Olympic-Size Fig Leafs

Coliseum officials, preparing for Saturday morning’s start of the Olympic torch relay, were given an additional assignment this week: Cover the two statues of nude athletes outside the historic stadium.

Unable to find fig leaves large enough, officials were still trying Wednesday to determine the material they will use.

The order, sources told The Times, came down from the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. It is organizing the 84-day torch relay that concludes its 15,000-mile, 42-state journey across the United States with the lighting of the torch inside the Olympic Stadium during the July 19 opening ceremony.

Sources said Coliseum officials argued that the anatomically correct statues were important links to the stadium’s Olympic history. Modeled after a male and female athlete, they were erected for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

But Atlanta Games officials, the sources said, feared that viewers of Saturday’s nationally televised ceremony at the Coliseum would find the nudity offensive.

“They thought it was an indecent way to start their torch relay,” one said.

Atlanta Games officials were not available for comment. Several, including Chief Executive Officer Billy Payne, are in Greece to receive the Olympic flame, which will arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday morning, then be transported by helicopter to the Coliseum.

Upon arriving, it will be passed to the first torchbearer. Games officials have not revealed the identity of that person except to say that he or she is an Olympic gold medalist well known in Los Angeles. Many familiar with the ceremony speculate that it will be decathlete Rafer Johnson, the final torchbearer in 1984.