Games Are Getting a Kick-Start

Down in the ancient fishing harbor here Tuesday afternoon, the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad seemed far away. Not only in time but in place.

And yet, this is where they will begin -- here in Heraklio, and in Patras in Peloponnesus, in the eastern port of Volos and in Thessaloniki in the north.

And not Friday, but today.

By the time Greek high jumper Niki Bakoyianni lights the Olympic caldron atop the “sacred rock” of the Acropolis on Thursday evening, U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm will already have played a game.

And by the time Greek sprinter Costas Kenteris ignites the caldron at Olympic Stadium on Friday night -- the 200-meter gold-medal winner from the Sydney Olympics is the odds-on favorite for the honor -- the highlight of the opening ceremonies will occur 24 hours after Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has made his Olympic debut.

Fittingly for a country that surprised everyone but itself by winning the European Championship this summer, it is soccer that is kicking off these Games.

There are four doubleheaders tonight, including the U.S. women’s match against Greece in Heraklio, and another four matches Thursday night.

All 16 men’s teams and eight of the 10 women’s teams will have played by the time someone in Athens -- no doubt Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee -- says on Friday night, “Let the Games begin!”

The Greeks love soccer, and if the games begin before the Games, so be it.

Certainly, they cheered loudly enough this week when Otto Rehhagel, or “King Otto” as the German coach is known since leading Greece to the Euro 2004 title, was one of the torchbearers who carried the Olympic flame toward Athens.

The flame already had visited Heraklio, but judging by the life-goes-on-as-normal atmosphere here, it did not leave the locals burning with excitement.

Crete is taking its part in the Olympics in stride. Playing host to some of the soccer matches is fine, but the islanders know that, in the long run, the Games last only three weeks but the cash-clutching tourists come year-round and thus take priority.

And so, searching for signs of Olympic life in Heraklio on a sun-baked Tuesday afternoon was a needle-in-a-haystack proposition, one made more complex by the elastic nature of time in Greece.

Starting in the distant past made most sense, especially since the Archeological Museum of Heraklio had thoughtfully staged an exhibit titled: “Sports in Ancient Crete -- From Minoan Athletes to Cretan Olympic Winners.”

That seemed promising, and was.

The museum was crowded, but Olympic paraphernalia was nonexistent among the visitors -- no pins, no buttons, no hats, no scarves, no souvenirs of any sort. Not surprising, really, since the local souvenir stores were more intent on selling Crete’s past than its present.

But the exhibit was enlightening. Two examples will suffice:

* “The most popular sport in Minoan Crete seems to have been bull-leaping, namely leaping over the horns and back of a bull,” one display said, adding, unnecessarily, that “it was undoubtedly the most difficult and dangerous of the Minoan sports because of the bull’s aggressiveness, strength and unpredictable behavior.”

There might be echoes of those Minoan moments tonight, when a vastly overmatched Greek women’s team -- featuring some Ivy League Greek Americans -- taking part in an Olympic event on Greek soil for the first time in 108 years, faces U.S. striker Abby Wambach.

* Another exhibit showed some massive amphorae, huge vessels painted on the outside with a particular athletic event -- wrestling, boxing, tumbling, foot racing and chariot racing.

Again, a line in the description caught the eye.

“Amphorae filled with olive oil were awarded to the winners of these events. The prizes of the athletes varies from one to 140 amphorae, the latter being awarded to the winners of the horse races.

“Given that the typical amphora held up to 36 kilograms of oil, winners could receive as much as five tons of the product.”

Medals, apparently, came later. Easier to carry home.

Swapping museum air for sea air brings one forward a few centuries. Heraklio’s port, just down the hill from the museum, is guarded by the imposing bulk of the Castle of Koules, a 12th century Venetian enterprise leveled by earthquakes in 1303 and 1500 but rebuilt both times because it seemed like the thing to do.

Tuesday afternoon, the fishing harbor that faces the fortress was as peaceful a place as any on Crete, in sharp contrast to Heraklio’s airport, which bristled with burly, gun-toting police intent on showing that they could be just as security-minded as their brethren in Athens.

The ferries that link Heraklio to Athens’ port lay silent alongside the docks, awaiting the night sailing and the eight-hour Mediterranean crossing.

On one pier, three fishermen, each armed with a black pole about 18 feet long, tried to catch fry from the harbor’s murky waters. One got a nibble and landed a fish about the size and color of a silver medal.

A passerby’s observation that it was not exactly an Olympian haul met with a poor response.

Down the dock, other fishermen sat in the shade, mending nets, passing the time, not doing much of anything. The sight of three or four kittens peering out from beneath a pile of nets jogged the memory.

In Heraklio, stray cats are part of the scenery, at least around the harbor.

In Athens, stray dogs caused a stir recently when bureaucrats rounded up thousands of the animals, angering dog lovers who wondered about the canines’ ultimate fate.

Reaching the fortress and looking back at the white buildings of the town rising against the hillside, Heraklio’s Olympic spirit finally came into view.

Covering the side of a multistory building and facing the incoming ships were banners adorned with soccer players and promoting the 2004 Games.

Perhaps Crete enjoyed its earlier sports more. Certainly, the islanders must have liked the attitude of King Minos of Knossos, if Greek mythology and the Archeological Museum of Heraklio are to be believed.

When his son, Androgeo, was murdered on the orders of the Athenian king after winning every contest at one early athletic festival on the mainland, Minos honored his memory by “establishing nude games in Crete.”

Small wonder the people here are low-key about these Olympics. They’ve seen everything.