Olympic Games: Biggest Race is on Now as Clock Ticks Down
By Ann Louise Bardach
In 490 BC, a Greek soldier named Phidippides was dispatched to Athens to deliver word that some 10,000 Greeks had miraculously trounced about 100,000 Persians at the Battle of Marathon. In full armor and under a remorseless sun, the story goes, Phidippides sprinted the 26 miles between Marathon and Athens, where the runner-warrior delivered his message, then pitched forward and died. Phidippides’ heroic demise bequeathed two Hellenic legacies: a near-inhuman endurance run known as a marathon and a Greek trait to deliver the goods at the eleventh hour.
With fewer than 100 days before the lighting of the Olympic flame for the 2004 Games, Athens is a vast construction site: its skies latticed by huge cranes; its buildings shrouded in scaffolding, including the Acropolis; its streets occupied by an army of jackhammers as the Greeks play a furious 24/7 game of catch-up. The more serious problems lie with Athens’ infrastructure, specifically its transportation system and power supply. Until these crucial projects are completed, no security tests or trials can be carried out.
Up to last summer, there was considerable speculation as to whether Greece would be able to retain its bid to be host of the summer Olympics. In April 2000, the International Olympic Committee issued a humiliating warning that Greece was in jeopardy of losing its host rights unless decisive progress was made. Worse, Greece was pummeled for failing to guarantee the security of the Games, an irresistible target for terrorists.
Then last month, the IOC announced that it had taken the unprecedented measure of purchasing cancellation insurance for $170 million because of the possibility of terrorism. A staggering $1.2 billion has been budgeted for security, including the deployment of some 50,000 security experts at the Games. Greece has rounded up some homegrown terrorists, the 17th of November cabal responsible for 20 political assassinations over a quarter-century. But whatever financial and personnel resources Athens throws at the security issue, there is always the wild card of luck. Securing a country partly composed of hundreds of islands is nearly impossible, as was demonstrated last week when three bombs -- possibly the work of a 17th of November cell -- exploded outside an Athens police station. It was an ice-water wake-up for the Athens Organizing Committee and a grim reminder of how the handiwork of a single bomber at the Atlanta Olympics sideswiped its glory.
Some Greeks have suggested a nefarious plot is behind the international jitters and lousy PR accorded these Olympics. Last August, the venerable Athens News ran a front-page story, under the headline “In Bad Olympics Press, Greeks See a Conspiracy,” in which one pundit was quoted as saying, “We learned to divide foreigners into philo-Hellenes and anti-Hellenes.” Following last week’s bombings, “Terror Hysteria” was the headline in another Athens newspaper, while the Ehnos tabloid went with “Terror Hysteria of Foreigners Bombards Athens.” Although no villain has emerged, that has not diminished the collective conviction that the Greeks are victims of excessive schadenfreude.
In truth, ill will began in the early 1990s, when Greece lost its bid to be host of the 1996 Games to Atlanta. It would have been a triumphant moment for Greece, the historical home of the Games for more than 1,000 years until AD 393 and where the modern Olympics began in 1896. But Athens was simply not ready in 1996. Nor is it ready yet for this August’s Games, having squandered three years to prepare.
To try to remedy the mess, the government summoned back Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who had secured the Olympics bid in 1997. She has proved to be a hands-on manager of exceptional discipline. When the IOC announced that it was now confident that the Greeks were up to the task, a gale-wind exhale could be felt from Athens to Crete.
Contrary to most news reports, it appears that most of the Olympic sites will be completed in time, if with little room to spare. Last year, the IOC pointedly suggested that the Greeks abandon the dome-like blue-and-white roof for the main Olympic Stadium, designed by Santiago Calatrava. But the government, which views the structure as the piece de resistance of these Olympics, reacted as if the stadium were the Parthenon. The roof is expected to be hoisted over the stadium this week. Until it is set in place, the track, seats, even toilets cannot be installed. Last week, the IOC read the Greeks the riot act: The stadium’s roof must be completed by May 20 or else.
More pressing is the need to complete two vital rail systems. The track for the tram that runs from Athens’ city center to the coastal sports centers has not been fully laid, and the indispensable rail line that will ferry visitors from the airport to the main Metro subway system is still under construction. Athens’ rush-hour gridlock easily trumps that of Los Angeles, and it is unimaginable how this city of 4 million will cope with an expected 5 million ticket-holders and visitors if these two rail systems are not fully completed.
But the dangling sword of Damocles that threatens these Olympics is whether there will be sufficient power available for the Games. Athens’ power company, a nationalized monopoly, is a bumbling behemoth; it is seriously behind schedule in its construction of substations, and the current power supply is woefully inadequate for the task.
All this may mean that the Greeks need to cut back on the cosmetics of these Games, which may be an unpleasant humiliation -- but there really are no other options.
There are also sensitive diplomatic hurdles that have not been fully addressed. Although no word has come from President Bush, who has been invited to throw out the first baseball of the Games, his father, an avid sportsman, has said he will attend. But another avid sportsman -- and Bush nemesis -- has also indicated he would like to be at the Games: Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whose 78th birthday falls on Aug. 13, opening day of the Olympics. There will be hundreds more politically charged requests. One dicey plea is former Foreign Minister George Papandreou’s proposal to revive the ancient Olympic tradition of a world truce, in which the competing countries desist from conflict during the two weeks of the Games. “It’s a romantic idea, but it could be pragmatic,” he insisted. More than several dozen world leaders have signed on, but the Bush administration has indicated it is as loath to embrace Papandreou’s proposal as it is to join the International Criminal Court.
These days, even Athenians mutter their doubts that their country can overcome what appear to be Herculean obstacles in time for the lighting of the Olympic flame. Most, however, say they will pull off splendid Olympic Games for the simple reason that everything is riding on them. The newly elected conservative government of Greece could see its pink-cloud honeymoon turn into a nasty storm if things go awry.
Like many Greek myths, several versions of Phidippides’ run emerged as the strands of history and legend melded over the centuries. In Herodotus’ rendition, the runner was dispatched to Sparta -- some 140 miles -- seeking aid. Miraculously, he was back in Marathon two days later. The historian suggests that a brief encounter, a deus ex machina as it were, between Phidippides and the god Pan on his return journey sealed his success. Once again it appears the Greeks are relying on their prowess and pride -- and no small amount of divine intervention.