Olympics news round-up...

Mornin'. Time for a quickfire round-up methinks...

GREEK SPRINTERS SUSPENDED
As you've probably heard by now, Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou - the Greek sprinting heroes - were pulled out of the Olympics by Greek team bosses. Which is pretty much all any of the Greeks are talking about here - and they're not best pleased.'From hero to zero' seems to have become a popular phrase. Good follow-up piece to the one I posted earlier from the UK's Independent newspaper here.

STADIUM LOOKS AMAZING
We went past it on the Metro yesterday - you wouldn't believe the difference from March (building site) to now (stunning world class sporting venue). On the way back, we got off the train to have a look, but you can't get near the complex of venues without tickets. Which leads us to...

BRITISH TABLOID EXPOSES 'SECURITY LAPSES'.
The Sunday Mirror is reporting that an undercover reporter of theirs was able to get a job at the Olympic stadium and plant suspect packages which weren't discovered. You can read about the story
here on BBC News. I know this is investigative journalism, but if they did really put suspicious packages in the stadium before the ceremony, that was hugely irresponsible. If they'd been discovered in the minutes before the ceremony, that would have caused chaos. From what I could tell when we looked at the stadium yesterday, security was very tight - each spectator was going through X-ray machines.

YOUR OPENING CEREMONY QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
Vix (our chuffed competition winner) has written to ask if, at the Opening Ceremony, the athletes all had to stand in the middle of the stadium until everyone had paraded in. They certainly did - some of them were stood there for a couple of hours. But here's a fact for you - normally Greece are the first country in (cos they invented the Games). This time, though, they're hosts - who always come last. So they sent a weightlifter round with a Greek flag at the very start (to keep up that part of the tradition) and then sent their team round at the very end. How pleased must any Greek athlete who's been to a few Games have been not to have to come out first this time?!

ANOTHER QUESTION
Meanwhile Kyle - who's also from Philly and was very impressed with Robin's diving skills - has asked if there was a musical/theatrical spectactular AFTER the torch lighting, "i.e. Three Tenors in Barcelona, rock n blues fest in Atlanta, etc." No, don't think so Kyle. And was the Three Tenors concert really the same night as the flame lighting? Wouldn't that overshadow the ceremony a bit?

WE'RE SET TO SAMPLE THE CORPORATE LIFE
I stil don't quite understand how/why, but a friend of my fiance's dad has (very kindly) sorted us out with some places on the Visa hospitality programme. We'll be staying in a hotel in Athens for four days from tomorrow - will be interesting to see how the other half live! It also means we might get tickets to another event. I feel another competition coming on...