Spirit of ’96 Hits Homer in Athens

In bone-chilling cold, Nikos Kaklamanakis ran on streets made wet by a sudden rain. At moments along his route, the flame from his torch and moonglow above were the only illumination visible Saturday night in the pitch darkness of modern Greece, no automobile headlights near enough to brighten the path or break the mood. What a sight by starlight the Acropolis is to behold.

Niki Bakoyanni waited up the way. She jogged in place until Kaklamanakis, a 27-year-old recreational sailor, came flickering into view, like a candle in the wind. Bakoyanni, also 27 and a high jumper, took hold of the torch, gripping it together with Kaklamanakis while they ran parallel into a 1,866-year-old stadium, the fire’s final European resting place before its next stop, Los Angeles.

It took one week from the time Hillary Rodham Clinton conducted the official lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia--done not with a match, but with the First Lady tilting a concave mirror so it would reflect sun rays--for this Olympic torch to be hand-delivered 1,562 miles through Greece until its ceremonial reception here Saturday.

Greeks rarely measure time in weeks, however. One hundred years, practically to the day, have been overturned in the hourglass of time since the first modern Olympic Games were conducted at Panathinaikon Stadium, a magnet-shaped arena made entirely of white marble, built shortly after--some historians say before--the birth of Christ.

This inspired the “reenactment” of those 1896 Olympics that was just staged here, with 121 athletes from 10 countries--the exact representation of a century ago--rounded up for an all-male, track-and-field-only reproduction of a history-changing event, as part of this, the Olympic centennial.

It was Athens’ way of staying involved, before an international torch relay can transport the torch to its April 27 destination in Los Angeles. From there it will travel 10,000 zigzagging miles cross-country, before reaching Atlanta for the July 19 opening ceremonies. A hundred days until Atlanta? The Greeks can do that standing on their head. Try a hundred years.

“We dedicate ourselves to the 21st Century, as well,” said Antonios Tzikas, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. “And to the gods and goddesses of our past.”

The sting of being rejected in Atlanta’s favor as host of the centennial Games has subsided greatly, particularly with the International Olympic Committee’s president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, having given what amounted to his blessing to Greece’s bid to have the Olympics here in 2004. Samaranch attended the five-hour festivities Saturday night, but it was his strong encouragement the day before that really made news here, with Samaranch also agreeing that “the wounds do not exist today.”

Taking it upon themselves to honor the heredity of the Olympic Games, the proud Greeks put together an evening of music, pageantry and 10 athletic competitions, designed to re-create as authentically as possible the conditions of the 19th-Century events.

This included equipment in the shotput and discus made of materials similar to 1896’s, with athletes forbidden to use any of today’s approved stances or styles. For safety reasons, pole vaulters and high jumpers were permitted to use up-to-date gear and methods, but old rules applied in the foot races, where anyone committing a false start was forced to step several meters backward as a handicap.

Some things don’t change in 100 years, among them Americans dominating the competition at the Athens track. Even with a piecemeal team, U.S. athletes were winners in the 100 meters (Peter Hargraves), 400 meters (Ottis Scott), 800 meters (Jason Pyrah), long jump (William Ayers), high jump (Rick Noji), pole vault (Kory Tarpening) and 110-meter hurdles, Robert Reading and Roger Kingdom running 1-2, practically neck-and-neck.

“A hundred years ago, that would have been a photo finish,” Kingdom joked, “provided somebody had invented the camera by then.”

As for the Greeks, they won one event.

Not that it mattered. Tens of thousands sat in inclement weather, chanting the republic’s name, exhorting each Greek athlete as though an actual Olympic medal were at stake, rather than the silver and bronze (no gold in 1896) knockoffs that were awarded Saturday’s winners, or the olive branches and wreaths that also recalled prizes of yore. When a Greek marathon runner arrived, no matter how late, he was given a standing ovation by his compatriots.

They also listened attentively to speeches by Greece’s president, its Olympic president and Athens’ mayor, beheld a “high priestess” and her 15 assistants as they made sacrificial tribute to the torch and, oh, yes, faithfully recited the “Ode to Spyros Loues,” without whom it wouldn’t be an Olympics.

Long before Spyros, there were heroes. Never mind 1896. Greek historians claim that not only is the official date for the commencement of the Olympic Games accepted to be 776 B.C., but further investigation suggests that they began in Minoan Crete early in the second millennium B.C., as evidenced by murals from that period depicting men wrestling, using a bow or playing with some form of ball.

Oh, and bull-leaping.

Among the ancient organized games, one of the widespread favorites, not only in Crete but in Egypt and elsewhere, was bull-leaping, in which a competitor’s five-step program consisted of: (1) grabbing the bull by the horns; (2) letting go of those horns, soon as the bull tosses his head; (3) somersaulting in the air; (4) landing on the bull’s back, and (5) jumping to the ground. Sure, but could it ever replace synchronized swimming?

Homer’s classics, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” each make reference to contests of skill. The former includes a chariot race, which Diomedes wins on a technical foul; a foot race, which Ajax loses because he slips in some blood from the sacrifices, and archery, in which contestants tie a dove with a string to the mast of a ship, then try to shoot the dove. And to think today, athletes get banned for taking cold medication.

After centuries of neglect, the Olympics resumed in 1896 in Athens’ freshly remodeled arena. The first day of those games was March 25, but a new calendar that came into use later altered that date to April 5. That’s why Friday was technically the Olympic 100th anniversary.

It wasn’t all track and field. In fact, organizers had intended the Games to encompass art, architecture, music, literature, many skills, in counterpoint to today’s frequent debates that a certain event “isn’t a real sport.” As things were, the 1896 Olympics did include lawn tennis, rifle shooting, bicycle racing and fencing, so it wasn’t all about brute strength or raw speed. (Or bull-leaping.)

All free Greeks “who had not committed murder or sacrilege” were permitted to compete. All free male Greeks, that is. Women were allowed only in horse racing, and only there as owners.

Tall or small, male or female, all Greece really wanted was a conquering hero. But as the Games began, none was to be found. A handful of American boys, principally representing the Boston Athletic Assn., began sweeping the track events. Another won the discus, barely knowing how to hold one.

It wasn’t until the fifth day, when everyone sat waiting for the leader of the marathon to arrive, that, to their astonishment, a countryman named Spyros Loues--or “Louis,” as it read in Saturday’s program--ran into the stadium first. Crown Prince Constantine and Prince George were so pleased, they ran beside him to the finish and lifted him on their shoulders. The whole town later threw a torchlight parade.

Saturday night, in re-creating circumstances down to the last detail, only those nations represented here 100 years ago (United States, Australia, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Sweden and Greece) were invited back. The stadium, with its hairpin turns made even more hazardous by the afternoon’s rain, was otherwise as solid as it was when Herod Atticus erected it in 130 A.D., although the jumbo electric scoreboard is a new wrinkle.

And, just as in 1896, virtually all of the marathon competitors for the 100th anniversary party were from Greece, so everyone could line the streets and cheer them to victory. If the triumph of Spyros Loues could be resurrected, a full century later, oh, ye gods and goddesses above, how much sweeter to recite that ode to him would be.

Twelve of the 14 marathon runners were Greeks. The winner came from Australia. The runner-up was from the United States.