Athens Games Still Cause for Concern

The International Olympic Committee has “serious concerns” about preparations for the 2004 Athens Games, President Jacques Rogge said Friday, and a senior aide said it’s possible that some events will be moved out of Athens.

The 2004 Games, however, will be held in Athens, Rogge stressed, saying there can be “no doubt” about that.

But Rogge, joined by Denis Oswald, a Swiss lawyer and the IOC’s point man in dealing with the Athens organizers, reiterated in uncharacteristically blunt language long-standing IOC concerns over security issues and construction delays. Nearly three years ago, then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch said so much time had been wasted that the situation even then was urgent.

A contract still has not been signed to enable the purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars of security equipment. In a domino effect, that delays the training of security personnel, and security is of “paramount” importance to the IOC, Rogge said.

The Games are to begin Aug. 13, 2004. Construction of 12 of 28 venues has been delayed and eight test events are at risk. Work has not started on the suburban soccer stadium, which has to be torn down and rebuilt. Road construction has been delayed.

The focus on security, increased since the murders of 11 Israelis at the Munich Games in 1972, has grown even more intense since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, and with the prospect of war in Iraq.

And the security challenge in Greece is formidable. Athens is a short airplane flight to and from the Middle East. Moreover, Greece has mile after mile of secluded coastline. Immediately to the northwest is Albania, a country that the 2002 CIA Fact Book describes as having “corrupt governments” as well as “a dilapidated infrastructure, widespread gangsterism and disruptive political opponents.”

Traffic in Athens is notoriously congested, and if roads aren’t finished, Oswald said dryly, “The fluidity of the traffic might be affected.” If certain sports facilities don’t get built, tents or temporary stands might have to be put up, or some events might have to be moved.

Calling that the “worst, worst, worst case scenario,” Rogge said, “We do not believe we would get there.”

Alternate venues have not been identified nor have contingency plans been readied, Oswald said, adding that in no case would an event be moved out of Greece.

“I don’t think this can be considered,” Rogge said.

“What is at stake is the quality of the Games. It’s not whether the Games will be held. It’s the quality of the Games.”

Rogge also said he’d sent a letter Friday to Prime Minister Costas Simitis describing the gravity of the situation. Asked to describe the tone of the letter, Oswald said, “Firm.”

Officials with the Athens 2004 organizing committee declined comment Friday on the IOC’s assessment. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, head of the organizing committee, departed the Chateau de Vidy, IOC headquarters on the shore of Lake Geneva, immediately after a lengthy session with the IOC’s policy-making executive board.

When Rogge visited Athens in mid-January, he was assured that progress was substantial. He told reporters then that progress was “outstanding and evident” and that the IOC saw “a great momentum.”

Having learned afterward that reality might be otherwise, and not sure whether he had been misled or had simply misjudged the situation, he -- and other senior IOC officials -- redoubled efforts for an accurate reading.

Athens was awarded the 2004 Games in 1997. In 2000, Samaranch said the first three years had essentially been wasted. Athens 2004 responded by bringing back Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, a work-at-all-hours businesswoman who had played a leading role in winning the Games.

She reorganized the local committee and stressed that no more time could be wasted, repeating that Greece had to “run a marathon at a sprinter’s pace.”

Angelopoulos-Daskalaki has frequently found herself in conflict, however, with the Greek government, and the source of the IOC’s long-running frustration has to do with the division of authority regarding preparations.

The government is responsible for major construction, infrastructure projects and security. Athens 2004 has the operational jobs -- for instance, ticketing -- that go with staging the Games.

The IOC has seen for itself, however, the benefit that can come from an arrangement in which divisions are minimized -- that is, in which the government is directly responsible for the Games.

That’s the way the Summer Games were staged at Sydney, Australia, in 2000. Samaranch called them the best ever. That’s how they will be run in China, when Beijing plays host to the Games in 2008.

Rogge said the IOC feels the “full strength of the Chinese people” aiming for 2008.

Lest the import of governmental involvement be missed, the IOC also announced Friday that Rogge is scheduled to meet Thursday in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, to discuss the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. Preparations for those Games also are lagging.

Accompanying Rogge will be Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s newly appointed executive director for the Games, and Jean-Claude Killy, the famed Olympic skier and IOC member from France who is now the IOC’s chief liaison with Turin.

Felli said Friday: “As we are seeing with the Chinese, it’s really at the highest level that the Games are [seen as] an objective for the coming years, and we have to make sure that for Italy the same -- that the Olympic Games are in the framework of the future work of the government.”