A fter an uncertain beginning and a change of leadership a year ago, the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC) is now moving ahead vigorously to prepare for the Olympic Games, three years ahead.

ATHOC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, said on May 16, "It is not just that we are back on track, but we are gaining speed." Her statement came immediately after she had submitted a progress report to the International Organizing Committee in Lausanne.

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of ATHOC, meets the press in Lausanne on May 16 after reporting good progress in preparations for the 2004 Games to the IOC. ATHOC photo

A year ago, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch had warned that Greece was in the "yellow light" zone, headed for red, due to delays in preparations. On May 16, however, Jacques Rogge, chairman of the IOC's oversight panel for the Athens Games, said, " year later, I can report that things have improved dramatically."

The holding of an Olympics in Athens at this time has been controversial. In some respects, no city on earth has a stronger claim to the Games, given that Greece is literally their home.

The original sports event was held in the classical era in the central Peloponnesian city of Olympia, and the first modern Olympics was held in Athens in 1896.

But modern Greece, with a population just shy of 11 million, is the smallest country to host the Olympic Games in this era. Putting on the Games has become a vast enterprise that requires a modern infrastructure and major personnel and financial resources.

The Greek government has been behind two recent bids for the Games to be held in Athens. The first was for a centennial holding of the Games in 1996. That bid failed because it had little to support it other than the "historical right" argument. Greece was a weak member of the European Union and the Athens infrastructure was woefully inadequate for the Games.

The bid for 2004 was won in a much more promising situation, with Greece on track to join the European Monetary Union and Euro zone, with major infrastructure works under way, in particular expansion of the Athens Metro and the construction of the new Athens International Airport and connecting roads.

Athens is still a heavily congested city and there will need to be major traffic management schemes implemented during the Games, but during the month of August, when the Games will be held, the capital is typically quiet as the majority of companies close for the holidays and most Athenians head to their villages, the islands or other places away from the city.

Marton Simitsek, an executive director and board member of ATHOC, says all infrastructure projects for the Games are due for completion by the end of 2003 or January 2004.

He notes that the committee is also well ahead in securing necessary sponsorships.

The largest private bank in Greece, Alpha, is putting up 25 billion drachmas ($70 million) in sponsorship. The national telecommunications company, OTE, is putting up 20 billion drachmas ($55 million) while a major local brewer, Athinaiki Brewery, is paying six billion drachmas ($17 million) to sponsor.

These three together account for almost 60 percent of the $250 million needed from local sponsors, and already some 93 percent of the total local sponsorship target has been met.

The IOC will chip in $250 million from global sponsors, and television rights have already been sold to the tune of $800 million, with NBC once more the main media company distributing coverage of the Games.

The total budget is $1.7 billion, with the gap between this figure and sponsorship and media income made up by ticket sales, product licensing, concessions and related commercial deals.

The Greek state is also committed to bridge a revenue shortfall, although this might not be necessary, judging by the encouraging progress in raising funds so far. The state's main role is to get the necessary transport and other infrastructure projects done on time.

Angelopoulos-Daskalaki lead the team that made the successful bid for the Olympics. When the first team recruited to run ATHOC got bogged down in disputes, Prime Minister Costas Simitis brought her back to lead ATHOC. The premier also heads up an inter-ministerial committee that works with ATHOC on the preparations, the Athens Games being a national effort rather than city of Athens project.

Simitsek says that when Angelopoulos-Daskalaki was appointed to head ATHOC, her team kept their heads low for the first 100 days while they made sure they brought preparations up to speed. They are now confident that the preparations are ahead of schedule, but the lady in charge continually reminds her staff that their "most limited resource is time."

One of the main concerns for planners is where to accommodate visitors for the Olympics.

ATHOC has secured over 11,000 rooms itself for the Games and at least another 8,000 are to be built between now and then.

But plans also include the use of cruise ships moored at convenient locations along the coast, and Minister of Development Nicolaos Christodoulakis says every hotel in Athens has to be upgraded to meet international standards under the star rating system by the end of 2002.

He says his ministry, which is responsible for the tourism sector, has received 67 applications for new hotels in the Athens area, and that he expects most of the proposals to go ahead.

Security at the Games has been a major concern, especially since the terrorist group November 17 has been operating in Greece against American and European targets with impunity for 26 years.

Simitsek says that security cooperation agreements have been signed with the United States and 36 other governments.

The American ambassador to Athens, Nicholas Burns, says that he has seen a marked improvement in efforts by the Greek authorities to bring the N17 terrorists to justice (although the U.S. would like to see arrests), and he sees no reason for security worries to affect attendance at the Games by athletes, officials and spectators.

One area in which Athens was in good standing at the time of its bid was sports facilities. Simitsek notes that Athens had 72 percent of the sports facilities, and over 90 percent of the training facilities, needed for the Games at the time of the bid, leaving a manageable construction and upgrading task for ATHOC.

Greece hopes to make the 2004 Games something special through their connection to the original games. By including an expanded cultural program, organizers want to communicate to the world the Olympic ideology, which essentially sees sports as a way to promote constructive human interaction and limit conflicts.

The Olympic truce, in which warring sides lay down their arms during sporting competitions, was part of the original Olympic Games which were held among often disputatious Greek city states.

It is being promoted as a feature of the modern Games, starting with Athens 2004, through the recent creation of the Olympic Truce Foundation, which will have its seat in Athens and a liaison office at IOC headquarters in Lausanne. The first meeting of OTF, headed by top IOC and Greek officials, was held last July in Athens.

In 2004 there will be some meaningful echoes of the historical games. For example, the marathon will be run along a route similar to the one that gave the sport its name, beginning in the town of Marathon and ending in Athens. Archery will be in the splendid central Athens stadium built for the 1896 games, while some cycling races will circuit the Acropolis.

As always, the Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia. But the plan this time is for it to travel to some 200 countries, "to unite the Olympic world," says Simitsek, before being returned to Greece to light the flame in Athens.

Simitsek says it is hoped that the Games will help change mentalities in Greece, in particular by doing a "specific job by a specific timetable."

But more than that, it is hoped that the Games will improve the life of Greeks in general, boosting the economy, improving the infrastructure and raising the country's image in the world.

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