venues and also in Monastiraki Sq in Central Athens. Two them have even opened proper shops in Andrianou St. !!!

How do these people make a profit? Well they probably have bought the tickets at a discount from their initial owners and they just resell them at face value making up to 50% profit.

Another very popular method is to bundle tickets for soldout events (i.e. Greece vs US in basketball) with less popular morning qualifying events.

Offcourse I have been offered tickets for high demand soldout events like the Mens Tennis final for 20% premium. But this is not so common.

People going to events might have seen a couple of guys with a sign saying "Student needs tickets" they try to get the sympathy of the people by promoting their student identity. Well they are students in touting than anything else. I have spoken to them and they offer to buy tickets at ridiculously low prices (€10 for a €90 Athletics tickets), which they re-sell immediately to other people (they have actually told me this) for a significant profit.

On top of all these people they are real fans (like myself) who for some reason have some spare tickets for an event and want to sell them to true fans at face value. It is quite a harrowing experience because many people are very reserved (dervedly so) at people hawking tickets at them!

New doping scandal rocks Athens 2004 Organising Committee after representatives of foreign press claim that the volunteers used for the Athens Olympics are too polite, helpful and knowledgeable not to be under the influence of a an "illegal" substance.

Journalists are puzzled as to how hundreds of crowd control volunteers (see photo above), not only sit in the blistering sun all day, directing the crowds, but also salute spectators in their own language, perform impromptu karaoke sessions by taking requests for songs from the crowd and sometimes giving the MC to selected guests to try their luck.

The spokesman for Athens 2004 countered the accusations by saying:
"Greeks are naturally extrovert people, we have created a laborious selection process to find the right volunteers for the right job. Those selected for crowd control have a very strong tendency to show off and their hidden ambition is to win a Reality TV singing contest"
So there you have it !



PS needless to say that this whole posting is a joke (just in case somebody get too serious with this). However the bit about the volunteers tasks is more than true! These people do an amazing job and they seem to having a great time too!

Yiannis has written his post about our latest visit to the Olympic stadium at 3am, I admire his stamina!
Well I am going to be a little bit more detailed about the athletics events we saw last night.
The stadium was packed although again there were sporadic empty seats in the stands allocated to the international ticket distributors (more on how badly JetSet and Sportsworld have messed up these games at later time).
The day started with loads of qualification rounds, for womens 100m, womens pole vault, were I think the biggest upset was that Stacy Dragila failed to qualify for the final!
Womens triple jump saw 2/3 Greek ladies qualify was very good jumps.
There were loads of qualification heats for mens 100 meters, some of them pretty close.
The crowd grew with anticipation as the womens discus final approached since three Greek ladies competed in that. Every time a Greek thrower was getting ready to throw the crowd cheered her up. When it was Kelesidou's time the announcer said that it is good to cheer for our country, but some athletes prefer silence in order to concentrate, he then said that Kelesidou was such an athlete (he only said this in Greek!). So people stopped, although there were still some idiots continuing to cheer (what is wrong with these people).
The first two discus throws were not that good from the Greek side. The top four ladies had thrown more than 66m, 2-3 meters more than the Greek girls.

Then on the third attempt Kelesidou threw 66.68m. We were watching the throw which was fairly low and did not seem much initially, however the discus went on and on and on, landing after the 65m mark. It was pretty clear that it was BIG throw. The crowd errupted in applause which only became larger when it was confirmed that Kelesidou was now in gold medal position.

Unfortunately the other two throwers did not perform at all leaving them low in the overall scoring.
On the 5th throw Sadova from Russia did a really huge throw and overtook Kelesidou by 34cm... Oh well she deserved it because she consistently threw very well througout the final.
Kelesidou was silver medalist andYatchenko from Bielarus was third.
There was a surprising absence of "western" women from the final... why is this? I really do not know. What I do know is that big fat Greek women have a long tradition in "throwing" athletics sports, whether that is javelin or discus.

The evening finished with the womens 100m final, were Jamaica had 3 women present, which was very impressive. With the gold and silver medalists from Sydney absent, the race was open and Nesterenko from Bielarus won this race.

One thing stands out from tonight's first foray into athletics (track & field for some) at the newly reconstructed Olympic Stadium and adjoining complex, and that is of course the brilliance of architect Santiago Calatrava's vision. Having been to the site many times before, starting with the European Championships in 1982 and following on with football games and the like, the transformation is stunning. However, even if one had not been there before the effect could not have been any less grand. Sweeping metallic vistas of white arches, slowly swaying wave-like living sculptures with video projections, reflecting pools of great beauty, fountains as far as the eye can see, the velodrome's dome gleaming in the background and of course the main stadium with the highly talked about roof fitting in perfectly with the surroundings, quite resplendent from a distance but without overwhelming its surroundings. Overall, a first-rate contribution to the architecture of the city, with ample space between the different stadiums for people to congregate (watching Pyrros Dimas in a huge screen winning a bronze in weightlifting amongst thousands of other people while athletics and swimming were happening all around us was a particularly memorable experience), water to splash around in gold-medal-winning frenzy (the Swedes were particularly happy about Carolina Luft winning the heptathlon) and a general sense of playfulness and respect for the human form in all of the design. A lot of people will be having the time of their lives in this complex in the week ahead; so much perhaps that the events in the main stadium themselves might become nothing less than a background to this urban playground. Only the dusty state of the surrounding areas (bless those construction delays for this particular piece of ugliness; the organising committee would be well advised to invest in a shoe cleaning service), the disorganised way the spectators are herded to the train afterwards (accident-waiting-to-happen land) and the incredibly poor choice in architecture of the plastic hamburger emporium could detract from the experience. But the memory of Calatrava's gift to Athens lingers on and invites us back for more exploration and playing.

But just in case, we have retained legal counsel and will be heading to the nearest hospital with a fake accident within the next 48 hours. We are hoping to have our testosterone levels checked and any excess amount attributed to our naturally occurring Greek hormones. We will continue to write until the Olympics are over or every Olympian is dope-free, whatever comes first.

Most of the reasons Lithuania won the game against Greece so decisively have already been covered by Harry, but bear repeating nevertheless. The incredibly hard and focused way they entered the game, the magnificent scoring and ball handling skills, the flair for crowd-pleasing basketball, the tightness as a team in general; the list goes on, this team was really superb and it was a privilege to watch them. Greece on the other hand was an incredible disappointment, with terribly poor ball handling, passing, shooting and lack of focus and concentration conspiring to bring the team to its knees before even the first half was over. Quite an embarrassing night; we already knew this team was no match for the great teams of the past, but we expected more focus and discipline, if nothing else (you cannot just conjure good shooting skills out of thin air for the Olympics if they are not already there unfortunately).

However, the game was interesting for more than just the purely athletic aspects. The fans of both sides created an electrified atmosphere, with thousands of Greeks screaming at the top of their lungs and supporting the team even in the final few minutes (with a big drop in the decibel volume somewhere in the middle of the game when everyone sat around dejected watching the basketball clinic given for free by the Lithuanian team) and hundreds of incredibly well organised Lithuanian fans making themselves heard emphatically even amidst all the jeers and boos. Lietuva-Lietuva was the rallying cry of the masses, and one could not help but admire their pluck amongst an increasingly frustrated Greek crowd (try getting *your* team spanked by 38 points at midpoint to see how it feels). Luckily, only a few hooligans at the end misbehaved; most of the crowd kept smiling and appreciating the Lithuanian fans. Perhaps some even took note about how to organise the next time Greece plays abroad. Afterwards, the happy winners kept their raucous shenanigans alive by congregating under a huge Lithuanian flag and going their own merry way. It is good to be a winner, after all.

Afterwards, Athens was its usual bustling self at 2AM, with throngs of people parading in the narrow streets of Psyrrh and Plaka, eating, drinking, being merry and occasionally shouting Lietuva-Lietuva if they happened to be of that persuasion. Not even the first ugly Americans of the trip at a nearby table in a restaurant at 3am (the joys of Greek summertime) could spoil the sense of communal fun; there's usually a token idiot who gives their country a bad name at every event, but if there exists one for Lithuania too, he was certainly not among the basketball crowd yesterday.

The first game of the session was Argentina vs China, apart from the few graphic chinese and loud Argentinians, most Greek spectators had come a bit early to see Yao Ming, the Chinese giant that plays in the NBA and also features in the Apple Powerbook ad (together with Mini-me).
Argentina totally obliterated the Chinese who were totally useless... poor Yao Ming did not seem to be in same court as his team mates (he was "Phoning it in" as a friend said).

Now to the main event... the crowd grew with anticipation. There was a big and very organised Lithuanian support as well. They had whistles and horns that made alot of noise.
The Greek crowd was very thunderous as usual with its Euro2004 chants and its flag waving

Greece started pretty well in the game reaching a 8-5 lead... when Stombergas started shooting 3pointers at will, marked or unmarked!
In the next few minutes the Greek team simply disintegrated under the unbelievable accuracy of the Lithuanian 3-pointers. The Lithuanians shot 4 3-pointers in successive attacks...

This was a team that Greece had beaten twice in the friendly games leading to the Olympics. Still now they played like the were repossesed.
It was a very painful experience for all of us Greek fans.
In my revious post about the GRE-USA game I have warned the US fans on what to expect from Lithuania, unfortunately they proved me right in this game. I sincerely hope that they play with the same flair against the US. It is not too much to say that this team is a very strong candidate for the gold medal.

I have to mention the ferocity with which the Lithuanian team and coach were playing even when they had reached a 28 point lead. Did they want to prove something? Did they have a grudge against their hosts?
Why did their coach take a Time Out in the last seconds of the game? he was heavily booed for that. As where the referees that were totally out of it (but in no way altered the result)
All in all the Greek team has to find ways to play against very tight defenses.
In this game we did not play bad defensively, it was the astonishing shooting percentages of the Lithuanians that caused all the trouble!

In the last minutes when the Greek team managed to reduce the difference to a more decent 22 points the support of the crowd was more than moving. While the Lithuanian crowd was shouting ironic remarks to the Greek team the Greek crowd was singing the usual chant of "Hellas Ole Ole" and cheering up their side.

For the first time, stadiums built in three different centuries will host Olympic sports: Ancient Olympia Stadium (5th century B.C), Panathinaiko Stadium (19th century A.C.) and Olympic Stadium (20th century A.C.).

This was quite a busy day because due to some schedule clash, I had some spare tickets for football that I had to give away before I went to Gymnastics....
Unfortunately I did not manage to sell them, so I was left with 4 unused tickets for the football game between Italy and Parguay... all Italians I met in the streets had tickets for that game.

So to gymnastics...
It was my first ever visit to a live gymnastics event. I really liked the fact thatthe choice of what to see was on me and not the TV director. But too many things were happening simultaneously and it was hard to watch them all.
The High Bar judges were really harsh, I am not an expert but I believe that some people got less than they deserved (Hamm the US athlete was NOT one of them).

Since I am no expert I will stop the competition analysis here and focus on the other aspects of the competition.
There was a very strong chinese crowd, with red flags, lanterns and the like.
The US crowd was probably the loudest and most populous. There was also a surprisingly strong Greek crowd (considering the price of the tickets and the fact that there were no Greek participants).
The lower tier of the stadium was nearly full, however the upper tier was nearly empty.

Return to the past, what makes the Athens Olympics so specialThe New York Times > Sports > Olympics > Track and Field: The Olympics Return to Where the Games Began

Yiannis has said a few things about this game, here is my take on this really big game...
Shame, shame, real shame!
Greece played amazing defense, despite the height difference I believe that the US team was more than contained.
The real shame as Yiannis said, was that the Greek team could not take advantage of all the good chances they had to score. Maybe that was because they were afraid of approaching too close to the US basket. Although Papadopoulos (the Greek Center), had his brave moments.
What can I say about the US team? Iverson was the only one that played decently, much better than the way he played against Puerto Rico.
If the mediocre Greek shooting guards nearly beat the US team I cannot imagine what Lithuania is going to do with all its 3pointer firepower.

And now a few words about the atmosphere of the game... which was amazing!
In the packed stadium there was the Greek Prime Minister with his wife, as well as the Mayor of Athens.

For those wondering about booing... it only happened when some US supporters started cheering (to drown out their cheers)

Despite the defeat the Greek supporters did not loose their cool and they kept cheering all the way back home, outside the stadium on the way to the buses...in the buses and the metro supporters (from all over the world) sang the "Hellas Ole Ole" cheer.

After coming to the city expecting it to be filled wih Olympics cheer and being shocked at its nearly ghost-town like appearance, the last few days have seen a partial reversal. As more and more Athenians are returning from their summer holidays (although there is still a significant number of people missing) and more tourists are popping up everywhere, the city is starting to feel more like it should be. In addition, there are still big queues throughout the whole day to buy tickets, the city centre is starting to see some real traffic and throngs of people are camping out in Syntagma Square at 3 in the morning taking it all in. This is more like it, and with track and field starting soon things are certainly looking up. Just don't expect all stadiums to be filled up - Athenians alone are not going to fill venues for 10am badminton games or pay 200 euros for a gymnastics ticket (try taking a family of four to the venue on an average salary of 11,000 euros a year) and there just aren't enough tourists to go around.

We are still kicking ourselves today for losing the game against the second-rate NBA-ers masquerading as the US national team last night, but the truth of the matter is that our team is not half as good as it thinks it is. Lack of a decent shooting guard and playmaker, bad ball handling and movement skills combined with really unexciting, slow basketball do not bode particularly well for the rest of the tournament. It is a pity as this NBA team was ripe for the taking, and the crowd was beyond thunderous in its applause and singing (Euro 2004 songs of course, but who's complaining?). Lithuania will be really tough tomorrow, we can only hope, but many people were missing Gallis yesterday. Then again, the US could have used some help by Jordan too...

It was going to be a day off today, catching up with all the things I have been postponing for the last few days... but my kind friend Elena (thanks darling), that works for 2004, offered us two tickets for the afternoon game between Greek and Korean ladiez.
So off we went to the South of Athens again to the legendary Peace and Friendship Stadium (S.E.F in Greek), to watch our freebie game. There were 3000 people attending, which was a pleasant surprise. A strong Korean contingent too!
I did not expect much of the game in beginning, but after we won the first set my hopes were getting high. The Greek ladiez were playing quite good at times and surprisingly the Koreans were not as good as I thought they would be.
Still a bit of good luck and experience by the Koreans gave them victory by 3-1 in the end.
I was a bit angry in the end, but it wore off later on when I heard that Greece had won its first medals!!!
Bronze with one of the usual suspects, Leonidas Sampanis in Weightlifting and most surprisingly of all, Gold in mens Synchronised Diving. I was very impressed by the performance of these guys!
Soon the rest of the Greek Weightlifting Dream Team comes into action so more medals should follow. Although I am gutted by the Maras debacle and him being left out of the final of Artistic Gymnastics (Horizontal Bar) on trivialities, he is the World Champion after all...

A comment on the blog asks "Why do you feel there's an anti-american sentiment among the Greeks?". Here are some off-the-cuff answers to this question, without turning this space into a political soapbox.

Greeks are undoubtedly more against US foreign policies than most other Western European nations. This is wrongly labelled as anti-americanism by many, but is mostly a political disagreement that is rooted in the history of the country (the meddling of the US in Greek affairs during the 60s, their support for the military dictatorship from 67-74 and other major shameful acts from the US during that era that were mirrored around the world from Vietnam to Chile), the almost fanatical devotion of Greece to the underdogs in the world (being small and relatively insignificant in the world does tend to help you sympathise with others like you), the current Iraq situation (like most countries around the world the country is staunchly against the invasion and subsequent occupation) , utter distaste for the current US president (again, like most of the world) as well as the still considerable influence by the left (who, for the past 50 years have been the intellectual and cultural elite and many of whom were persecuted in the 50s and 60s by the american-loving regimes of the time).

This is but a small sample - a full answer would require several books, and would have to at give equal space to the considerable respect, admiration and jealousy that people feel towards the US, delve deep into the Greek psyche and talk about the self-image of the country and at least in passing mention our propensity for self-pity and persecution complex. All this is too much for this space; all that really should be mentioned is that Greeks and Americans have deep bonds, are friendly to each other and enjoy making fun of each other in a playful manner. As for the US team being booed when playing against Puerto Rico, most US fans were probably joining in from home as well. That's not anti-Americanism, that is simply disappointment at the once proud basketball nation sending us its dregs.

Jordan, Magic, Kareem and the rest must have wept. And so did we almost, despite supporting Puerto Rico for its underdog quality. We grew up watching Magic and Larry duke it out, and the NBA was the pinnacle of achievement, something so otherworldly we could not but become lifelong junkies. Do the kids who play for the US team actually even know what we are talking about, I wonder. They are playing Greece tomorrow, and even though I want my country to win, a part of me will be sad if more humiliation is heaped on the US team. Hopefully the US fans will make their displeasure heard loud and clear and the next squad will not be an insult to our memories and expectations.

The title could have easily been Damn Rouvas as well, but while he may be the current Greek singer-hero, he is virtually unknown outside of the country (and let's hope he stays that way!). In any case, Rouvas and Zorba and many other pieces of music, some good and mostly bad, were blaring at every opportunity at the beach volleyball game Saturday, ruining the atmosphere for everyone. Theoharis has already posted a very accurate description of the games, the ridiculous cheerleading and the idiocy of the man with the microphone enticing people to clap like they were in a two-bit carnival. I definitely expected more from the Athens games, a better attention to what the spirit of the whole enterprise is supposed to be about (the athletes, the spectators and the culture of the country) and not try to emulate the crassest commercial approach to crowd participation. And for the love of God, can we please retire Zorba as the unofficial tourist-baiting song and representation of Greece once and for all? Talk about playing up to the worst stereotypes of Greece 40+ years after they first hit the world.

Afterwards, walking back along the esplanade we could not help but wonder at the immense transformation of the area into a world-class park, but also not laugh at some of the hastily finished parts outside the stadium. We definitely could have used a couple more weeks to plant some flowers and finish up the cement floors here and there, but this is nitpicking. Just get rid of the idiot with the mic, the cheerleaders and Zorba and we'll all be very happy.

I was really looking forward to these matches in the brand new Hellinikon complex.
For those of you that have not been to Athens, Helliniko is the site on the south coast of Athens, that the old airport used to be. I can tell you that until December that was the last time I had been there, most of it was undeveloped wasteland!!!
Now there is new indoor sports arena, 2 baseball stadia, 1 softball stadium, 1 hockey stadium and an indoor fencing arena (for all future generations of budding Greek Zoro's)

The first match was between Puerto Rico and the USA. You probably have heard about this game already, it is in the news everywhere.
There was quite a big Puerto Rican crowd in the audience boosted by the locals. You might say that at the start the support of the Greeks was due to anti-american sentiment. But they all cheered a good effort, irrespective of side, and after the first few minutes when the Puerto Ricans showed their skills they really won the support of the crowd.

I have to say that PR play extremely well, having been there recently I can really understand that for them this was the game of the tournament (any comments please?), they had far more motivation to win this game than any other.

The "Dream Team" was more a Nightmare Team than anything else... I would not be surprised if they lose another match(s). Well I certainly hope they will lose their next match which is against Greece on Tuesday.
They were totall out of it, did not seem to understand what was happening around them. Any comments from our American friends? what did NBC say?
You can check the stats of that game here

And now the second match of the day:
Greece vs Australia. By this time the stadium was packed with people, mostly Greeks with a few pockets of Australians. Meanwhile the Puerto Ricans were dancing in the external corridors of the stadium.

For those outside of Europe, basketball was until June (when Greece became European football champions) the Greek national sport. Because we had been in the past European basketball champions, as well as finalists among the various other honours. But in the last few years there has been a drought in Greek basketball. With every new tournament people hope that the flame will burn again, only to be disappointed.
Nevertheless the stadium was packed and the crowd roared with every point scored.
We started well (14-0 in the first period), but slowed down a bit. Only to pick up in the middle of the last period. The win would have been far easier if the team had score a bit more than the 64% in free throws that they did. Still with 76-54 they achieved the widest victory of the day.

Lets see what will happen on Tuesday when we play the USA!

Apologies for being so late in reporting Saturday's matches but I hardly was at home.
So here it goes:
This was the first sporting event I went. I had only seen very little of beach volleyball and I only went out of curiocity.
Each ticket allows you to see 4 matches, 2 mens and 2 womens (so everybody is happy). Although I would think women will feel let down because women athletes wear the smallest of swimsuits (especially the bottom bit) while men wear a basketball style outfit.
Women can also feel let down by the "entertainment" offered during breaks in action, as you can see in the photo here:


some might say that these four athletes messing around with a ball are interfering with the dancers actions... but lets not get into that!

So the first game we saw was a womens match between Norway and USA, the USA ladies quickly dispatched with the Norwegians in 2-0 sets. Then it was time for a mens game between Greece and South Africa. Both duos did not look terrible athletic... and I will not waste my time describing what happened. Lets say that the Greek dudes were pathetic, even though they managed to loose with a respectable 2-1 sets.
Then it was time for our second ladies match of the evening with the Greek ladies facing the Mexico ladies. That was good match because bothe teams could play well and it was an enjoyable game. Well the fact that Greece won by 2-0, helped the enjoyment bit!
But the best match of the evening was between Oz and USA, both teams played really well. But I think that the Oz guys are in a league of their own. I was very impressed with their gameplay, especially if you take into consideration some crap playing I had seen earlier. So wonder they quickly despatched the Americans with 2-0.

Ok some thoughts on beach volleyball:
Why is there that idiot with the microphone to tell us when to clap? Also it was really annoying to play 5 second music clips after each point. What was funny about the clips though was that they were changing according to the team playing. So the US got alot of hard rock (from Linkin Park to Led Zeppelin), the Australians got INXS and Kylie (what a combinations). And the Greeks got Zorba and loads of Sakis Roubas and Shake it!

After the game we walked back across the new promenand/Esplanada, which is truly amazing! There are loads of bits that are undeveloped yet, but I would think by next year there will be many more new things built along that coastline!

As part of the Interactive art installations in Athens, these trees made of steel tubes were installed in Monastiraki Square. The novelty of these trees is that they spray thin rain from their tips. In the blistering mid afternoon heat, this attracted many sun stroke tourists, like bees to the honey!

Nearby was one of the viewing points for the road cycling event which was good fun. Everybody cheers when the cyclers passed by...no matter in what position. I can recall a strugglin Japanese cyclist who seemed to be terribly out of steam as well the Spanish champion who had an accident early on in the race and was trying to catch up, he had a big tear in his tights and did not look happy.

Having declined the chance to go to the opening ceremony by preferring to see it as it is truly intended to be seen by the billions of people worldwide on TV, there are a few things that struck me about yesterday's broadcast. This, of course, refers to the version shown on Greek TV, uncut and without any ads (unlike NBC and other commercial stations which just butchered it in their own usual fashion).

• The overall effect was strong; particularly the stunning, sophisticated and highly stylised beginning part depicting the history of Greece in a very theatrical manner. I am not sure how this played to the global audience as some of it really needed the proper cultural context to be appreciated properly, but hopefully most of it was accessible. The theatricality of the spectacle and the lack of any cheap tricks to appeal to a mass audience was a very welcome surprise.
• The parade of nations was a snore, as always. Despite the welcome introduction of a dj set, this part of the ceremony needs to be seriously curtailed; perhaps a half an hour with just the flag-bearers parading might keep the audience's interest at a higher level. As it stood however, the 90 minutes it took for all 202 countries to march through really felt like eons. Welcome surprises were the polite cheering of the US team, the huge uproar for Portugal, Iraq, Palestine and Turkey and the obvious delight of most of the athletes entering the stadium.
• The lighting of the torch was anticlimactic; lacking the visually sublime Barcelona flaming arrow aesthetics and the moving sight of Muhammad Ali in Atlanta, this felt a little flat and uninspired. It did not help that the windsurfer chosen to light the flame lacks any sort of emotional appeal to the country; perhaps Nick Gallis would have been a much better choice.
• The use of music throughout was superb; nicely woven Xatzidakis songs throughout in both standard versions as well as the reworked electronic versions by K.Bhta, but also a rich taste of the epic music of Theodorakis and a smattering of Xarhakos put smiles on many peoples' faces. Only Bjork felt out of place - terrible song and no connection to the rest of the ceremony, but nevertheless the overall impression was overwhelmingly positive.
• The dj addition was a nice touch, although more could have been done to integrate the music and the visuals with the parade.
• The Greek commentators were particularly appalling, from the old-fashioned and pretentious cultural descriptions down to the competition as to who would provide more useless encyclopedia facts about countries and show off their hastily acquired geography skills (not that they didn't manage to confuse the Caribbean with Central America one too many times).

Afterwards, Athens was full of people returning to the city centre with the ceremony booklets in their hand and a huge smile on their face. At 2am however, only the locals continued to frequent the local bars and eateries, and the doping scandal was again top in peoples' conversations. However, the ceremony has made everyone here proud and will not be easily forgotten; we all now have high hopes for the closing party and would like to think that parts of the cultural aspects of the country that we are rightly proud of were appreciated yesterday.

Many good photos from Contra, a Greek sports site

I have had some sleep and now I am gathering my thoughts on what happened last night.
I watched some TV and some sites to see what the World has to say. I would also like to thank the people who sent me emails with their thoughts. It will be really worth it if more people published comments on this blog on what they thought of the Ceremony, what their likes/dislikes and what they thought was different from previous ones.

The good thing is that the Kenderis/Thanou debacle has been forgotten by the stunning Ceremony. People here are beginning to be angry at their antics (the scale is tipping), more on that on Monday.

For those surprised on why Portugal received the loudest cheer.... it is simple: Portugal were the hosts of Euro2004 which happened only a month ago and which was won by Greece. Despite beating the Portuguese twice in their home ground, the second time in the final, they applauded the Greek team and the fans. Every single of the 20,000 Greek fans that went to Portugal was impressed with their warm hospitality. So it seems a new "unofficial" bonding has occurred between the two people!

Pyrros Dimas, the Greek flag bearer received also a rapturous applause as he marched around the stadium, you can tell he is a weightlifter by the way he held the flag...single handendly! A note on the CNN's coverage, that said that he is of Albanian decent and Greece is his new adopted country.... what a load of crap! He is from the Greek minority of Southern Albania and was able to come to Greece when the Albanian immigration ban was lifted in the beginning of the '90s.

I nearly forgot, Turkey also received a warm welcome, it was a very pleasant surprise! It seems that the Olympic spirit is on us!

Before the start of the main Ceremony and sometime into the parade of nations (somewhere around "S") people started doing the Mexican wave (or Ola as I think it is called). It was good fun! even my parents got excited about it!

A few words on logistics around the stadium:
VERY IMPRESSIVE. Believe me I have seen my fair share of large sporting events and music festivals, and I have not seen something so organised!

They had promised that the Olympic bus lines will run every 2.5 minutes.... they lied... it was something like 30 seconds! Despite the massive number that used them the queues were fairly short because of the number of buses scheduled.

Crowd control was very good, loads on volunteers, of all ages, with loudspeakers directing people to the exits and the transportation points.

The sponsor presence was not as bad as I thought, maybe this is because of the vastness of the place... that their kiosks and stalls got lost! Still we picked some nifty Samsung sun hats!

The Olypic Circles on fire in the pool of water!

Here you can see the seats with their neat boxes containing the goodies for the spectators, as I described earlier

some photos

Fair description of what it was like

Well you saw that on TV hopefully!
I just saw some clips on TV and looked really impressive.
I can tell you that the progression of the various scenes from Greek history looked much better on TV than in most seats in the stadium,
But the atmosphere was amazing (I think I have already said that!).

Some comments on the entry of the various nations. I do not know what was heard on TV, but I believe that Portugal got the warmest welcome of all! (even better than Cyprus or the US). The US, Canada, Oz and South Africa got a warmish welcome mainly due to their fans in the stadium, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan got an expected standing ovation (as compared to the silence for Israel and the Gulf States). Cuba also got a warm welcome and the country with a single athlete (was it Djibuti?)
I nearly forgot one of the true innovations of this Ceremony... DJ Triesto. That a cool idea that had people dancing in their seats!!! I saw loads of middle aged men with bellies and all, following the rhythm set by the DJ!

Final bit was really cool and I liked the fact that it was a total surprise, no detail had escaped about what was about to happen.
I was suspecting that the flame "cauldron" will be that orphan pole behind the visual display. Still I was very impressed by the whole setup.
Kaklamanakis really deserved to be the final torch bearer, although Nick Galis could have done it as well.

Just back from the Ceremony....I am very happily tired!
So lets take it from the beginning
The OAKA complex is a true gem, the use of steel is very cleverly designed and visually impressive.
The crowd was in a state of bliss... walking around trying to absorb what was happening around them.
I have to congratulate the volunteers, they were always happy and pleasant to talk to, I am very impressed by their attitude!

Now inside the stadium we found a nice cardboard "briefcase" in the colours of Athens 2004 that contained a beautifully designed programme for the Opening Ceremony. I suppose the text in the programme is similar to the scripts used by the newscasters. The briefcase also contained a mini keyring torch (all these tiny lights you saw on TV) and a miniature cowbell, you might have heard the ringing at various parts of the Ceremony.

The show for us started at 7:30, 1 hour before the TV feed. It started with a very British self sarcasm by showing 5 workmen bangning on the middle of the stadium and declaring: "At last it is ready" ;-)

It followed a warming up performance hosted by Nikos Aliagas (the most famous Greek in France, after Nana Mousaka) and Thalia. It included performances by Michalis Hadjiyiannis, a popular singer this summer, as well as the song of the flame (Pass the Flame) by Yiannis Kotsiras.

There is an amazing vibe and sense and anticipation in the air... waiting for the countdown to the start of the main part of the show

.we have just sat in our seats at the Olympic stadium. I am writting this on my smartphone! hope it works!
There is an extremely festive atmosphere all around.
Surprisingly the crowd consists of atleast 60% foreigners from all over the World
The Greatest Show on Earth is about to begin

While the way the doping test evasion of Kenteris and Thanou happened was a shock to everyone here, most people had thought about the peculiarities in these athletes' behaviour for a while. I think what most people are upset about is not so much the test evasion but the actual amateurish and intelligence-imsulting way the whole story has been orchestrated; from the half-truths about how they were injured to the constantly changing stories about their condition to the desperate attempts to present them as victims of an international conspiracy, the whole affair is sordid and has cast a grim shadow upon the proceedings today. There are few people left here who believe these two can continue to compete for Greece under these circumstances, and if the media is any indication at least most people want to see them and those who protect them punished severely for besmirching the good name of the country. However, the games will go on and the opening ceremony is highly anticipated; the doping scandal will hopefully be swiftly dealt with after calmer voices have prevailed and the rather pathetic attempts at denying the painfully obvious have been rightfully retired.

This might not get much play in the media, but the Catch the Light programme is astounding. Walking last night at the foot of the Acropolis interacting with the multimedia installations and watching the thousands of people revel in their stroll amidst the ancient monuments and the abundance of modern art, music and dance has been the highlight of the visit so far. While the Cultural Olympiad promise has not been fulfilled, this is a great example of how a city can be transformed in more than the usual infrastructure ways, and a small reminder of how much more successful the games could have been if the promised melding of sports and culture had been attempted in earnest.
For more details on the programme, http://www.athens2004.com/en/OlympicLookOfAthens

On a lighter note today... I just read a very funny article about the British womens triathlon team and their swimsuits, read all about it here

What a shame!
although I have been told to go and see the USA Softball team... ;-)

...I was in a hotel room in Mexico City, the morning TV shows had extensive coverage of the fact that it was 1 year before the start of the Olympic Games. They had reporters in Athens as well as various celebrities in the studio dressed in togas in a very festive mood.
I was very touched by the fact that a totally different culture valued so much (and got excited about) something that was so close to me.

Now the time has come and on Greek TV I saw snippets of a stunning blonde Mexican reporter walking the streets of Athens reporting to her fellow Mexicans about the Games.

Everything is ready and I had more than 5 different people who attended the dress rehearsal tell me the exact same 3 things:

• it is very moving
• it is impressively human (unlike most other ceremonies)
  
• you will cry

Speaking about crying the whole of Greece is in a state of shock today after the events of last night involving Kenderis and Thanou.
I have to admit that there is something fishy in the whole saga.
BUT I really believe that they have used the same means to get their medals, that all other fellow champions have used. So I do not understand why they are being singled out as suspects.

One thing is for sure, doped or not, in the psychological state that they are today it will be very hard to succesfully compete anytime soon, even if they are physically and legally fit.

Returning to Athens from New York for the first time in 14 months in order to witness this historic event is a jarring experience. The city is freshly painted, the stadiums ready and waiting, the people excited and everything seems to be ready for the big moment tomorrow. However, I cannot shake the feeling that there is something missing in some way from the games and the city, and I will attempt to document this dichotomy over the next few days.

In short, five things about the city that are beyond expectations:

• New construction everywhere - the billions of euros spent in infrastructure are clearly seen in an incredible metro system (makes me wish that NYC would wake up and spend some real money to move the subway system to the 21st century, but I know I will be returning to the same tired, creaky and badly designed stations that have not seen a fresh coat of paint in decades), the new, well paved sidewalks in the city centre, fresh paint everywhere, vastly improved public squares (with Syndagma becoming a late-might mingling destination, Omonoia's previous sins partially covered, Exarheia seeing its first change in more than 20 years and only Kolonaki's hideous cement towers spoiling the fun) and of course, many, many new roads, stadiums and athletic complexes. But more on that when the games begin...
• Volunteers - from a country not particularly attuned to working for free (or working at all as some of our western allies seem to be implying in their rather bitter if somewhat accurate diatribes against the construction delays) the vast outpouring of volunteer effort is a welcome surprise. Tens of thousands of people in Athens 2004 shirts putting the finishing touches on street aesthetics, directing tourists to the venues, handling crowd control, protesting their garish uniforms...It's quite a sight, and should make many anti-games cynics (of which there are still many here) soften up somewhat.
• The sense of excitement is palpable. People may only have realised the games are starting in the last month, but have now started mobbing the ticketing booths and are eager to participate in any event, even the most obscure ones (and for Greece, this includes baseball, softball, field hockey, cricket... the latter not yet being an olympic sport does not detract people from asking for tickets for its preliminaries). More than just ticket sales however, the true measure of success of these Olympics is the people in the buses and the trains that are proud about the new stadiums and roads, incredibly friendly to tourists and eagerly discuss the fine points of baseball rules and the US's decline in basketball. Euro2004's triumph has certainly given a big push to all sports here, and this combined with the country's desire to prove to the world that it can be a world-class host has brought emotions to fever pitch.
• Life goes on in its usual, languid August summer ways - people eating out late, going from bar to bar, going for a swim, enjoying life and revelling in the glorious late evening sunshines. The world may be focused on the city, but for Athenians this is still the sacred holidays and nothing can disrupt the feeling of relaxation and easy living that is the hallmark of the summer season.
• Security - obviously too much money was spent to install highly dubious security software and systems in order to placate a few countries' fears, but the result is impressive, if somewhat antithetical to the peaceful nature of the games (having Patriot missiles out in the open is surely an Olympic first). People are, of course, sure nothing is going to happen and are going about their ways as normal. More should have been done to advertise this, and perhaps more people from the US would have come as a result, but in the end, this country chooses not to live in fear and views the games as a fun time to be had by all, not an excuse for terror-mongering.

Despite the excellence displayed above however, some things are really not well in the city of Athens.

• Lack of tourists; or rather, a severe drought, if not an outright disappearance. Officially, tourism is down 20% this year, but walking the streets of Athens you can actually play spot-the-tourist and be very bored by the lack of action. It's quite a shock to see an Olympic city virtually empty of visitors; not only does it detract from one of the main reasons of hosting the games but it also makes the whole experience more like a Sunday game local football match rather than the significant international event it should be. There are many reasons why the city is empty, including bad advertising campaigns that failed to entice people to come here, lack of forethought and eventual complete abandonment of the media relationship to knee-jerk reactions against the almost constant allegations about lax security and construction delays, the decline of the US dollar and others. It is incredibly disappointing, whatever the percentage of each cause that contributed to this.
• Lack of natives; in addition to the lack of visitors mentioned above, many Athenians have run away from the city in a ritual repeated religiously every year. Despite the fervent enthusiasm of those who chose to stay behind, the vast majority of Athens is on vacation, the streets are empty and many stores closed. If it were not for the Olympics volunteers and the special lane in the streets accessible only to those participating in the games one would have no idea the world's most important athletic event is taking place here. Athens is quite sleepy; this is part of its charm in the summer but feels very out of place for this occasion.
• Sloppiness in many of the construction projects ; due to the rush to complete things on time, many of the niceties have been pared down or completely yanked. Things like beautification of the cement monsters that have been built, paving, painting, and most other finishing touches have been abandoned, with olympic-themed banners draped over the most obvious holes in a vain attempt to make them look less conspicuous. However, people do notice the dirt in the streets and the dried out flowers that have been planted straight on cement, and is a very bad view of the city to those who care to look beyond the surface.
• The usual conspiracy theorists and politicians coming out of the woodwork to rain on the parade; from the usual stalinists deploring the 'exploitation' and calling for mass absence from the games, to the various anarcho-factions wishing to make a break from their holiday island excursions and make themselves heard by spray painting the walls, to the rampant anti-americanism (always a favourite sport of the Greeks even in much happier times for the US internationally) threatening to engulf even the most neutral observers and people placing even bets on the likelihood of the US team being booed at their introduction in tomorrow's opening ceremony, to the doom-and-gloom merchants forecasting mass poverty, starvation and pestilence after the games are over, to those complaining incessantly about the cost and assumed corruption (especially if they didn't get a chance to get corrupted themselves), Athens is its typical blend of cosmopolitanism and backwardness, not the outward looking city it hoped to be for this event.

Despite the griping above, it continues to be a privilege to be here for this event, and the good things far outweigh the bad. It should be a brilliant opening ceremony tomorrow, and a wonderful and peaceful games. We'll surely find more things to complain about as the games progress (we are the dark Mediterranean type, after all, what would we be without complaining?) but the overall effect is of a positive, happy country engaging in the games. Perhaps not in the way one would expect, and certainly not like most other countries in the world, but nevertheless in good spirit and with immense pride. It should be a wonderful experience; those who have chosen not to come out of fear will have missed something quite unique. We'll attempt to share some of it here over the next two and a half weeks.

Last night was the dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony, which was viewed by 70,000 lucky volunteers. You see it was a dress rehearsal for all the systems of the Olympic stadium and not just the ceremony.

Friends of mine that were there said that it was an amazing spectacle that brought tears in their eyes, they did not want to spoil the surprise for the rest of us (unlike some journalists) and give me more details of the Ceremony.

Needless to say that On Friday night, I will report what I witnessed in the Ceremony, yes I will be there :-)

BBC NEWS | Europe | Death before defeat in the ancient games

Venues 'better than Sydney' - Olympics - www.smh.com.au

This article offers a very good description of some of the Olympic venues. TheStar.com - Light at the end of the tunnel

Being a tourist in the city you were born is fun.
Having left the city at 19, and returning 12 years later is makes it more interesting.

When this city has changed so dramatically over the last few years is even better.
I will try and share with you my new discoveries of Athens as I come across them. You are more than welcome to send me your own suggestions. Today I send you a photo of the newly re-lit Acropolis. The lighting for which, was designed by the same frenchman that re-lit the Eiffel Tower (sorry his name evades me)

Unlike myself, who I returned back to Athens (from London) in November, most Athenians have lived through the highs and lows of the preparation to the Games.
The following piece is from my good friend Solon, who gives some insights in what has happened in these 7 years since Athens won the Games:

Contrary to Theoharis, I live AND work in Athens and will be working for the duration of the games. In that sense, a lot of what is going on is interfering with my daily routine and, in keeping with another fine Greek tradition, I complain. A lot.

It is true that, given a choice, I would have liked to be a million miles away from the Games. Agoraphobia? Possibly. This is a character thing for me. I like to take my holidays off-season, or try to go to off-beat places that tend not to be crowded. I dislike crowded clubs, avoid the rush-hour, and have been known to stay at home for Christmas (a major Greek faux-pas).

<>However, it is also true that I have lived in Athens for the duration of the preparation of the Games, having moved here a mere month and a half before Athens was awarded the task. I even lost a bet with my boss at the time, convinced that Athens didn’t stand a chance.

What has happened to Athens over the last seven years (the Games were awarded on a Friday night in September 1997) is simply amazing. Whichever way you look at it Athens has been changed by the Games, and this process is irreversible.

One of the projects already underway before the Games were awarded was the Metro. We didn’t believe at the time that it would ever be completed. I used to complain because the construction work would cut my route home, and of course at the time I thought it was to no avail. This is not paranoia, you see, there was ample precedent. Not least, the Thessaloniki Metro, which had started 8 years before the Athens one and was (is) still little more than a hole in the ground. And yet the Metro was completed.

Then there was the airport. I used to visit a client near where the new airport was supposed to be coming up. The entrance to their offices changed about three times a week at the time. It was a nightmare to figure out each time. And yet the airport is finished. It is not pretty (well, have you ever heard of an agoraphobic liking an airport?), but its there. And it works. And there is even a road that gets there.

Then there was the tram. Oh boy did I complain. And yet it has replaced some very polluting busses that were a nightmare in their own right. I drive a scooter you see, and there is nothing worse than being stuck behind a bus at a traffic light.

If you see a pattern here, it is because there is one. The thing is, there is a million little things like that. The ring road. The flyovers. The pavements (yes, Athens now has pavements friendly to the blind. Mostly). The point I am making is I was tired of talking our infrastructure down ages before the international media ever picked up on it. Athens has changed. And while the Games will come and go, the infrastructure will stay. For that, I am grateful for the Games, even as I continue to complain about them.

To me, we have already won the Games. Not in 1997, when we were awarded the (dubious?) honour of hosting them, and not in the last two weeks of August while participating in them, but in the seven-year preparation span. Have we beaten our own propensity for procrastination? I do not know. I wish, though I doubt it. Only time will tell. But we have achieved things great and wonderful, in a very short time span.

If you have visited Athens in the past and plan to come again for the Games you will know what I mean. If you have visited at any time during the last seven years you will remember naught but a huge construction site. If you have visited before that you will remember a small, dysfunctional and cluttered airport (changed), inadequate roads (changed), interminable traffic (improved), shabby (but cheap) taxis (not as shabby though still cheap), and so on, ad nauseum.

As I said at the beginning, the Games have changed Athens. What remains to be seen, is if Athens can change the Games. And if they can make any changes stick.

Another "decent" view of Athens' preparation for the Games
USATODAY.com - Athens suffers old stereotypes

We just came back from a nocturnal visit to the main Olympic complex. We walked outside the perimeter as the rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony was coming to an end. We could hear the music and I can say to you that it involves alot of drumming and bits of bouzouki.

While waiting for the bus we had the pleasure of talking to one of the volunteers for the Opening Ceremony that was very excited about the outcome and gave us some clues, but I do not want to spoil the surprise. What I can say is that the Opening Ceremony will start with an orchestra of 50 bouzouki players. Then will talk you through a brief history of Greece. The Closing Ceremony will be very "folkore" as the lady described it.

Can't wait!

Today Athens 2004 announced that for the last two days daily ticket sales had risen to 48000 per day! This is quite good considering that in June daily sales were in the region of 4000 per day!
Total number of tickets sold are 2.5 million. They said they will be happy with 3.4 million, so we still have way to go!

Well Greeks have been trying to let the World know that people here do things in the last minute.... the stadia are ready and shiny and now the events are selling out each day (Womens 100m final soldout today among others). Lets see what other surprises behold us

No surprise then that we had a great response in the earlier post about spare tickets.
All the Opening Ceremony ticks, are gone, but there are still some spare ones (great seats) for the Closing Ceremony and other events (mostly finals).
If the ticket you are looking for are not on the list, drop me an email, because I am in contact with alot of people buying and selling tickets so I might be able to help.

Now that there are articles about every conceivable angle of the Olympics, there had to be something about that! Guardian Unlimited Sport | Special reports | Olympics: Hopping, skipping and jumping into each others' beds

It seems that there is a very interesting situation developing, with the people that bought tickets last year in the original allocation (the minority) and those that suddenly rushed to get their tickets in the nick of time (the majority).
In Greece it is illegal to resell any ticket for an event, unlike England where most events that attract people have the touts (black marketeers) outside to sell tickets - "Any spare tickets, I buy or sell".
So now that events are soldout (like the Opening Ceremony, or Basketball), some people have tickets to sell and some other are looking for them. But one cannot advertise officially because he/she might get prosecuted!

I am part of the minority that has bought tickets last year and I am happy that I will be in all the major events of the Olympics. What I am not happy about, are the spare tickets that I have. Why I have spare tickets... well this is a different matter.

In my quest to sell the tickets I have spoken with a number of people in a similar situation. So I have compiled a spreadsheet with the tickets that are available for sale. Which can be found here.
Among others we have a few top seats for Opening Ceremony tickets for sale, so whoever is interested, please let me know ASAP.

Apologies for the "silence" of the last few days, but I was on away on a mini break to the sea!
Now I am back and have many things to report!
First of all the Athens International Airport is a hive of Olympic activity. There tens of Olympic volunteers and Olympic Accreditation desks all over the place, very impressive! The foot prints of the photo lead you to one of these accreditation desks, very sweet!
I used the brand new suburban rail to get home, and I was extremely impressed! It was quiet, fast, efficient! All that British Rail is not! and it's in Greece!!