Athens Prepares For Olympic Party Under Unprecedented Security Blanket

by Rob Woollard
ATHENS, Aug 11 (AFP) - A seven-year marathon to prepare Athens for the greatest sporting show on earth - the Olympic Games - was nearing completion Wednesday as an unprecedented security blanket smothered the Greek capital.
Tens of thousands of athletes, officials and media have descended on Athens for the 17-day sporting extravaganza, which opens Friday under the shadow of the ancient Acropolis and will close on August 29.
The contrast from the last Olympics to be held in Greece, 108 years ago, could not be starker.
The first games of the modern era in 1896 saw around 250 athletes representing 11 nations taking part at a total cost estimated at 500,000 US dollars in today`s prices.
But on Friday a mammoth 10,000 athletes representing 202 countries will march together to begin just over a fortnight of competition that is costing a record-breaking 7.2 billion dollars to stage.
A large chunk of that budget - 1.5 billion dollars - is to be spent on a security operation that will make the 2004 Olympics the most tightly guarded sporting event in history.
"We`ve created an environment which is hostile to any threat. What we have done is huge, but an absolute guarantee does not exist," a high-ranking security official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
A total of 100,000 security personnel, or 10 for every athlete, will be on duty at the games, a massive show of strength aimed at deterring terrorists.
NATO has provided AWACS aircraft which began combing airspace around Athens on Tuesday while a massive Swiss-built zeppelin equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment has hovered over the city since July 23.
The United States Sixth Fleet and gunboats from Turkey and Italy meanwhile have been entrusted with defending the waters surrounding Greece.
In addition to Olympic athletes, officials and spectators, Greece will welcome some 70 heads of state and royalty during the Games, including former US president George Bush, who arrived in northern Greece on Tuesday.
Bush Senior is to head the US delegation of dignitaries who will reside on luxury ocean liner, the Queen Mary II, which on Wednesday arrived in the port of Piraeus, where a total security lockdown is in place.
Teams of elite military divers are on standby and other cruisers hosting VIPS have been ringed with floating protective barriers to head off maritime suicide bombers.
Fears that Al-Qaeda or other Islamic militant groups may attempt to stage a terrorist spectacular have prompted some athletes to stay away from the first Olympics since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
For the first time in history, the International Olympic Committee has taken out a 170 million dollar insurance policy to cover the games being cancelled in the event of a terrorist attack.
While the unparalleled security is the most visible legacy of 9/11, other less obvious imprints will be seen in the myriad sports arenas.
Afghanistan will be welcomed back into the Olympic fold after being kicked out during the reign of the harsh Taliban regime, which was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001 following Al-Qaeda`s strikes on the United States.
The Taliban`s ban on female participation in sport was behind the IOC`s decision to suspend Afghanistan -- but women`s 100m entrant Robina Muqimar is likely to be carrying the country`s flag in Friday`s opening ceremony.
Afghanistan`s flag will flutter proudly alongside the colours of East Timor for the duration of the Olympics. East Timor only gained independence two years ago since splitting from Indonesia in 1999.
Political overtones will also be seen by the South and North Korean teams marching together at Friday`s opening ceremony.
The two teams will carry the same flag in a display of unity between the two nations which remain technically at war.
While games organisers are hoping nations will abide by an Olympic truce during the sporting festival, they have made no secret of their determination to wage war on doping cheats.
The blue riband sport of athletics has been rocked by a doping scandal over the past year that has embroiled some of the biggest names in the sport, including the world`s fastest man Tim Montgomery and his girlfriend Marion Jones, a three-time gold medallist in Sydney.
Montgomery failed to make the United States team but Jones will be in Greece, competing in the long jump.
Though athletics doping scandal has tarnished the sport, IOC President Jacques Rogge said the rash of drugs cases was a positive development.
" ... this is an encouraging sign that the fight against doping is gaining ground and that it is becoming increasingly hard to cheat," said Rogge.
Evidence that the IOC`s hardline was working came late Tuesday when Kenyan boxer David Munyasi became the first athlete to be thrown out of the games after testing positive for a banned stimulant.
With athletics battling a drug scandal, the focus of sporting interest over the next two weeks could well be in the swimming pool, where American prodigy Michael Phelps will attempt to equal Mark Spitz`s seven golds from 1972.
One of the barriers standing in Phelps` way is Australia`s Ian Thorpe, who is scheduled to meet the American in the 200m freestyle final on August 16 already being dubbed the `The Race of the Century`.
And after a slow start, the Olympics appear to be gradually capturing the imagination of the host nation, with sluggish ticket sales picking up.
Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, president of the ATHOC organising committee, said on Wednesday 89,000 tickets were sold the previous day, including 21,900 for football and 15,000 for the athletics events.
A total of 2.6 million tickets out of an estimated 5.3 million tickets for the 31 sports have been sold so far.
ATHOC spokesman Michalis Zacharatos dismissed concerns that venues for some sports may be half full.
"We set a target for revenues of 183 million euros, which represents between 3.1 and 3.4 million tickets," Zacharatos told a media conference. "So far we have exceeded the 2.6 million mark and more are being sold each day."
In team news, the US challenge in the Olympic tennis tournament weakened further when former world number one Serena Williams followed Jennifer Capriati by abruptly withdrawing from the women`s tournament.
No reason was given for the withdrawal of Williams, who has been bothered by a knee injury recently.