Athens Changes Some Venues

The Greek government scrapped plans Thursday to build a seaside sports complex to be used during the 2004 Olympics and will move the venues to other locations.

The decision was the latest retreat from plans approved in November by the International Olympic Committee when it sent an inspection team to review Athens’ long-delayed preparations for the games.

At the time, the IOC warned Athens’ organizers that construction deadlines were very tight and that additional delays would endanger the games.

Another team of IOC inspectors, headed by executive board member Jacques Rogge of Belgium, will arrive for a two-day update on Feb. 15. During his November visit, organizers had assured Rogge that all venue locations had been made final.

“Jacques Rogge knows about it,” Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said of the decision, made at a Cabinet meeting. “There are no delays, we have said this repeatedly.”

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, head of the 2004 organizing committee, was not present at the four-hour meeting, which was open only to Cabinet members. The organizing committee had no comment on the venue changes, and it was unclear if its members had been consulted.

Also Thursday, NBC, still smarting from criticism over the tape-delayed Sydney Games, has asked Athens organizers to consider changing the starting times of some events. Athens is seven hours ahead of the East Coast.

Sports federations would have to approve any time changes, a point discussed during a meeting between Peter Diamond, NBC’s senior vice president for Olympic programming, and Athens organizing committee executive director Spyros Capralos.

“For NBC, shifting the events later into the evening is ideal because of the time- zone difference between Athens and the United States. Both parties stressed that cooperation with sports federations will be key to any such arrangements,” Athens 2004 organizers said in statement Thursday.

No details of the network’s request were made available, and NBC Olympics officials were traveling and could not be reached for comment.

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Carol Anne Letheren, an IOC member and chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Assn., was in critical condition at Toronto after collapsing at an awards banquet.

She was taken to the intensive care unit of St. Michael’s Hospital.