Going For The Gold With A Little Less Green

If you want tickets for the Athens Olympics, stay away from high-priced Web brokers. Americans can safely buy tickets at Cartan Tours www.cartan.com), an authorized agency of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Some prime events, like the 100-m track finals and the men's gold-medal basketball game, are sold out, but you can still catch the finals for women's volleyball ($126) and for table tennis ($42), among others. If you have friends in France or Britain, let them buy the tickets for you; residents of European Union countries can get seats 20% cheaper from the Athens Organizing Committee www.tickets.athens2004.com), which, as host, sells tickets to Cartan and thus does not have to mark up the price to make money.