Greek Olympic Cry: ’96 or Bust

It’s 1996 or never for Athens and the Olympics, the president of Greece’s Olympic bid committee said today.

“If we don’t get the Olympics in 1996, we will never bid again to host them,” Spyros Metaxas said.

Athens will be competing with five other cities, including Atlanta, when the International Olympic Committee meets in Tokyo on Sept. 17 to select the Games site. The others are Manchester, England; Melbourne, Australia; Toronto, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Metaxas, as have many other Greek sports officials, recalled that the Olympics were born at Olympia in 776 B.C. and reborn at Athens in 1896.

“Morally the Games belong to us,” he said. “We don’t like to say we are the favorites.