Save the turtles!

Oh dear, oh dear. The Greek endangered turtles are in trouble. Apparently they're nesting on the beaches in August and there isn't going to be enough protection from tourists for them. Which is a terrible thing. Someone call Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello ond Raphael!

CBBC Newsround: Greek turtles lose to Olympics

How it looks from outta space!

Hey up folks

Spent the weekend at Glastonbury Festival. Now somewhat dazed and confused. But happy.

Check this out - amazing views of the Olympics from space (go to the link then click on the Athens Olympics link).

BBC SPORT: In Pictures

Sad news

According to reports, an Albanian electrician has been killed during construction work at the journalists' village for the Games, taking the total number of workers killed to 19 in Games-related construction since 2001.

I really hope the organisers make some effort during the Games to pay tribute to these 19 men. It really is a tragedy that so many have died and they deserve to be recognised at the very event they lost their lives for.

Back, back, back!

Hey up. Yup, I'm back from Portugal, where I had a marvellous time watching Croatia v Switzerland, Bulgaria v Sweden, Czech v Latvia and England v Switzerland at Euro 2004. Great to see Greece doing so well too.

So what's happening on the Olympic front? Well, if I'm totally honest I'm not completely back up to speed yet. I believe the torch has just left Canada and flown to Europe and that various trials have been happening and that an Aussie cyclist has been banned from the games (or something). But no one seems to be talking much about security at the moment and, with the roof now on, there isn't so much worrying about things being ready (well, apart from the marathon route).

This may, then, officially be The Calm Before The Storm. The little bit of time where everyone's attention is diverted by Wimbledon and Euro 2004 before we all get really excited/anxious/worried/cynical about the games once July comes and we're just a few weeks away.

Muchos news

So I haven't posted for a couple of days and so very much has happened. Yes folks, it's time for another quick-fire Olympics catch up.

THE NAME'S BOND, GOOD PR BOND...
Sean Connery met Athens 2004 president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki today. And in a nice pro-Olympics love-in, announced, 'I definitely want to come. I am sure the Games are going to be a huge success because they will be different, because Greece is different. For example, see how successful the Games were for Australia and even Los Angeles, its also great that it is here in Europe.' Which is nice.

THE FOOTBALL MUST BE ON COS THEY'VE MADE THE DRAW
After some talk last month that the football competition might be postponed because of arguments between the IOC and FIFA over doping policy, it seems it must be on, cos they made the draw yesterday. In the men's 16-team draw, Greece were drawn in a group against South Korea, Mali and Mexico. Which is also nice.

OLYMPIC FLAME REACHES CHINA
Apparently the plane carrying it is called ‘Dias’, which may or may not be Greek for fire-proof aircraft. The torch relay began yesterday in Tiananmen Square - presumably the Chinese were hoping for some rather more positive coverage for the square than it had 15 years ago last week.

AUSTRALIANS GET CROSS AT ME FOR JOSHING ABOUT THEM
A couple of people have posted in comments that I was harsh in what I said about the Australian government warning people not to travel to Greece for the Olympics. I've got absolutely no problem with them warning people if they think/know there are definite risks, it just seems odd to me that no other country (as far as I know) has followed suit. But glad to hear from the Aussie correspondents that the torch relay went well.

MAIN STADIUM OPENS FOR TEST EVENT
That's happening today. But only a few thousand people are watching the athletics because there are only a few thousand seats ready. Still, at least they've got a roof.

I'M OFF TO EURO 2004 ON SATURDAY FOR A WEEK
Which I'm looking forward to. Although it may mean I don't have too much access to the net for updates.

THE SUN IS SHINING IN LONDON
Which doesn't happen as often as it should.

Steve and Jo's Olympic volunteering adventure...

Hey up. Got a nice e-mail from a British fella called Steve, who lives in Athens with his wife Jo - in a flat within sight of the Olympic stadium. They're volunteering to be, well, volunteers at the Games and they've set up a weblog to recount their experiences. Judging by their postings so far it's shaping up to be an entertaining and enlightening read.

I've added it to the links over yonder there on the left - tis well worth a look.

More Opening Ceremony news...

...apparently a certain kooky and extremely talented Icelandic songstress is playing the opening ceremony too (as well as the sitar player mentioned below).

We're giving you Olympic exclusives and everything!

Ladies and gents the torch is on the move...

Yup, it started in Sydney this morning and will now go to 33 cities in 34 days (hmm, so which favoured city is staying for a couple of days in?). Apparently the flame's going on planes in a lantern. Are they really letting a lit lantern on a plane? Seems unlikely somehow. But I guess we'll have to take their word for it.

Apparently Sydney folk got very excited when the flame turned up from Athens this morning - so it seems, their government may not think it's safe for Aussies to go to Greece for the Games, but they're fine about a plane turning up with a fire on it.

The other odd thing is that the flame gets back to Athens on July 9 and then waits around until the opening ceremony on August 13. I guess after all that rushing about the globe the flame needs to chill for a while. Y'know, get over its jetlag before the big day.

We have a roof!

By the time you read this (well, assuming you haven't built a time machine out of a DeLorean - no, hang on, if you had and you went back in time, I wouldn't have already typed this, anyway...) the roof will have been finished on the main Olympic Stadium.

So, hurrah! Huzzah! And well done you Greek builders!

All you doomsayers that said it would never be done should glance humbly down at the floor and feel a little silly.

Yay.

Torch songs

Apparently when the Olympic torch comes to London this month, it'll be the first time it's been here since 1948. So London has decided to throw a party. And quite a big party at that. On June 26 there's a massive free concert for 70,000 on the Mall headlined by Rod Stewart and also featuring the likes of Will Young, Jamelia, James Brown and Emma Bunton. Full story at...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/showbiz/articles/11094248?source=Evening%20Standard

No doubt with the bid to host the 2012 Games shaping up, the British Olympic Committee will be hoping the IOC are impressed (presumably they'll be allowed front row seats!).

Just the tickets

So the Olympics tickets went back on sale yesterday to residents of the European Union with the news that of the total 5.3 million tickets (3 million for the public and 2.3 million for International Olympic Committee officials, sponsors and others) only 1.83 million had been sold so far.

Clearly word got around, because having made my online 'shopping list' for some tickets on the very swanky athens2004.com site last night, the website couldn't let you go to the check out because of the high demand. They've done this thing where once you go through to the check out you get three minutes to complete the order or those tickets get released and you have to start again. Problem was it kept telling you your time had run out before the order page even came up. After about an hour they replaced that with an internal error message page saying demand was too high, but it still couldn't get through.

So, got up bright and breezy this morning and made it through to the check out first time. At which point - with three minutes remaining to get the order in - we discover that the only credit card they're accepting is Visa, presumably because they're a sponsor, which seems very bizarre. The Euro2004 football tournament is sponsored by MasterCard and they make it clear that that's the preferred card, but you can still use Visa and others. So, being as I don't have a Visa I had to holler for my girlfriend to bring hers in and the application went through. Then we had a bit of a panic that as the order wasn't in her name but the card was we might have a problem so we rang the Olympics Tickets Customer Service number in Greece, where after some initial doubt they assured us that it would definitely be fine. Let's hope so.

We already had tickets for football, tennis and track and field and we bought some more football, badminton, beach volley, volleyball, basketball (amazingly there were still tickets left for a session in which both Greece and the USA play matches) and archery (ten euros a ticket to get to see one of the events happening in the old 1896 Olympic Stadium). It's a very easy to navigate website and there do seem to be tickets available for most events - quite reasonably priced too (most around 20 Euros), until you get to the finals.

Feel quite excited now. Really loooking forward to seeing so many different sports. If you include cycling (no tickets needed for the races around Athens on Sunday Aug 14) and hockey (we're waiting for the fixtures so that we can see GB play) we're going to see nine different events! Can't wait.

There's good news and bad news...

Hey up, I'm back from Paris (yeah, had a lovely time, thanks for asking). Two big stories today, one good, one bad.

Let's go with the bad one first - from the Sydney Morning Herald (those Aussies really don't seem to be getting in the spirit). According to the story, costs are spiralling out of control because of the extra security measures being taken. No great surprise really I suppose. The story also talks about US Federal Agents coming to protect US athletes. So that should help Lyndsay rest easy. Then again, maybe not. Full story below...

smh.com.au: Athens Olympics facing $1.7bn budget blowout

And the good news? Ah, that would be that according to IOC president Jacques Rogge the Games will definitely be ready to start on time. Which is good to know for those of us that have spent a small fortune on flights to get to Athens for Aug 13. Be a blummin' shame if we got there only to find little posters up in the airport asking us to come back next month, Full story below...

tsn.ca: Rogge says Athens on schedule

Greetings from Paris...

Hello from a net cafe in Paris where they have a confusing keyboard with an AZERTY as opposed to a QWERTY one. They also have signs up bigging up their bid for the 2012 Games, which we do not have in London.

Funnily enough the big Olympic news of the day comes from outta Paris, with the news that Lyndsay Davenport, who won tennis gold in Atlanta in 1996 and who is in Paris for the French Open, has said she might not come to Athens.

"It's an awkward feeling going somewhere where maybe Americans aren't really wanted," she said.

Which is a pretty ridiculous thing to say. Is she saying that Athenians do not want Americans there? Or the public in general? 0r sports fans? As someone who is going to the tennis finals at the Games, I was hoping to just see the best players. Lyndsay needs to realise that there is a difference between being afraid to go somewhere because of the possible threats from a tiny minority and not being wanted there by the overwhelming majority.

I hope she still comes.

Bits and bobs from the Beeb

Couple of interesting stories from the BBC's Olympic site (www.bbc.co.uk/olympics).

Firstly, according to British Olympic chief Simon Clegg, Britain are expecting to win between 6 and 9 gold medals this summer, compared to the 11 we won at Sydney (which was our best for 80 years). Not quite sure what 9 events he's thinking of - off the top of my head I'm guessing the women's marathon and a bit of rowing are involved, but I can't think of 9 realistic possibles.

Secondly, another article tells of the 2 hour security checks fans can expect to face before each Olympic event they go to - although presumably they're just saying you should make sure you get there 2 hours before the events start in order to make sure. Interesting fact right at the end of the article too - apparently 'About 1.9m out of a total 5.2 million tickets have been sold so far.' Which means 3.3 million are up for grabs when they go back on sale in June. If Mr Clegg would only specify which shooting, sailing or, perhaps, arm-wrestling events he's got marked down for GB wins then I could get myself on the golden trail!

Shall we play catch up? Yes, let's.

Hey up

I've been away for a few days (San Francisco, very nice thanks) so I've not managed to update since last week. So, it's time for an Olympic catch up in Athens2004blog.com Headline News:

GRUMPY GREEK SAN FRANSISCO CAB DRIVER WORRIES ABOUT OLYMPIC SECURITY WHILE DRIVING ME TO BAR TO WATCH FA CUP FINAL AT 7AM
Oh yes, he's quite concerned about the whole security issue. And he wouldn't believe me that tickets for the events are reasonably easy to come by or that some of them are quite cheap. Oddly, he didn't seem to speak Greek either. But he did keep bursting into song, albeit somehow grumpily.

GREEKS VERY ANNOYED ABOUT AUSTRALIA ISSUING TRAVEL WARNINGS
The Aussies keep saying it might not be safe to travel to the Games and the president of the Greek organising committee isn't best pleased. According to Gianna Angelopoulos, 'One of our Olympic Advisory group partners, Australia, chose the middle of an overwhelmingly successful IOC coordination commission meeting to release a warning regarding travel to Greece. And I worry that harm is being done to the Olympic Games. I'm concerned that we sent an inconsistent message to those who wish us ill. Telling them incorrectly that there are holes in Athens security procedures, and that our preparations can be circumvented when all of our preparations are designed to achieve the opposite, is bad security strategy.'

DOWNER BY NAME, DOWNER BY NATURE
In response the Aussie Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he stood by the advice. Humbug.

AFGHAN GIRL POWER
Nice cheery story this (ironically coming on the day that The Independent newspaper tells of the worsening situation in Afghanistan) about two women who will be the first females ever to compete for Afghanistan at the Olympics. For the full story see the link:
Reuters.com: Two Afghan Girls Bid For History At Athens Olympics

SITARIST ROCKS THE OPENING CEREMONY
Indian sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar - a disciple of Ravi Shankar - will be playing one of Shankar's tunes at the ceremony, as the flags unfurl.

AND FINALLY... THE OBLIGATORY SECURITY STORY
Apparently the United States are providing the Greeks with nuclear detection equipment to help guard the Olympics against a 'dirty bomb'. The machines cost $2.6 million, proof beyond reasonable doubt that the annoying woman sitting across the aisle from me on the plane home today was wrong when she insisted that all electrical goods are ridiculously cheap in the US.

And that's about it at the moment. Hope y'all are doing good. And let's have some comments - those helpful people at Blogger.com made them work (for some reason they weren't) so you might as well take advantage of them!

Security insurance

Just saw this on the Washington Time's website about NBC...

"For the first time, the threat of violence has led the International Olympic Committee to take out an insurance policy if the Games are canceled by war, terrorism or natural disaster. If the Games are called off, the International Olympic Committee will refund NBC's $793 million rights fee. Also, NBC's production costs are insured by a $160 million policy."

Which is interesting, but, I guess, just realistic on the IOC's part.

Now, where did all that good news get to?

Security Comment

Latest security update from yesterday's English edition of Greece's main right-leaning newspaper Kathimerini.

"Greek troops will be stationed across the country’s railway network during the Olympic Games, providing additional security to that provided by specially trained forces at stations, Transport Minister Michalis Liapis said yesterday. The troops will guard sensitive intersections, fuel tanks, tunnels and railway facilities. Liapis requested this of Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos at a meeting yesterday. Officials from the ministries of Defense, Transport and Public Order will meet within the week to plan this.

In Lausanne, after briefing the IOC’s executive board, Athens 2004 Organizing Committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said, “Greece has the budget, the personnel and the security strategy we need to do everything humanly possible to protect the Olympic Games.” Sources in Athens said Greek officials last week refused a request by some countries to bring their own armed guards and that their athletes not stay at the Olympic Village."
(source: www.eKathimerini.com)

Sounds like they're getting it all together. Let's hope so anyway.

In other Olympics news...

...London is one of the five shortlisted cities for the Olympcs 2012 (alongside Paris, New York, Madrid and Russia). Being as I live in London, I feel like I should throw my weight behind the campaign on the miniscule offchance that the head of the IOC is a regular reader af Athes2004blog.

LONDON FOR OLYMPICS 2012. RA RA RA! EVEN THOUGH PARIS, NEW YORK AND MADRID ARE ALL GREAT CITIES TO VISIT. RA RA RA! AND I'D LOVE TO GO TO MOSCOW SOMEDAY TOO. RA RA RA! BUT VOTE LONDON.

I'll stop now.

BBC SPORT: Olympics 2012 - London Survives Cut

No! Say it isn't so!

Oh dear, oh dear. The very day that England announced their squad for Euro2004, my football-anticipation-joy comes right back down to earth with the news that the Olympic football (or soccer to anybody reading this in the US of A) tournament might be cancelled because of a row over anti-doping codes. But football is my favourite sport And I'VE GOT TICKETS FOR THE OLYMPIC FINAL! Grr. Please don't cancel it. Pretty please.

To read this horribly depressing story click below...

Foxsports News: Soccer 'may be pulled' from Olympics

Keep your stars and stripes to yourselves...

Interesting piece in the Washington Times today about how US athletes are being told not to celebrate Olympic victories by grabbing a USA flag and thrusting it boastfully around the track. The Americans are, apparently, hoping to use the Games to improve their worldwide image right now. And agressive, jingoistic flag waving would probably have the opposite effect.

"Unfortunately, using the flag as a prop or a piece of apparel or indulging in boasting behavior is becoming part of our society in sport because every night on TV we see our athletes — professional, college or otherwise — taunting their opponents and going face-to-face with each other," says Mike Moran, who's consulting the US Olympic Committee. "We are trying for 17 days to break that culture.'

Whether the athletes will play the blindest bit of notice is, of course, another matter. Full story on the link below.

WashingtonTimes.com: US athletes told to cool it at Olympics