18 Days in August, an Olympic Blog

NBC: An open letter to the Greek people

2004-10-10T12:01:00.000+03:00

An open letter to the Greek people from Dick Ebersol Chairman of NBC

Athens Olympic Firsts

2004-10-05T11:10:00.000+03:00

Now that the spotlights are switched off and the Games are over, we are all left with a sweet hangover for what we experienced here in August and September. Everything was exceptional, I am so glad I was a tiny part of the Greatest show on Earth!
I have made a short list of Athens Olympic firsts, I will share it with you, they are listed with no particular order:

Most money spent on security (although this will be broken on the next Olympics)
Most countries participating
Most women athletes participating
First time a DJ was used in the parade of the athletes during the Opening Ceremony (DJ Tiesto)
More hours of TV coverage with the best ratings for Olympic Games
First time that stamps with Olympic medalists were on sale on the day after the corresponding medal ceremony, well done ELTA! (Greek postal service)
Spectators went to all the Olympic sites exclusively by public transport since access by private cars was not allowed in a large area around each venue
A truly amazing Opening Ceremony, that managed to receive the unanimous praise of the World
For the first time the Olympic flame traveled to all 5 continents, even to places that it has not been before (i.e. South Africa, India and Brazil), reaching a total of 260 million people
First time that the website of the Games was truly tri-lingual (Greek, English, French)
First time that online and offline branding of materials related with the Games was in synch

Paraolympics are still Olympics

2004-09-26T15:56:00.000+03:00

I have to admit that after my almost daily attendances at the Olympic stadia during August, I have been a bit slow in going to any Paraolympic events.
This is not because I do not value it as high, but because I have started working again in September so I am quite busy!
I have been following their coverage on TV and I have some comments to make:

The attendance in the Athens Paraolympics is beyond the wildest dreams reaching 750,000 tickets, compared to the empty stadia at Sydney 4 years ago.
The support for the athletes has been really warm, not only for the winning athletes but the less succesful as well. I have watched a wheelchair basketball game between Greece and Japan, were the Greek team lost really badly to Japan, still the crowd cheered every attempt until the very end.
For various reasons people with disabilities in Greece have been living in the shadows of society. These Games have provided a great opportunity for the people of Greece to realise the needs and capabilities of these people. I am glad to say that the response of the public has been very encouraging and can be easily seen by the large crowds in the Paraolympic Games. A whole new infrastructure has been developed for these people and although it is not as good as other developed nations, it is a good start.
The sportscasters on NET (Greek State TV that covers the Games), have been the only underwhelming part of the puzzle. Most of them did not know how to handle the occasion and have made a number of unfortunate (in my opinion) comments about people with disabilities
The Opening Ceremony was very good, I loved the massive tree in the middle of the arena, as well as the way the flame was lit.

Overall the Greek soul has done its wonders again in these Paraolympic games.
What I do not know about is the coverage the Games are getting abroad, is TV showing anything of the Paraolympic Games? what are the comments like?

The farewell of the volunteers

2004-09-02T15:47:00.000+03:00

As we were leaving the Olympic stadium after the Closing Ceremony all the volunteers had lined up the exits and were bidding us goodbye. They were visibly very moved at their last night of "duty". It was very moving for the spectators as well.
For me, the volunteers were one of the most impressive elements of this Olympiad, they always smiled and were willing to help but also extremely effective in their job.

I heard one of the crowd control volunteers bidding farewell to his post by saying something like:
"Ladies and gentlemen, in a few minutes I will have to say goodbye to my beloved loudspeaker. We had some great fun together but now I will have to let her go. Goodnight" :-))))

29th Aug, Closing Ceremony, Let the party begin

2004-09-02T15:46:00.000+03:00

I owe you postings from my last few Olympics events, I was debating with myself on which to post first. I decided not go with chronological order .
So lets start from the end and the Closing Ceremony.

The atmosphere on the way to the event was far different from the one in the Opening Ceremony. During the Opening Ceremony there was a big sense of anticipation and excitement on the one hand, but on the other there was some numbness on what is going to happen, will the stadium roof collapse? Are terrorists going to strike? And other similar worries.

16 days later, after an extremely successful Olympiad, with all their fears dispelled, their bellies full of souvlaki and their heads lighter from ouzo, the mood of the spectators walking to the main Olympic stadium was far different. They had a hangover of happiness and a sense of nostalgia that the Games were nearly over.

This time the goodies bag was given to us immediately after passing the 2nd ticket check at the stadium. I do not know why they chose this method this time. But afterwards I heard some people complaining that they did not get a bag because they were late.

The Closing Ceremony was radically different from the Opening one. My theory is that the Opening one was a statement to the World: We are Greeks and this is what we are capable of. A sign that we mean business after all the international criticism. It seems that it worked really well.

Having established a lot of credibility with the Opening Ceremony and the very successful games, the Closing Ceremony was a party for all the people involved. By speaking to people that saw it on TV, I believe that the amazing atmosphere at the stadium that night was not transmitted over the ether.

Everybody present at the stadium had an amazing Olympiad and did not want it to end. They wanted to party. The choice of music on the first part was very careful, so that it is familiar to all the visitors of the stadia during these Games. All these Greek songs were on the loudspeaker playlists of all the venues. They were ageless Greek classics (including damned Zorba) that visitors would have also heard in any tourist establishment of Athens. So everyone was clapping and dancing, the Greeks because of the ageless classics, the foreign visitors because these songs were associated with something really special.
I really enjoyed the first part of the ceremony, it had some really good touches, like the balloons with the snippets of Greek art hanging below them. I laughed at the gypsy half truck with the water melons. This is a classic image of Greek summer, gypsies selling water melons from Datsun half trucks. Papaioannou this time created snapshots of contemporary Greek life as opposed to the Greek history snapshots of the Opening Ceremony.

The whole theme of the Closing Ceremony was “partying” people having a good time.
When the rye was collected by the actors, they went to the lower tiers of the stands and started offering it to the people. I managed to get one, it is made of plastic and wire and will always remind me of that night. There were some people who managed to collect whole bunches of them, so expect them to show up on ebay at some point!

I have to admit that I found the Chinese contribution a bit boring and touristy. I am a big fan of Chinese culture and was expecting something more original…

The girl that blew out the flame was from the SOS Village of Athens, a charity that fosters orphan children.

The second part of the Ceremony, with the song medleys was the weakest link. Especially some of the songs chosen, which I think were not as appropriate.

Anna Vissy, the woman with the mini skirt, is around 50 years old (if not more), she did not copy J.Lo …she could be her grandma!

The Greek artists that were chosen to sing are the closest we have to international stars (except the old classics: Vangelis, Yanni, Nana Mousaka and Demis Rousos). You will probably find their CD’s in the World Music section of your local record store, or Amazon for that matter. If you need help with the names, drop me a line.

After the athletes entered, there were a lot of athlete groups that were doing a lap of honour around the stadium. I spotted a group of Russians, a group of Greeks with a large flag and few British.

Right in front of us there were some athletes with yellow t-shirts (probably Australians?) that were playing freesbee!

Unfortunately I could not see the fireworks very well from my seat but I could certainly hear the noise and smell the gunpowder!
My impression is that this time there were far more fireworks than in the Opening!

After the end of the Ceremony and as most people had left, there were “scavengers” trawling the stadium stands, looking for Olympic souvenirs… expect these to show up on ebay as well!

One unfortunate (?) potential spectator

2004-09-02T13:16:00.000+03:00

On my way to the Closing Ceremony (more on that soon), while going through the perimeter security check (the first check were you go through the metal detectors), there was a well dressed Greek lady in the queue next to mine, that was caught with an Accreditation Only ticket.
As I have mentioned in my previous post (the one about ticket touts), one of touts' dirty tricks was to sell Accreditation Only tickets (that are meant only for people who are somehow associated with the Games, beyond the spectator function), to ordinary people. This ticket is useless without an accreditation photocard (the rectangle laminated thing dangling in front of athletes, coaches, volunteers, etc).
So you might ask, what do you care?
I have bought my Olympics tickets more than a year ago, at a time that most people in Greece were claiming that they will be on holiday and they have no interest in attending for X Y Z reasns. In the last few days of the Games there has been an amazing surge of interest by all these people who came back from their holidays or just suddenly realised that they will miss the Olympics and started frantically looking for a ticket, any ticket to any event. Because they are so “clever” they (offcourse) want the above mentioned ticket to be really cheap. If it was up to them they would have liked to be paid for attending.
Since they had no previous interest in the Olympics they had no clue what is going on, how the tickets look like, where they are sold, how much they cost etc.
At various occasions when I was outside a stadium to sell my spare tickets I always warned the above mentioned people to be very careful when someone was selling them half price tickets for soldout events…most of the times I was completely ignored or even laughed at (because I was selling my tickets at full/cost price).
Well I hope that lady learned her lesson. Unfortunately I do not know if she was allowed inside, I sincerely doubt so.

The voice of the people...

2004-09-01T17:23:00.000+03:00

some very interesting comments on the Olympics by the readers of the BBC

A few words on "empty seats"

2004-08-31T16:31:00.000+03:00

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!

Excellent quote

2004-08-31T16:21:00.000+03:00

"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."

Times Online - Olympics

2004-08-31T03:12:00.000+03:00

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!

The End of the Affair

2004-08-30T20:07:00.000+03:00

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.

CNN.com - Athens bids farewell to the Games - Aug 30, 2004

2004-08-30T17:36:00.000+03:00

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

Miracle in Athens a gold-medal drama

2004-08-30T16:53:00.000+03:00

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

MSNBC - Greece has good reason to celebrate

2004-08-30T14:29:00.000+03:00

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?

MSNBC - Let's give these Games a gold medal

2004-08-30T14:25:00.000+03:00

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

BBC SPORT | Olympics 2004 | Full marks to Athens

2004-08-30T13:16:00.000+03:00

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"

Cool Closing Ceremony photos

2004-08-30T11:38:00.000+03:00

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

SI.com - Reilly: Greece overcame paranoia to stage glorious Games

2004-08-30T03:47:00.000+03:00

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

Watch this space

2004-08-29T13:08:00.000+03:00

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!

Non-athlete of the games

2004-08-29T03:30:00.000+03:00

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.

Athlete of the games

2004-08-29T02:58:00.000+03:00

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.

Colin Powell regrets he's unable to come today

2004-08-29T02:57:00.000+03:00

Somehow, I think we will all survive.

MSNBC - Iverson rips Athens no-shows

2004-08-29T02:06:00.000+03:00

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

Death by a thousand three-pointers

2004-08-27T03:40:00.000+03:00

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.

There is life outside the Olympics

2004-08-27T03:32:00.000+03:00

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.