Athens' Preparations for 2004

Wal

king around Athens today, a visitor would be hard-pressed to tell that this city is nearly three years away from hosting the next Summer Olympic Games. Though 75% of the venues are in place, most of them need extensive refurbishment. Four major sporting sites have yet to be constructed, and the largest single project, the Olympic Village, is still open to grazing for goats and rabbits. Construction on that was due to start last year, but as plans now stand the first stage of building will begin next month.

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Even supposed achievements by the local government have problems. The new $2.5 billion Spata international airport 30 km east of the city opened at the end of March, but only the first third of the planned 65-km highway linking it to the Olympic venues north of the city is complete. Plans for the 50,000-seat rowing and canoeing center are advanced, but environmentalists and archaeologists are opposed to its construction in a wetland habitat close to the site of the ancient Battle of Marathon. The much-trumpeted new metro line is open, but time is too short to build it out to the Olympic stadium. More disappointing for basketball-mad Greeks, all the qualifying matches will have to be played in an old hangar at the abandoned Athens airport instead of a purpose-built hall.

Ever since winning the right to hold the Games in 1997, Athens has been beset by squabbles between the local organizing committee (ATHOC) and the Greek government, resignations of senior officials and dense Greek bureaucracy. In April 2000 the International Olympic Committee commission overseeing the preparations reported serious problems in accommodation, traffic, security, construction, venues and infrastructure. In fact, early last year I.O.C. president Juan Antonio Samaranch gave Athens 100 days to get its preparations for the 2004 Summer Games moving before the I.O.C. sent in experts to run the show—or even move the Games. Having successfully dodged that bullet, the Greek organizers—now under the direction of the dynamic president of the bid committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who was appointed in April—say they are now "back on track."

That view seems to be gaining support. In February this year I.O.C. coordination commission chairman Jacques Rogge warned, "We want buildings to start coming out of the ground because without them we can't have the Games." But at the commission's most recent visit two weeks ago, Rogge declared himself satisfied: "Things are progressing well. We are confident they will meet the deadlines."

Athens has a hard act to follow. One reason the Sydney Games were judged such a success was the warmth and energy of thousands of Australian volunteers. The Greek organizers estimate they will need to recruit around 60,000 of their own people to help out—in a country that has little history of volunteerism. Anxieties about Athens will no doubt continue until the opening ceremony on Aug. 13, 2004. "This has never happened in the history of the Games," an I.O.C. member said last week, commenting on the dire shape of preparations. "No, I'm wrong, the only time the Games had to play catch-up was in 1896 in—guess where—Athens."