ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΛΘΑΤΕ! Kalos ilthate! Welcome!
Welcome to the Global Greek World - a world of Greek-Somethings which stretches from Auckland to Zanzibar, from Aruba to Zimbabwe.
Wherever you are in the world, this is YOUR world!
Ancient Olympia The last time this ground was wrestled on was the end of the Ancient Games in 393 AD Photo Source: FILA Wrestling on FB
This weekend in Greece, wrestlers from around the world have been given special permission and access to Olympia, the place where it all began. They will
participate in an international tournament in the birthplace of the
ancient Olympics, as part of a worldwide campaign to keep the sport from being
dropped after the 2016 Games in Rio.
The International Olympic Committee is planning to remove wrestling - THE original Olympic sport - from the Olympic Games. They
were quick to threaten Athens with a red card in 2003 in the lead-up to the 2004 Olympics, so maybe it is time for Athens itself to issue a red card to
the IOC after the IOC's 2nd major foul in a year!
The IOC meets in September to make decisions on the future of Wrestling in the Olympic Games.
Without intending to diminish the status of any sport, we cannot believe that the IOC is even comtemplating Golf or Baseball as a REPLACEMENT for the Ancient sport of Wrestling! Moves like this means the IOC risks becoming totally removed from the
whole Olympic concept and taking the Olympics down a very slippery path. No one - not even the IOC - should have the moral right to remove one of the original sports from the Ancient Greek Olympics especially a group of people who call themselves ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΙ - IMMORTALS and are supposed to be the guardians
of the Olympic Movement.
Olympic ideals should not be about money, merchandising, or television rights ...
The IOC motto is Respect, Excellence, Friendship.
Where is their RESPECT towards the Ancient Olympics? More hubris to go
with the one in July at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony when the IOC President welcomed the Games HOME - to LONDON!
KEEP WRESTLING - ONE OF THE ORIGINAL OLYMPIC SPORTS, - IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Let's send the message loud and clear to the IOC, that Olympics without Wrestling - one of the original Olympic sports - are not Olympics!
Keep Wrestling in the Olympics, now and forever!
PS We ran a poll on the subject too, but had to remove it as something was going wrong... the results were very encouraging however with over 180 people answering YES...
At Global Greek World, We ♥ Greece...and it shows!
'In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight. This great,
sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern
sport. It was here that the concepts of sportsmanship and fair play were
first codified into clear rules and regulations....
Dear President of the International Olympic Committee,
Dr Jacques Rogge,
No, the Olympic Games have NOT - in any sense of the
word - come home to London...
No, the concepts of Sportsmanship and Fair Play
were not first codified in London! They were around long before that...
After having spent so much time in Greece during the
preparations of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games it is impossible to believe that
you do not know that the Olympic Games have only ONE home and that is
indisputably, irrevocably and forever,
GREECE,
and GREECE alone.
In case you have forgotten however, let us remind you
that the Olympic Games were born in Ancient Greece and they were reborn in
Modern Greece, in Athens,
in 1896.
No one, and we repeat, no one, can dispute that, no
matter how many carefully chosen words and speeches you make, as you apparently attempt
to draw a distinction between the Ancient Olympic Games and the Modern Olympic
Games.
In
case you have forgotten, let us remind you that Fair
Play (ΕυΑγωνίζεσθαι)and
Sportsmanship (ΕυγενούςΆμιλλας) were concepts related to sport
in Ancient Greece and were codified way back then.
The world owes a huge cultural and scientific debt to Greece, which, as
a country, has never received, or asked for, any financial benefit from any of the tremendously
significant legacies which her ancestors so generously gave the World,
including the Olympic Games.
On the contrary, in 2004, when the time came for the
Games to come home in every sense of the word, they ended up being an enormous
additional burden for the Greek taxpayer. The excessive financial demands and extreme
security requirements imposed on Greece,
whilst not the cause, were nonetheless contributing factors to Greece’s dire
financial situation today.
In contrast to that,
the IOC has benefited and continues to benefit from the Olympic Games on
a daily basis, reaping broadcasting and merchandising royalties, as it takes
advantage of the most exclusive and well-controlled ‘brand’ in the world.
Instead of trying to downplay Greece’s role
and her significance in the creation of this exclusive ‘brand’, perhaps the
time has come for the IOC to give something back to the country that gave birth
to the Olympic Games, other than the privilege of parading first in the Athletes Parade
of Nations…
Even the Olympic Anthem composed for 1896 by Spiros Samaras with
words full of symbolism and significance, traditionally sung in full at most recent
Opening Ceremonies, was relegated to 'accompanying instrumental' status in London.
In Beijing, the original words below were sung beautifully, in Greek, by the children's choir...
Αρχαίο Πνεύμα αθάνατο, αγνέ πατέρα του ωραίου, του
μεγάλου και τ' αληθινού Κατέβα, φανερώσου κι άστραψε εδώ πέρα στη δόξα της δικής σου γης και τ' ουρανού
Στο δρόμο και στο πάλεμα και στο λιθάρι Στων ευγενών
αγώνων λάμψε την ορμή Και με το αμάραντο στεφάνωσε κλωνάρι και σιδερένιο πλάσε και άξιο το κορμί και σιδερένιο πλάσε
και άξιο το κορμί
Κάμποι, βουνά και θάλασσες φέγγουνε μαζί σου σαν ένας
λευκοπόρφυρος μέγας ναός Και τρέχει στο ναό εδώ προσκυνητής
σου Και τρέχει στο ναό εδώ προσκυνητής σου
Αρχαίο
Πνεύμα αθάνατο, κάθε λαός, κάθε λαός Αρχαίο Πνεύμα αθάνατο,
κάθε λαός
Ancient Greece, apart fromthe
Olympic Games, the concepts of Fair Play (ΕυΑγωνίζεσθαι)and Sportsmanship (ΕυγενούςΆμιλλας) which
you made such free reference to at
Friday’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in London, also gave
birth to thousands of other words and concepts
which have been bequeathed to our modern civilization.
Hubris is one
of them.
Hubris, defined
in Wikipedia as extreme pride or
arrogance which often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an
overestimation of one’s own competence or capabilities, especially when the
person exhibiting it is in a position of power…
By using the power vested in you by virtue of the existence of the Olympic Games, to build up
one country at the expense of another, which happens to be the very country whose history
has allowed you to wield that power, and in front of billions of people worldwide, is
simply ingratitude and hubris.
Leadership carries responsibility.
It is a mark of
true leadership, when one uses the power one has to give credit where credit is
due, to inspire and motivate rather than diminish, divide and rule.
Noblesse oblige,
Dear Dr Rogge, President
of the International
Olympic Committee
Noblesse oblige...
ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΟΥΜΕ...
as you said so beautifully in Greek only 8 years ago in Athens,
Later this evening, the Olympic Flame will light up London's Olympic Stadium, heralding the beginning of the Olympic Games, just one of Greece's significant and enduring legacies to the world.
The Olympic
Games, embodying centuries
of culture, ideals and values bequeathed to us by our noble
ancestors... embodying the values of the brotherhood of peoples, peace,
friendship, and fair play - ideals and values which have survived wars,
disasters, turmoil and tribulations, to
be handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years...
The lighting of the Olympic Flame heralds the beginning of the
greatest celebration of sport and youth
that takes place every four years on our planet... The Olympic Games
This flame, ignited by the
rays of the sun by
the high-priestess in
Olympia, after invoking the
God Apollo, was carried across Greece, from
Castellorizo to Xanthi, to Crete, from village to village
and town to town, and handed over to
the London 2012 Olympics Organisers in May.
The highly symbolic, and
somehow appropriately rainy, handover took place at Athens’ Panathenian
Stadium – the stadium
built for the homecoming of the first modern-day Olympics in 1896.
In Ancient
Greece, the Olympic Flame
commemorated the theft of fire from Zeus by Prometheus and was kept
burning throughout
the Olympic Games...
When the
Games came home to Greece
in 2004 there were many who doubted we would succeed - the British,
Australian
and American Press among the worst critics – but succeed, we did, and
what’s
more we did it brilliantly, with organisation and class, proving once
and for all, the power we Greeks have when we are united, the power we
have when we work together as one!
As Greece’s
Olympic
flame lights up the skies of London
tonight, and is kept burning throughout the Olympics, let its meaning of
life, light,
purity, freedom, peace and friendship spread around the world, uniting
us all as people.
As Greeks, as Hellenes, let’s celebrate our unique heritage
and the great things our ancestors gave the
world!
Let’s hold our heads up high, leave
the pettiness to those who would be petty and stand proud of that
heritage!
Citizens of London,
Citizens of England,
Citizens of the World….
As we watch the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony tonight, let's remember to pay tribute to Greece.
Enjoy
the Olympics - they are Greece's enduring legacy to the world!
The photos are from the Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony
Solid gold for Greece's National Women's Water Polo Team in Shanghai earlier today!!!
After the Silver Medal in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and the second placing in the European Championships in Zagreb last year, Greece's National Women's Water Polo Team has made history, beating China with a 9 - 8 win and bringing its first ever gold medal home to Greece !!!
A great victory for the team and a wonderful shot in the arm for Greece
right now!
As Greece's National Anthem was being played at the other end of the world there wasn't a dry eye in the house... just the tonic we needed to keep our morale high and bring
back the smiles for all of us!
A great team from a little country with a lot of heart, a country with a population of 11 million took on a country of 1 billion and won... no mean achievement at all!
Bravo and thank you, ladies!
Wherever we are in the Global Greek World, you've done us proud!
Μπράβο κορίτσια - πάντα τέτοια!!!
Ο Ελληνισμός, όπου κι'αν βρισκόμαστε, σας ευχαριστεί πολύ - μας κάνατε περήφανους!!!
On the 6th August of 1992, a very significant Saint's day in the Greek Orthodox Church, Η Μεταμόρφωση του Σωτήρος, one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Olympic Games tοοκ place...
Voula Patoulidou, became a Greek sporting legend when she was the surprise winner of the Women's 100 m hurdles race at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, gaining Greece's first Gold medal in Athletics and being the first Greek female gold medallist at the same time!!!
Millions of Greeks around the world watched in amazement as Voula Patoulidou took advantage of USA track star Gail Devers' fall in the 100m hurdles, and lunged her body forward, crossing the line in 12.64 seconds, and breaking a Greek national record that still stands.
On completing that tremendous race, Voula Patoulidou immediately threw her hands in the air, celebrating what she thought was a silver medal...
When she watched the replay of the race on the stadium's big screen, she realised what the rest of the world already knew - that she had won the race and was a gold medallist! At that point, Patoulidou fell to her knees and put her hands over her face in astonishment.
In the traditional interview to Greek journalists minutes after the race, Voula dedicated her medal to Greece with her historic
'Για την Ελλάδα, ρε γαμώτο!'
an expressive phrase that would remain immensely popular in Greece to this day, exactly 18 years later.
'For Greece, dammit!'
A few days earlier, another young Greek had astounded the world when he won Greece's first gold medal for weight lifting! During his 202.5 kilo clean and jerk lift he dedicated his victory to Greece and endeared himself forever in the hearts of Greeks all over the world, shouting
"Για την Ελλάδα!" "Yia tin Ellada!" "For Greece!"
It was such an unexpected victory that Greek television had to make emergency plans to cover the medal ceremony!
That young man was none other than Pyrros Dimas, who, born in Albania to ethnic Greek parents, came to Greece in 1991 to wear the Greek colours. Pyrros went on to become a legend, winning three gold medals at three successive Olympics and a bronze at his last ever public appearance, at Athens' Magical 2004 Olympic Games.
At the medal ceremony in Athens, the crowd gave the obviously moved Pyrros a standing ovation, such an incredibly long, but well-deserved tribute, that the silver medal winner had to wait a full 15 minutes before his name could be called!
The Barcelona Olympics hold a special place in our hearts. They gave Greece an amazing double at a time when Greek success at the Olympics was so limited. Pyrros Dimas and Voula Patoulidou became instant national heroes, and, as in the days of the Ancient Olympics they were given a welcome fit for heroes on their return to Greece, at a wonderful ceremony attended by more than 100,000 people at Athens' original Olympic Panathinaikon Stadium.
For those of us who were lucky enough to be there, the atmosphere of that Olympic homecoming was something else - an incredibly moving and inspirational moment.
It was a tribute, a thank you from heart from the people of Greece, a most fitting welcome for two young people, who inaugurated a new era for Greek sport and would inspire many many more in the years to come...
Photo Source: Thanassis Stavrakis for the Associated Press
Απόλλωνα, Θεέ του ήλιου και της ιδέας του φωτός, στείλετις ακτίνες σου κι άναψε την ιερή δάδα για τη φιλόξενη Πόλη του Βανκούβερ. Και συ ω Δία χάρισε. ειρήνη σ' όλους τους λαούς της γης και στεφάνωσε τους νικητές του Ιερού Αγώνα.
Τήνελλα ω Καλλίνικε. Τήνελλα! ...
Photo Source: Eleftherotypia (Enet)
Apollo, God of the Sunand the concept of light, send us your rays and light this sacred torchfor the hospitable city of Vancouver. And you, O Zeus, grant peace to all the peoples of the world andcrown the winners of this Sacred Competition.
Godspeed in Victory!
On Thursday 23 October 2009, the eyes of the athletic world turned towards Ancient Olympia, the home of the Olympic Games, for the simple yet magnificent ritual associated with the lighting of the Olympic Flame for the winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
The high priestess, Maria Nafpliotou, lit skier Vasilis Dimitriadis' torch with the one lit by the rays of the sun and handed him an olive branch to take with him on his journey, symbol of the Olympic Truce.
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
From Olympia, the Sacred Olympic Flame began it's week long torch relay around Greece, culminating in the official handover ceremony to be held on Thursday 29th October at 6 pm at the Kalimarmaro Stadium, in Athens, the Pan Athenian Olympic Stadium built for the 1896 Games. There the Olympic Flame will be handed over to Canada, in the presence of officials at the highest level, including the Governor-General of Canada, H.E. Michaelle Jean, and will thus set off on it's journey to Vancouver...
Photo Source: Sakis Kostaris
Vasilis Dimitriadis, a skier in the Giant Slalom competition at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics, won the best place ever for Greece in a Winter Olympics and thus had the honour of being the first torchbearer of the XXI Winter Olympic Games.
Global Greek World especially thanks Sakis Kostaris, Hellenic Paralympic Athlete and Member of the Hellenic Paralympic Committee for kindly allowing us to use the photos of the ceremony at Olympia. Thanks very much, Saki!
To read more about the Olympic Flame Ceremony in Greek, from the Athens News Agency, Click Here
"The Olympics came home and we showed the world the great things Greece can do - Athens was great for athletes and Greece was great for the Games." Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President, Athens 2004 Organising Committee (ATHOC)
And the Games came Home...
And what a glorious homecoming it was! Athens, and indeed the whole of Greece lived through spectacular days in the summer of 2004. To the chagrin of all those who said that we wouldn't make it, Athens not only made it, it showed the world what glorious things could be achieved! The smallest country ever , but also the only one whose history alone entitled it to host the Olympics, put on the greatest Olympics ever. All those Cassandras who predicted that we would be painting and nailing right through to the Closing Ceremony were proved wrong! Our Australian friends, who should have known better, and should have been more sympathetic, after having hosted their own Olympics four years earlier in Sydney in 2000, were amongst the most critical unfortunately!
An email which had done the rounds earlier in the preparations even gave the Games a new logo ...
ATHENS 2005 ...because good things take a little longer!
But Greeks invented satire and proved that more than anything, we knew how to laugh at ourselves... At the pre-show, just before the Opening Ceremony began, Greek French Showman Nikos Aliagas, in blue workers' overalls, hammered in the last nail and beamed ecstatically, 'At last, we're finished!', before he took off the overalls and settled in to present the show, receiving ecstatic laughter and thundering applause from the 70,000+ audience! The greatest ever celebration of youth and sport was about to begin, and Athens was in celebration mode! Let the Games Begin! And the Games began!!! And what incredible Games they were... Dimitri Papaioannou's magnificent Opening Ceremony set the tone for the days that were to follow!
Athens 2004 - Opening Ceremony
For all those who were in Athens during those magical 30 days, for all those who worked for the Olympics, either directly or indirectly, either as paid staff or as volunteers, the experience was one we will never forget!
For us, Athens changed incredibly and for the better!
Athens 2004 Mascots Phoebus and Athena at play
For 30 days, Athens was a gracious and wonderful hostess to the World and like a real Diva, lived up to her myth! The atmosphere was superb and Athens had its own unique way of making every day memorable! Hundreds of thousands of people, athletes, officials, our extraordinary volunteers, including 3500 volunteers of Greek origin from Australia to Uruguay (more about these very special volunteers in another post), gave of their very best and thus achieved the ultimate! The years of upheaval as the whole city underwent major structural and constructional changes and in fact became one huge construction site, paid off - it all pulled together beautifully just like the Calatrava Roof on the Olympic Stadium, just weeks before the Opening Ceremony. As Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee so aptly said
"Athens' preparations for the Games are like the Syrtaki - It starts very slowly, it accelerates and by the end you can't keep up with the pace."
We lived through magnificent, glorious days in August of 2004, forgetting all the problems as the countdown began for the best ever Olympic Games! The IOC President might not have said exactly that at the closing Ceremony 16 days later, but he said enough to ensure that the Athens Olympics would leave their own mark in history, along with the first Modern Olympics of 1896, and the Classic Olympics of Antiquity!
Volunteers Harvest the Wheat-Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo: Mike Blake for Reuters
Efharistoume, Athena! Thank you, Athens!
Dear Greek friends, you have won. You have won by brilliantly meeting the tough challenge of holding the Games.
These Games were held in peace and brotherhood.
These were the Games where it became increasingly difficult to cheat and where clean athletes were protected.
These Games were unforgettable, dream Games.
IOC President Jacques Rogge with ATHOC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki at the Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo:Mike Blake for Reuters
As Dimitri Papaioannou's magnificent Opening Ceremony unfolded and several millennia of Greek history paraded before the world in his fascinating Klepsydra, as the wonderful music of Greek New Zealander John Psathas, among others, flooded the stadium, the world watched in awe, mesmerised and enchanted.
The next day, and for many days after, while competition continued and it became obvious that Athens' Olympics were a great success, the apologies came pouring in! To the credit of all concerned, these apologies (see below for just a few examples) were pretty generous, albeit sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek!
We, who knew what we Greeks can achieve when we are united were not one bit surprised. Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo: Reuters
Athens and Greece had once again given the World something unique to remember, something that would live on forever in our hearts!
Olympic Triple Gold Medallist Pyrros Dimas holds Greek Flag at Closing Ceremony Photo: Arko Datta for Reuters
Ευχαριστουμε Ελλάδα! Efharistoume Ellada! Greece, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for those unforgettable, magical moments !!
Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Fireworks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- And then the apologies (and accolades) came rolling in from every side .... We were wrong
Rick Reilly in SI 31 August 2004
Greece overcame the world's paranoia to stage a glorious Games
Dear Athens, Well, we feel bad. We really owe you an apology.
So, sygnomi, as you would say. Sorry.
Sorry about the way we acted. We were paranoid and stupid and just flat out wrong. Our bad. If you want, we'll sleep on the couch.
We mocked you, ridiculed you, figured you wouldn't be ready. We envisioned you as a bunch of lazy, swarthy guys in wife-beater T-shirts chugging ouzo instead of finishing the baseball dugouts. We were sure steeplechasers would have to jump over drying cement, pole vaulters over tractors, divers into 3 feet of water.
We were wrong. It was all done and it was beautiful. OK, so the swimming stadium never got a roof. Big freaking deal. Imagine: having to swim in an outdoor pool. Let's all sue. Besides, you know what? It was more fun that way. Michael Phelps was out there so much he ended up with raccoon eyes from his goggles. He looked like a snowboarder. "Cool!" he said.
We predicted women madly weaving olive wreaths next to the podiums as the national anthems started up. We foresaw painters sprinting along painting stripes just yards ahead of 400-meter runners. We figured beams would be falling on people's heads. Who knew Wrigley Field would be a lot more dangerous?
We were sure every street corner would have three or four terrorists, just kind of killing time, looking for somebody to kidnap. Some bozo said, "The only place worse to hold an Olympics would be Baghdad." Please. I guarantee you, we felt a helluva lot safer these three weeks in Athens than we do in L.A. Or Detroit. Or the Republican National Convention.
We insisted you spend 1.2 billion euros on security. You had to put up blimps and cameras all over the city. You couldn't throw a bucket of grapes anywhere and not hit a soldier with a rifle. And nothing happened. Zero. The only incident was when our Secretary of State said he was coming to visit. In other words, if Colin Powell would've just been happy with his remote, you wouldn't have had a single problem.
Why you had to pay for our paranoia, I'll never know. It's the world's problem, the world should have to pay for it. What small country is going to be able to afford to host the Olympics anymore with these insane security demands? From now on, if a country wants to send a team to the Games, it pays its share of security, based on its share of the gross world product. In other words, it's our war, we should have to pay for it.
And our ignorance cost you more than just the billion or so Euros. Our Edvard Munch screams leading up to these games kept millions of people away. Corporations bailed on you. Fans chickened out. I know burly journalists who were too scared to come.
Sygnomi. Really. You did such a beautiful job on all the venues, arenas and stadiums and yet most of them were so empty you would've thought you'd stumbled upon a goiter seminar. At one basketball game, we counted: There were 307 people. One women's soccer game involving the U.S. started with fewer than 50 people. I had a friend call one night and say, "You better get over to gymnastics, quick. There's only 15,000 seats left."
The shopkeepers told us, "We've never seen it so dead in August." Hotels came down on their prices by three-quarters. Shirt stores lost their shirts.
It's too bad. It was a glorious Olympics. It really was. The opening ceremonies were fabulous. The nightlife was amazing. Even the stray dogs and cats couldn't have been friendlier. I got lost once and had to hitchhike out of nowhere, and a motorcyclist not only picked me up but drove for miles until he found me a cab. So, efharisto, as you say. Thanks.
Somebody did a poll and found that 97 percent of fans were "satisfied" with safety and security, 95 percent appreciated the job the volunteers did and 98 percent had a favorable impression of Greece. The other two percent were Paul Hamm's family.
And what did you get for all your trouble? Nothing but heartache. With 9,000-plus Greeks about to go delirious, our men's volleyball team handed you a giant buzzkill --- coming back from eight points down to win the fourth set and then the fifth to advance to the semifinals. The only really good game our men's basketball team played the whole time was against Greece.
It was Greek Tragedy Fortnight on TBS. It started even before the Games with your heartbroken judoka jumping from a balcony, followed two days later by her distraught boyfriend. Your two best sprinters turned in their credentials to end a doping/conspiracy/motorcycle wreck soap opera that tore the nation up. One of your favorite weightlifters had to give up a medal for a failed drug test, then wept in front of the world protesting his innocence.
And now you're stuck with about $8.5 billion in debt, a bunch of huge, expensive stadiums you'll never use (Hey, kids, who's ready to synchronized dive?!) and a whole lot of "Get Your Butt to Team Handball!" shorts nobody was around to buy. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
So, really, we're sorry. If it makes you feel any better, we all feel a lot more Greek now. We're all coming back to the States telling the daughter, "OK, you be Athena and I'll be Zeus!", demanding our favorite restaurants reserve us a table about 1 a.m. under the moon, right near a 2,500 year-old ruin. We keep spitting in people's hair for good luck, crushing plates for no reason and hollering "opa!" in the shower.
No idea how to make this right for you, except this: We vow, here and now, we'll never make you host us again.
By ANN KILLION
San Jose Mercury News
Posted on Sat, Aug. 21, 2004
ATHENS – The Greeks could sue for defamation of character. They could demand an apology from the world. Instead they just shrug and order another frappe.
Their Olympics are going beautifully. Just like they expected. After all, they invented this business.
For years, we heard how miserable these Olympics would be, how dangerous, how choked with traffic, how polluted, how unfinished. After just a couple of days, some observers turned in an instant thumbs-down on the Games. No atmosphere. No crowds. The horror – gymnastics wasn’t even sold out!
Such rips are ridiculous. For one thing, you can’t judge the Olympics until they start. And, in reality, the Athens Games didn’t start until Friday, when track and field got under way. Olympic atmosphere comes from 160,000 people streaming into the park every day. And that can only happen when track starts. Until then, the Olympic park seems deserted even with 30,000 people inside it.
Saturday night, the upper bowl of Olympic Stadium was filled with rippling blue and white Greek flags and fans cheering for runners and discus throwers. The roar of the crowd rose into the Athens night. You couldn’t convince anyone there that these Games have no atmosphere.
So far these Games get a huge thumbs-up from this corner. And not just because I set my personal bar so low – my goal was to come home alive. I swore I wouldn’t whine about slow buses or hot weather.
I’m still alive and feeling sheepish about all my worries. The heightened security is evident but not oppressive. The fear-mongering has dissolved into a happy Olympic atmosphere where Canadian fans wander around in togas and olive wreaths drinking Mythos beer. The Games aren’t over, but so far, Athens feels very safe.
And there hasn’t been much to whine about. The buses run on time. The taxis are cheap. The phones work. Even the weather has cooperated, with temperature mostly in the 90s during the days, but not the 100-plus heat that had been advertised.
Are they as great as the Sydney Summer Olympics, which drew rave reviews? So far, they’re not far behind (and gymnastics wasn’t sold out there either – not everyone loves the little pixies as much as Americans).
The scene at Darling Harbor was terrific – but the crowded cafes of the Plaka, in the shadow of the Acropolis, are almost as lively.
Are these Games as great as Barcelona, which I didn’t attend but many veteran Olympic writers say is their favorite? They’re not far behind – and they’re beating Barcelona in ticket sales.
And how do they compare to Atlanta? There is no comparison. The United States hosted the worst Summer Olympics of the modern mega-Games era.
Everything people feared would happen here actually did happen in Atlanta: There was a bombing, the buses didn’t run on time, the computer system didn’t function, the crowds were suffocating and the weather was oppressive. Greece, the smallest country to host an Olympics in 52 years and one of the poorest countries in the European Union, is outperforming the world’s super power.
On Saturday, Athens was abuzz. The efficient new metro system was packed with fans heading to every venue. Inside the Olympic park every event except trampoline was sold out (and you’re not going to hold it against the Athenians if they don’t support trampoline, are you?).
On Friday, 244,144 fans went to 47 events. Ticket sales have reached 3.2 million – close to the target of 3.4 million – and they’re not done yet. The fact that most Athenians were on vacation until last week is part of the Games’ new energy.
Not only were the Greeks underestimated, their capital city has been mistreated. For those of us who haven’t been here before, Athens is a surprising delight.
Yes, it’s crowded and poorly laid out. But it has dazzling historic sites around almost every corner, restaurants and bars that stay open until almost dawn, and wonderful, gracious hosts.
It also has a terrific coastline along the Saronic Gulf. A new tram runs along the water, and Saturday it carried both Olympic spectators and sunbathers. The beaches were packed and Athenians bobbed in the sparkling water.
The first eight days have been a success. I told my cabdriver how impressed I was. “Of course,” he said and shrugged. What did you expect from the folks who came up with idea in the first place? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Zeus, the Greeks are great again! Instead of sneering at the supposed failings of the Olympic hosts, the British should address their own inadequacies
Helena Smith
Sunday August 15, 2004
The Observer
The only time I met Jeffrey Archer, he was ranting about the Greeks. ‘These bloody people, they couldn’t organise their way out of a paper bag.’
It was the eve of the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens. Archer was standing in the foyer of the Hilton, fuming because an overworked saleswoman in the hotel bookshop had had the temerity to keep him waiting. ‘To think that they’re organising these games is a real joke,’ he grumbled. ‘They’re bloody hopeless.’ His tirade was embarrassing. But what struck me more, living in Greece and being British, was the ferocity of such Anglo-Saxon condescension. It was both disquieting and buffoonish. In the event, the championships were the best of recent times.
As Greeks defy sceptics with world-class sports venues and a vastly improved city for the Olympics, I wonder what put-downs Archer and his ilk will come up with now? That Athens 2004 isn’t a patch on what London could be in 2012? Or perhaps they will take a leaf out of Tessa Jowell’s book? After touring the Greek capital last week, the British sports minister could only exclaim: ‘We are here to learn … and support the city in the face of doomsayers – they have turned it around.’
Greece is the smallest country to stage the Olympics, which are the biggest ever. The feat will help dispel some of the self-doubt and nagging inferiorities that torment Greeks. Not even the humiliation of seeing the farcical flight from drug testers of their two star athletes could take the gloss off Friday’s magnificent opening ceremony.
If the Games go as well and remain incident-free – and the Greeks have spent a record £900 million providing security for the event – the organisers may just succeed in proving that Athens is no longer Europe’s Christian Orthodox ‘odd-man out’. That, actually, it can very effectively ‘organise its way out of a paper bag’. But will the Olympics also change the prejudices against Hellenes?
In Britain, it seems, there is still a readiness to think of the Greeks as barely civilised: they are all called Zorba, sport bushy moustaches and smash plates. If not that, then they are corrupt southern Europeans with a criminal justice system that goes out of its way to target British plane spotters. Such stereotypes are born of an idea of Greece as a Balkan backwater, a country that has no place in the European Union.
Again and again, in the course of reporting from Greece, I have met such prejudices. What still surprises me, though, is the extent to which they appear to have colonised the minds of people I might otherwise respect.
A year spent in the irrepressibly progressive environment of Harvard, as the new century dawned, only served to highlight how entrenched and peculiarly British such views tend to be. Like our fondness for that cliche of Greeks bearing gifts, we seem unable to abandon our belief that modern Greece is a contradiction in terms. Increasingly, I find myself thinking the British, rather than the Greeks, are trapped in outdated mindsets.
As a Briton, I find much to squirm about, whether it’s the Elgin marbles or my compatriots running wild in vomit-splattered Faliraki or feckless, bare-breasted English girls being incarcerated in Greek jails, which are, naturally, described as ‘medieval’ in the British press.
Few ever stop to think how the British might behave if hordes of unprepossessing, out-of-control Greeks invaded our coasts? More often than not, Greek authorities react to such excesses with a leniency far beyond the call of duty.
No one can deny the Greeks’ bewildering last-minute work ethic. In recent months, preparations for the Games appeared so chaotic that they bordered on the burlesque. But, sadly, stereotypes tend to colour political views.
What people tend to forget is just how far the Greeks have come. Three decades ago, Athens was under the iron grip of small-minded military dictators, men as intent on banning mini-skirts as banishing leftists to remote island prisons.
Now, Hellenes worry not about human rights or the rule of law, but consumer goods and their second homes overlooking the sea. It is all the more miraculous when you remember that before the colonels came years of wars, coups and near-constant political and social unrest.
It is true that with their extraordinary ability to be their own worst enemy, the tumult was often self-inflicted. The disastrous 1923 Pelepponese campaign, subject of Louis de Berniere’s latest book, did not enhance the country’s reputation. Nor did Athens’s fiercely pro-Serbian and less than magnanimous stance in the recent Balkan wars.
But Greece is changing. Just as the country is no longer the economic laggard of the European Union (at around 4 per cent, its GDP growth rates are the second highest in the eurozone), it is no longer the political juvenile of yore. The trenchant nationalism of the 1980s and early 1990s is no more; instead of generating firebrand politicians with only thinly disguised dreams of conquering Constantinople, it produces men and women who want only to improve relations with Turkey.
Progressive immigration policies, an area for which Greece deserves more credit, are rapidly changing the country’s ethnic make-up. Around 10 per cent of its 11-million strong population are now foreign-born, mostly Albanian, although increasingly from the former Soviet republics, Africa and the Middle East. Admittedly, Greece was never a multicultural paradise; treatment of newcomers has not always been exemplary. But I have often wondered what the reaction would be in other European countries to such a great influx.
In years to come, others might contemplate the wisdom of tasking small states such as Greece with the organisation of a show such as the Olympics. But of one thing there can be no doubt: no other single event has so effectively transformed or revitalised Athens in the 180-plus years since Greece won independence from the Ottoman Turks.
In one fell swoop, it seems, the Greeks have cleaned up their act. They have cracked the nasty November 17 (the group that killed British military attache Stephen Saunders); they’ve used EU funds and dug deep into their coffers to build highways, a sophisticated transport network, a gleaming new airport and a metro system that makes the London Underground look primitive.
They haven’t built a new Acropolis Museum yet, but they’ve united all their ancient masterpieces into a giant and spectacular archaeological park, no mean feat in a city of more than four million people. How long has it taken to even agree to build London’s Crossrail? It is unlikely it will be ready by 2012.
The new Greeks are innovative. In contrast to the patronising eggheads who govern the likes of the British Museum, they come up with forward-looking polices: ‘Why not loan us the Elgin marbles, instead of ‘giving them back’ and we’ll display them in a branch of the British Museum beneath the Parthenon?’
Lovers of Greece will weep to see that acceptance has taken so long, but it could prove to be one of the greatest legacies of the Games.
--------------------------------------------------------------- The Olympics Are Ending: Now Athens Pays for a Nice Party
By GEORGE VECSEY – New York Times ATHENS
THERE will always be two versions of the 2004 Summer Games:
The very pleasant Games most people experienced, superimposed on one of the world’s historic cities.
The very expensive Games that Greeks will have to underwrite for decades.
Many thousands of visitors will go home with a memory of some epic sporting event – a Greek winning a gold medal, a luminous smile on the podium, a perfect meal in a local taverna.
On the other hand, millions of Greeks will stay home and sort out the ledger sheet, and make up their minds whether the security and the new infrastructure were even remotely worth $9 billion, the current estimate.
But whatever Greeks come to think about these Games, they need to remember they were good hosts. They took care of us, with our low expectations and our high demands. Greece came through.
These Games were secure and peaceful, at least until Secretary of State Colin L. Powell planned to come to town, a visceral reminder of things that annoy some Greeks about the order of the world. A nasty demonstration Friday made him change his plans.
These Games were friendly and capable. Maybe that came through on television sets around the world. Or maybe such considerations are not relevant to viewers.
The Olympic Games have become a made-for-television extravaganza, to keep the American masses occupied for 17 days in August until football, tennis, the baseball pennant races and the Champions League of soccer all kick in on the tube.
For athletes, tourists and wretches from the news media, the Games are reality. Fans walk through an Athenian square carrying their national banner, having an experience they will tell their grandchildren about.
When I get home in a few days, I will tell my grandchildren mostly about the ferry rides and the ancient ruins, far more than most sporting events I witnessed. (I loved the use of the ancient stadium and the old stadium, the respect for history. Best single Olympic action? Kristine Lilly’s superb blast-from-the-past corner kick that set up the gold-medal header by Abby Wambach.)
The nice people with the Olympic committee all blur together. I cannot tell a paid official from an unpaid volunteer. They seem to wear the same uniform. They all speak English. They all anticipate our needs.
Greece is said to have a culture of privacy and individualism. (If I may say so after a month here, many Athenians tend to talk, walk and smoke oblivious to others around them.) It is said that Greeks do not volunteer, but somehow the organizers found thousands of the best and brightest of their society and put them in uniforms where some cranky American would come lurching along, trying to find a bus or a bathroom. I will always remember their tolerant and worldly ways.
Some people do stand out. Remember that in Ancient Olympia, women were barred from the grounds. Greece tried that act again in 1997, shunning the woman who had earned the Olympic bid for Athens. Three years later, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki was brought back to save the nation from disgrace.
Like many charismatic leaders, Mrs. A is easy to caricature. I’m just guessing she may even have a bit of an ego. Let’s be clear about one thing: if it were not for Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, I would be typing this column in L.A. or Sydney or Seoul. I hope Greece and the International Olympic Committee have a big enough medal for this extremely capable leader.
Then there was the mayor, Dora Bakoyannis, who kept telling us her city would be fine. We got here, and the trains were upgraded and the public squares were refreshed and the bilingual signs were up. She’s another big-timer.
A few months ago the mayor laughed when I told her how grungy Athens had seemed when my wife and I visited last year. She let me know that she had been smart enough not to invite houseguests in 2003. Besides, she said, these Games are really about 2005. Next year, the subways and the beaches and the ruins will still be here.
Are you getting the feeling my enthusiasm is for the site and not the Games themselves? The Olympics have become too big. They have lost their center. Maybe that is a function of television. We lumber around on endless bus rides to events halfway to the equator, and NBC polishes it up for the folks back home.
Up close, the Games aren’t all that compelling. “Seinfeld” was about nothing. The Olympics are about buses and security and lines – and ghastly food inside the Olympic perimeter. I blame the sponsors, who insist on selling their burgers and their sodas. In a country of great tavernas, how contemptuous.
Then there are the drugs, which hang over the Games the way smog used to hang over Athens. That clump of jawbone and biceps and thighs who just won a gold medal is tomorrow’s fugitive, running from the drug police like some bicycle thief.
Testing is getting better, I suppose, but if you want to know the truth, I’m sick of drugs and I’m sick of drug testing. I’m sick of judges and decimal points and particularly the weasels from the gymnastics federation. I think I’m Olympicked out. More to the point, the Olympics may be Olympicked out.
I hope the Games go somewhere other than New York in 2012. We don’t need the kind of costly fix these poor folks are about to pay for. But they were good sports, good hosts. Next time we come back, there won’t be any Games and we can get right to the museums and the beaches.
