It’s Sure to Be Ancient History

In a decision aimed at awakening the echoes of history while providing a nod to modern notions of gender equality, track and field’s worldwide governing body on Saturday gave the go-ahead to a plan to hold the men’s -- and women’s -- shotput events at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Olympia, site of the ancient Games.

The International Assn. of Athletics Federations’ ruling council, meeting in Berlin, approved a plan pushed by organizers of the 2004 Athens Games as a way of tying the ancient Games to the modern.

The inclusion of the women’s event means that women will compete for the first time in Olympia. Only men took part in the ancient Games. The original Greek plan for 2004 had been to hold only the men’s event in Olympia, and it remained unclear Saturday what pressures led to the addition of the women’s event as well.

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, president of the Athens 2004 organizing committee, said the staging of the shotput events at Olympia will be a “historical moment,” adding, “All of humanity will meet, after 2,500 years, at the place where it all began.”

IAAF President Lamine Diack called the proposal a “tremendous opportunity to show a worldwide audience the purity and excitement of [track and field] competition in a sacred setting.”

The International Olympic Committee must ratify the IAAF decision. That approval, due perhaps as soon as early December from the IOC’s executive board, is expected to be a formality. The IOC has long made clear that international federations such as the IAAF are in charge of the sports themselves at the Games.

Moving the shotput events from Olympic Stadium in Athens to Olympia involves a slew of logistical considerations.

Owing to archaeological and historical concerns, for instance, there will be no video scoreboards or temporary bleachers installed at the ancient site, and spectator access will be “controlled,” officials said.

Olympia is a sleepy village located on the Peloponnese peninsula, a four-hour drive from Athens.

The athletes -- 32 men, 32 women -- are likely to be flown from Athens to a military airfield near Olympia, then housed at the International Olympic Academy, an Olympia-based research and academic arm of the IOC.

Competition will be held Aug. 18 or 19, a day or two before the start of track and field competition at Olympic Stadium. Preliminaries will take place in the morning, finals in the afternoon -- to avoid installing lights.

Only seven TV cameras will be used instead of the dozens arrayed around Olympic Stadium, and most of those seven will be portable.

Medal ceremonies for the men’s and women’s events will take place Aug. 20 at Olympic Stadium in Athens, as originally scheduled.