Athens Handed Severe IOC Reprimand Over Games

Reuters via NYTimes.com ^ | 02/21/2003

[GeneD]

Filed at 5:08 p.m. ET

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Olympic chiefs handed Athens a blunt reprimand about their organization of the 2004 Games on Friday, just 18 months away from the opening ceremony.

``It is a serious situation,'' International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said. ``It is getting really urgent.

``Six weeks ago I was in Athens and delivered a positive message. I regret to say that since then there has been a slippage in deadlines.

``There is (now) a sense of urgency which needs to be found.

``We expressed our concerns and have sent a message to the prime minister,'' he added, before saying there was no question the Games would not take place in Athens.

Security was of most concern, Rogge said.

``The fact they have not signed the tender for security is of most concern,'' he said. ``It is getting late and security is one of the most important elements.

``We were told six weeks ago that it was a matter of days away. It still has not been signed.

``This does not allow much time for training the people.''

ROGGE'S REPRIMAND

Athens 2004 organizing committee (ATHOC) declined to comment on Rogge's reprimand when contacted by Reuters on Thursday.

``We do not want to comment on this issue, especially since the IOC has sent a message to the Prime Minister,'' an ATHOC spokesman said.

``We will have a reaction to this on Monday when we have the cabinet meeting on the Olympics,'' a government spokesman told Reuters.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who handpicked Gianna Angelopoulos to take over the organization after the IOC had warned Athens to speed up work two-and-a-half years ago, is chairing the cabinet meeting on the Games preparations.

Only recently, the government's top Olympics official, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, said progress was in full swing and timetables were met.

He said several of the venue constructions were even ahead of schedule.

Venizelos told reporters later on Thursday: ``The problems exist. It is helpful if the president of the IOC makes these remarks. It is helpful because it helps us create the necessary atmosphere for the country going toward the Games.'' He blamed residents who had attempted to block Olympic projects for many of Athens's difficulties.

Eight test events, scheduled in the run-up to the 2004 Games, could be in jeopardy as venue construction is behind schedule, Rogge warned.

Without specifying, he said there were fears some venues may not be fully completed along with problems with roads.

Organizers may have to resort to temporary constructions and sports facilities, rather than the planned permanent buildings, he said.

He highlighted problems with the proposed stadium to stage the football in Athens which was way behind schedule, Rogge said.

The warning, delivered at a meeting between the IOC Executive Board and Athens bid chief Angelopoulos, was the second time the Greeks have been reprimanded in three years.

STONY-FACED

Athens organizers have been accused of dragging their feet and are rushing to get their sports facilities, transportation and accommodation in place before the start of the Games in August 2004.

Angelopoulos swept out of the IOC's Lausanne headquarters stony-faced and silent after the extensive grilling.

In 2000, Athens organizers were warned that unless they improved their organization drastically, the 2004 Summer Games could be endangered.

Then president Juan Antonio Samaranch, a career diplomat who always chose his words carefully, handed out the most serious warning to the hosts of an Olympic Games in his two decades in charge of the organization.

At the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne at the time, he told a meeting of Olympic chiefs: ``There are three phases with organization.

``The green light is that all is going well, the yellow is that the Games has many problems and the red light is that the Games are in danger.

``We are at the end of the yellow phase. If from now until the end of the year there are not drastic changes, we will enter the red phase.''

Back then Rogge was in charge of coordinating the organization of the Games. Then he said: ``We need a sense of urgency and to understand the scope of the Games...There is too much red tape and bureaucracy in making decisions.''

It appears his opinion is no different now he is the IOC President.

[longtermmemmory]

"Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who handpicked Gianna Angelopoulos to take over the organization after the IOC had warned Athens to speed up work two-and-a-half years ago, is chairing the cabinet meeting on the Games preparations."

She was appointed to hide the money taken by Simitis and his cronies. They have absurd working hours, and are trying to cut corners where ever possible. I was there also six weeks ago. The Athens Olympic committee has the same corruption as all other Olympic committees.

[Dont Mention the War]

``We expressed our concerns and have sent a message to the prime minister,'' he added, before saying there was no question the Games would not take place in Athens.

Note that leaves open the possibility the Games may not take place at all. Which would be fine with me, but anyway: How much bribery went on betwixt Greece and the gold medal Olympian of Sleaze, Slush Funds and General Corruption, Juan Antonio Samaranch? Wasn't he still running things when this choice was made?

[Alberta's Child]

I think a similar situation occurred in 1976, when Denver was awarded the Winter Olympics but had to withdraw because the voters of Colorado rejected a bond referendum to pay for the venues. The IOC moved them to Innsbruck because the Winter games were held there in 1964 and so there was no need to build too many new venues.

[ambrose]

Am I the only one who wouldn't care one wit if they never had another Olympics?

[aristeides]

Games didn't occur in '40 or '44 (or 1916, for that matter.) The world's at war again today.

[longtermmemmory]

How about we refurbish Ancient Olympia and just have one location with really really good facilities. No more bitching and bribery.

[aristeides]

Works for me. Great shots of Olympia in the opening minutes of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympic movie.

[Alberta's Child]

No. I wouldn't care, either.

But I admit that some of the sub-plots are very interesting. Like the legendary Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Dahlie, who in 1998 was looking for his ninth gold medal when he found himself close behind a very young Norwegian skier in the last few hundred yards of the race. The young kid later said that he deliberately slowed down slightly so the legend could win his record ninth gold medal, but Dahlie saw what he was doing and threatened to kick the kid's @ss if he caught up to him.

The kid won the gold medal.

[George W. Bush]

Am I the only one who wouldn't care one wit if they never had another Olympics?

Count me.

These things are a positive hazard to honest government. It's like the U.N. Corruption follows them everywhere.

And a lot of the countries don't need and sometimes can't really afford all the different facilities which may never be properly used again.

I'd prefer we drop the whole global sports craze. Stick with national teams. We've got plenty of sports already and too much public subsidy of them.

[longtermmemmory]

I like watching the hopless athletes. The ones who wnet on their own with no money or sponsors. The ones who have a regular job who made it on the team and are just proud to compete in the olympics.

The olympic event I like competing in the the sport of Greek nightclub partying. There are clubs in Greece which translated from greek as "up all nighter"s. The shows (with really good name acts) start around 11:00 pm. The partying lasts until 6:00 - 7:00 am. Go for breakfast, then stagger into work around 8:30. This includes drinking heavily, dancing on tables, just dancing, and whooping it up.

[George W. Bush]

I like watching the hopless athletes. The ones who wnet on their own with no money or sponsors. The ones who have a regular job who made it on the team and are just proud to compete in the olympics.

Oh? Me too. Let them all go without money or sponsors. If we don't want welfare mothers, I can't see any reason for welfare athletes.

There's something basically nutty about sports. When you turn it into high stakes international showboating, most of the fun and charm goes out of it.

[longtermmemmory]

When I was there these were the 2004 olympic concerns of the people on the street:

1. The taxi drivers WILL rob the tourist MORE than they do now.

2. The greatest hope of the citizens is that there will not be a national embarasment.

3. If the politicians must embezzel money could they still do the job.

4. Poor quality of concrete/assphalt. Athens has a nightmare pothole problem. Too much sand and/or water? The government contract of a road 10 meters wide and a 9 meter wide road is built.

5. Politicians bribe reporters and reporters take the bribes and shut up. There is no in depth expose reporting. There is complaining but no real cause and efect reporting.

6. Did I mention the hope not to be embarassed.

7. Fix euro currency inflation so I can feed my family THEN we will care about fixing the olympics to have the politicians steal more money.

8. The olympic committee is PLEADING for qualified volunteers to help be workers for the olympic events to help be information or guide workers. Can you say security risk? Their solution: publicity campaign saying the whole country and every citizen is a voulunteer.

9. Please don't let our leaders embarass us. (did I mention simitis is a socialist?)

[Brian Allen]

<< Am I the only one who wouldn't care one wit if they never had another Olympics? >>

Nope.

I'm with you.

There are no Olympics and there haven't been for decades.

Not since the first "national team" was put together; long before even the obscene spectacle that was the berlin "games" -- and the "Olympic ideal" of contest among individuals to select the best *individual* by way of individual competition was replaced by the likes of Hitler's hatreds and by the Evil Empire's corrupt drug-culture politics that characterizes today's "games" and that grotesquely stunts Romanian and Russian gymnasts and grows chinese "women" swimmers' shoulders to Mike Tyson size.

[Irish Eyes]

And the breaking of many many plates. ;-)

[George W. Bush]

7. Fix euro currency inflation so I can feed my family THEN we will care about fixing the olympics to have the politicians steal more money.

Well, not so good on that. Germany said a few days ago that it will run a 3.5% deficit which breaks the laws on no more than 3% deficits. Since they are your central bank, you can see they're manipulating the euro so that the rest of Europe has to subsidize them. And they're going to use the Iraq crisis as an excuse to allow more use of old currencies. Oh, well, our government plays around with the money too but not with such obvious tricks and manipulations.

[longtermmemmory]

The euro is nothing more than the rest of Europe adopting the German Mark as a means of combating the dollarizing of the European ecconomies.