Greece Might Not Be Up to Olympian Task

So much time has passed and so little is on the ground to show for it here in the chosen site of the 2004 Olympic Summer Games that International Olympic Committee officials have once again begun quietly to speak of “contingencies.”

Publicly, IOC officials remain steadfast in their public support for Athens, even though construction of buildings, roads and hotels remains behind schedule and security concerns have flared anew in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“We’re not going to move the Games,” newly elected IOC President Jacques Rogge said Tuesday. “This speculation is absolutely stupid. I know it comes up once in a while. But we’re not going to move the Games. We will be in Athens.”

Behind the scenes, however, as the IOC today begins a three-day inspection here, anxiety is evident. Some Greeks closely involved in Games planning are even beginning privately to express doubt that the country can complete its plans to stage the Olympic Games.

Said one, “Some things will be done, some will not. Some things are less crucial than others.”

At a regularly scheduled government meeting last week, socialist Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis acknowledged problems with the pace of Games-related construction; in Greece the government oversees such construction.

The lack of progress that will confront the IOC’s 44-member inspection team, dubbed a “coordination commission,” has fueled talk of what to do if the facilities, roads and railways needed to stage the Games are not in place.

Temporary structures instead of permanent ones? Berths on cruise ships instead of hotel rooms? Beds instead of rooms?

“At the end, we will have to take what is available,” said one influential IOC member, speaking on condition of anonymity and stressing that contingency planning has not formally begun.

A tour through the notorious Athens traffic shows visible progress at just four venues: the Olympic Village, a weightlifting hall, a wrestling and judo center, and the rowing course.

Work has been fitful. At the weightlifting hall, the bulldozers didn’t move in until Aug. 10. Construction at the Village was stalled for most of the summer in a dispute over various demands issued by contractors; work resumed only on Sept. 10. The rowing course remains the subject of protests by environmentalists.

Meantime, about 2,000 hotel rooms still remain to be found for members of the so-called “Olympic Family,” according to Greek officials. For Olympic fans, few rooms will be available in or near central Athens; they more likely will have to find lodging as far as 30 or 40 miles away.

A light-rail system is due to link central Athens with the shoreline to the south. An IOC-retained expert has reported that it is “feasible” construction might finish in time for the Games. But, according to one IOC insider, the expert then said it would be the fastest-built rail project he has ever seen.

“I understand they want to see buildings coming up out of the ground,” said Costas Cartalis, the government official in charge of monitoring day-to-day Games planning. “Believe me, this is also a major reassurance for us.”

The two Greek ministers most responsible for directing Games-related construction said the project is on its way.

“The difficult part is over,” public works director Costas Laliotis, said. “All the projects now have an acquired speed. Nothing can stop them.”

Echoed Evangelos Venizelos, the culture minister, “We have--like all other countries in the world--legal, environmental and archaeological problems. Now we have the solutions. We absolutely will be ready.”

But Venizelos also said, “If we must prepare contingency plans, we can do it .... We must be optimists but simultaneously prepare a pessimist’s script.”

The IOC visit comes amid intensified security concerns for the 2004 Games in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Greece has porous borders and thousands of miles of coastline. Since 1975, it has also been home to a terrorist group called 17 November, which has killed 22 people, including four Americans. No one has ever been arrested.

Wreaths and flowers have decorated the lawn outside the U.S. Embassy here since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. But a strain of anti-Americanism can be found.

A few fans of a Greek soccer team called AEK tried before a game Thursday in Athens to burn an American flag and jeered during a minute of silence observed in memory of the victims of the attacks, according to press reports.

Last week, according to local press reports, Constantine Mitsotakis, a former conservative premier, warned that Greece could lose the 2004 Games if it doesn’t root out its own terrorism problem.Opinions about whether 17 November poses a significant threat to the Games differ. Some believe there is danger. Others, such as Mitsotakis’ daughter, Dora Bakoyannis, a leading opposition member of the Greek Parliament herself, remain to be convinced.

Her first husband, Paulos Bakoyannis, was killed by 17 November assassins 12 years ago today--Sept. 26, 1989.

But she said in an interview in a Parliament office, “They never go anywhere where there is security. They are the biggest cowards in the world. They attack only when they are sure they can get away.”

Now, the Greek security plan for the Games must include international terrorism as well.

“After the attack on America, we must predict new dangers,” said Michalis Chrysohoidis, the country’s minister for public order. Before Sept. 11, it had been widely reported that the Greek security plan for the Games would cost about $600 million and rely heavily on use of troops and surveillance cameras--and on extensive cooperation with U.S., British, Israeli and other advisors.

Chrysohoidis said Greek police were working “very closely” with the advisors. He also said, referring to the overall plan, “Of course some things are changing,” but, referring to the prospect of a terrorist attack, said, “I am not afraid of these dangers. I think we can control some things.” He declined to provide specifics.

Critics recently have begun to express concerns that additional security and other costs will send the Games’ budget skyrocketing. Fears have been expressed that Athens will end up like Montreal in 1976--left with a $1 billion cost overrun.

The government’s current Games-related budget calls for the spending of about $4 billion. Separate is the $1.7 billion operations budget of the Athens 2004 organizing committee, which goes by the acronym ATHOC.

“Financial issues are secondary,” Venizelos said. “The first priority is safety.”

Security issues are expected to be a significant focus of the IOC’s three-day meeting. But more immediate are construction worries.

In Athens, more than a dozen venues are to be built from scratch and 10 others renovated; in addition, plans now call for about two dozen road or rail projects. Though construction has resumed at the Village, it remains a concern because of the complexity and size of the project--2,292 homes, to be built at a projected cost of $300 million. Progress there will be “closely monitored,” Cartalis said.

The delays also underscore a concern Rogge has voiced repeatedly in recent months, that the Games are in danger of becoming too big for smaller countries to handle. Rogge has said he hopes to take the Games to places they have not been staged before, such as Africa and South America.

The allure of holding the games in Athens is easily understandable. Greece is home of the ancient Olympics and staged the first modern Games, in 1896. Such history and tradition are part of the fabric of life here.

The 2004 men’s and women’s marathons, for instance, are due to finish at the 1896 Olympic stadium just to the east of the Acropolis; the stadium is a short walk from the columns, still standing, that for centuries have marked the Temple of Zeus. The marathon route starts in the town of Marathon.

Imagination, however, has been slow to fire concrete results.

In April, 2000, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said the situation in Athens was the worst organizational debacle he had seen in 20 years atop the IOC.

This summer, the clock outside Athens’ main Olympic complex, which had been counting down the days until the Aug. 13, 2004, start of the Games, broke. It stayed broken for weeks. Now, with the IOC in town, it is fixed.

This morning, the clock reads 1,052 days to go.

The IOC’s focus now is on instilling a sense of urgency. Rogge and IOC member Denis Oswald, a Swiss lawyer and the new Athens coordination chief, are due today to meet with Simitis, the prime minister.

“We can’t wait and realize one year before the Games that things won’t be ready,” Oswald said. “They have the capacity. We must push them.”

A taxi driver, creeping through the Athens traffic, sighed at the monumental task that lies ahead and said, “It is a great disadvantage to the Greek people that we put everything off and put everything off. It is also a great gift of the Greek people that we manage to get everything done at the last minute.”

He paused, then added: “Usually.”