Athen's Olympics - 2004

Rita and I have completed a fairly busy Olympic weekend, which began last Thursday when Carl Lewis stopped at the US Embassy and, along with Ambassador Miller, gave a short speech to the staff.  Later in the day I learned that I had won a free ticket for Friday through an Embassy lottery.  I took a day of leave and caught the first day of “Athletics” or what we used to call track & field.  My lone ticket was from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and Rita was not that interested in this sport so I went alone.



The athletics event was at the large Olympic Stadium with the Olympic flame.  The stadium is in what is called the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA), which is very large.  Within the complex are the Olympic Stadium but also the Olympic Indoor Hall, Olympic Aquatic Center, Olympic Velodrome and the Olympic Tennis Center plus fountains, sculptures, the stoa, and many shops.  Stoa is an old Greek term for covered shopping arcades – look at my photo album for an idea of the new Olympic stoa.  Also in the middle of the complex is an archeology dig that was discovered during the construction.  The complex looks very much like a world’s fair ground.  The NBC Today show has a broadcast center in the middle of the complex as well.  When I walked by it I saw Matt Lauer but there were two more hours until broadcast time on the East Coast.



Bus, tram and metro transportation is free to everyone attending an Olympic event so I caught a bus near our house to the complex.  There is very little parking for the Olympics and in Athens in general.  Security seemed good and friendly.  As I entered the Olympic Stadium to find my seat the music on the loudspeaker system was Johnny Cash singing “Ring of Fire”.  I had comfortable, shaded seats that were in the lower deck.  The security blimp and helicopters circled overhead.  At 9:00 am prompt the men’s 20-kilometer race walk started and went outside the stadium in the surrounding neighborhoods.  The crowds didn’t begin to show up until after 9:30 am and the stadium was probably ¾ full although I couldn’t see all of the upper decks.  Many of the empty seats belong to the press who don’t fill up their sections until the medal rounds.



Speaking of empty seats, I know much has been mentioned by the media about plenty of empty seats.  I saw another show that mentioned that Athens has sold more total tickets than either Sydney or Barcelona.  The Athens stadiums are much larger than past Olympics and Greece is the smallest country to host the Olympics since Finland in 1952.  Also, given that the press has used the terrorism scare for the last year, many Americans, in particular, have stayed away.  Right now it is difficult to get any tickets for next week.



I spent the morning watching the athletics, which had several events at the same time so it was difficult to concentrate on one sport.  The heavy grunting came from the men’s hammer throw in the center of the stadium.  On the opposite side from me were several heats of the women’s Heptathlon 100 meter hurdles race and heats for the women’s 100 meter race.  Directly in front of me were the men’s triple jump qualifications.  Side lights that I remember are the little yellow robot that carried the hammer from where it landed back to the throwing circle.  There was one woman, her name was Al Gassra, I think, from Bahrain, who ran her 100 meter race in long tights and a head covering while all the rest of the women were in skimpy two piece outfits.  She stood out and finished fifth out of eight places.  I wonder if she could have done better if dressed like the other girls.  There was a large, noisy group of Swedes at one end of the stadium who started the wave, which carried around the stadium several times.  Through my binoculars I also saw a person dressed as Santa Claus carrying a Swedish flag and sitting in their section.



I left the Olympic Stadium about 12:30 and walked around the complex looking at the stoa, fountains and sculptures.  It was hot and I finished my water quickly.  On the bus home I found myself standing next to the Greek hammer thrower who had just finished his competition.  He had a bad day but he still was friendly and spoke to me.  I found it strange that the Greek Olympic competitor was making his way home on the same public bus as everyone else.  When I arrived home our outdoor thermometer registered over 98 degrees.



After a quick lunch and cool down, Rita was ready to go with me to see the finals in women’s team archery competition.  We took a bus to the Panathinaiko Stadium which is only used for archery events and finals of both men’s and women’s marathons.  This stadium was built at the end of the fourth century BC and went through extensive renovation in the 1890s to host the first modern Olympic Games of 1896.  It’s made of white marble and the seating is hard and in the sun.  This event wasn’t very full but we wanted to see something in this old stadium.  First we saw China defeat Chinese Taipei.  Next, Korea defeated France.  Then Chinese Taipei defeated France for the bronze medal and in the final match Korea defeated China for gold.  China ended up with silver medal.  The final match came down to the last arrow.  An eight would have given China the gold, a nine would tie up the total score and I suppose a shoot off would have been necessary.  But the game Korean lady shot a perfect ten to win the gold medal for her team.  About 20 minutes after the match we witnessed the medal ceremony on the platform with flag raising and national anthem for the Koreans.  We also saw Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the president of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee. 



Saturday morning we slept in as our sports event was in the afternoon.  We left the house about 11:45 am when our thermometer was reading over 97 degrees.  On our walk to the metro station we saw several policemen in our neighborhood, police cars with flashing lights, police motorcycles and one police wrecker towing off a car.  We finally asked a policeman what was going on and he only knew the words “English” and “Blair”.  From that we assumed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was visiting our neighborhood, probably to have lunch at the British Ambassador’s residence.  We live in a safe neighborhood with several embassies and consulates plus residences of many ambassadors.



We took the metro to the Peace & Friendship Stadium to watch our men’s volleyball event.  Our seats were good, close to the court and the stadium was cooled nicely.  These tickets were the first I bought from somebody else since I didn’t know if I would have to work or if tickets could be easily bought.  As it turned out I didn’t have to work this weekend but had to carry my cell phone in case any major problems broke out and I had to go to the Embassy.  I also found out later how easy it is to buy tickets and I should have waited to get tickets to see USA play.  As it turned out the first game was Poland versus Tunisia.  Poland has a population of 39 million and, at times it seemed we were sitting in the middle of them all.  We were surrounded by Poles who had begun drinking early, were all dressed in red and white, and deliriously happy with their volleyball team.  They had horns, whistles, banners and national flags.  But for the most part they were polite and sat down throughout the games.  The matches were close but Poland won to the delight of the fans.



The next game was Argentina versus Serbia & Montenegro or Yugoslavia to those of you, like me, who remember the old names better.  The Serbs and Montenegrans were not as nice a group.  They, too, were loud and raucous but a younger group who refused to sit down when play began.  So we moved down to better courtside seats.  The ushers could not control the crowd and let us move down.  We didn’t have a dog in this fight but after this began to cheer for Argentina who, alas, lost after four games.  During a time out, Rita and I were on the scoreboard, which meant we were probably broadcast on TV but I doubt that NBC was picking up this game.  We were probably on TV in Buenos Aires or Belgrade but not in your neighborhood.



We arrived home late in the afternoon, cooled off with some Greek beer (Mythos) and had leftovers for supper.  While I remember, Carl Lewis told us that hosting the Olympics is equivalent to hosting two Superbowls every day for 16 days.  That evening we were watching Olympics on TV and the CNN announcer said that hosting the Olympics is equivalent to hosting five Superbowls every day for 16 days.  So I don’t know the truth or even if this kind of statement can be verified but beware that it is growing in size daily.



We bought a ticket for Rita to go to women’s basketball at the Olympic Indoor Hall next Wednesday afternoon.  Mainly we bought it so Rita could see the Olympic sports complex since you can’t get in without a ticket.  She plans to go to the NBC Today show booth at 2:00 pm (7:00 am EDT) but she won’t carry a silly sign so you might not see her.  Then again, you might.