Friday, August 13, 2004

  We are staying in the northeastern corner of Athens in Panormou, about a three mile walk south of the Olympic Stadium. We are in a middle-class and very vibrant neighbourhood. We see many signs of the Olympic Games, from volunteers wearing the required outfits, to Olympic Games souvenir stands on most every street corner. Greek flags are flying from car windows and hanging from apartment balconies throughout the city. We are three blocks from the X-15 Olympic Express Bus which will take us to the stadium round-the-clock.
  We were part of a single day record at the Athens National Airport, the Eleftherios Venizelos terminal, which handled 839 flights yesterday.
  Today is a National Holiday in honor of the first day of the Olympics - actually the day of the opening ceremonies. We discovered this while standing in front of the big grocery store with other shoppers from the neighbourhood. It was well past 10 a.m., but the store had not yet opened. "National Holiday," the policeman said. "Everything closed! The Olympics are here!"
  The Olympic Torch arrived at the Acropolis last night carried by Niki Bakoyianni, the Greek silver medallist in the Olympic high jump in 1996. There was a ceremony at the Acropolis last night with speeches given by the Athens mayor, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, the head of the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and head of the IOC, Jacques Rogge.
  The torch, which left Olympia on March 25, left the Acropolis at 8 a.m. today and will wend its way through northern Athens and will arrive at the Olympic Stadium at 5:30 p.m., a few hours before the Opening Ceremonies.
  Tuesday saw a record one day sale for Olympic tickets: 89,317, which was broken Wednesday when 92,970 were sold. But, still, only a little more than half of the tickets have been sold. Just this week, a Greek acquaintance was able to buy tickets for August 24th, the night of the men's 1,500 final. An American was arrested yesterday (Thursday) and charged with trying to sell Olympic tickets at triple the face value, and charged with profiteering.
  Four Mexican tv journalists were arrested yesterday outside the Olympic Village. They had demanded medical assistance in an apparent attempt to get past security, police said. There have been several incidents like this involving Mexican media the last few days. The four were later released.
  A Latvian track coach, Gintz Bititis, has been stripped of his accreditation to the Games. On his way to Athens, Reuters reported, Bititis was barred from boarding a plane in Prague by airport security for being drunk.
  Greek sprinters Katerina Thanou and the defending Olympic men's 200 metre champion Costas Kanteris both failed to appear for mandatory doping control tests in Athens yesterday. In the early hours of the morning, they still had not appeared, and it was not clear what will result. The Greek team leader, I. Stamatopoulous said the athletes had gone to the Olympic Village to pick up some personal belongings but they failed to return for the tests.
  The American Arbitration Association approved the two-year suspension of Torri Edwards. Edwards can now appeal that to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which she says she will do. They are here in Athens and she must accept the ruling of the Court.
   For Columbia University (NYC) fans, Jenny Thompson is interrupting her medical studies at Columbia to compete in her fourth Olympic Games. She is 31 years old, and has amassed 10 Olympic medals in her swimming career. Thompson is the oldest member of the US swimming team. The oldest member of the US tennis squad is Martina Navratilova who is making her first Olympic appearance at age 47.
  The Olympics are currently underway. The first Olympic competition held in Greece in 108 years was held yesterday in archery and soccer. Im Dong Hyun set a world record in the men's preliminary archery competition. In men's soccer in Group A, Greece was tied by South Korea, 2-2. In women's soccer, USA women defeated Greece 3-0 in Group C. Also in Group C, Brazil beat Australia 1-0.
  Several of the events are located outside the city suburbs, including soccer which is held at Karaiskaki Stadium at Neo Faliro on the coast near the Port of Piraeus, just off the Metro Green Line. The Metro Green Line is the original "subway" system although most of it is above ground and little of it is air-conditioned. It is also slower than the new lines that have been built in anticipation of the Olympic Games.
  We took the Blue Line from the airport to Panormou Station, a trip of about 40 minutes.
  We are still not sure about transportation to the shot put competition in Olympia. Our host in Athens tells us it is about a 5 hour drive. Car rental is extremely expensive. We are going to investigate public transportation (bus) possibilities, and have already secured overnight accommodation the evening before the competition begins. Olympic competition has not been held on the Peloponnese since the year 392 AD.
  The last of the Olympic banners are being finished and shipped from Shanghai where they are produced at the Mao Feng Factory, including the ones in Greek. Apparently there's been a huge sprucing up in Athens, including, for example, fountains with water in them. Also, now there is grass for the children to play on in front of the National Library, something that hadn't been seen there for many years.
  Later today we tour around the Parthenon and hunt down the Cartan ticket agent office to see if we can get tickets to the shot put qualifying rounds. Currently, we only have afternoon (final) tickets. Yes, there are two sessions, and you are expected to depart the stadium between the qualifiers and finals. That is, if you can find a way to Olympia.