Vivid Athens Olympics Special September 2004

So it was with this modern Athens Olympic Games. It was a Games that had everything: a ëwill they or won't they be ready?' buildup that had sports fans and administrators on edge for several years, climaxing with a tongue in cheek skit that saw workmen banging nails into seats moments before the opening ceremony began; a scandal of (modern) Olympic proportions on the eve of any action, when two Greek national heroes led the world's sporting press a merry chase over a drug scandal that ended with their withdrawal from participation, much to the chagrin of the home crowd; a spectacular opening ceremony whose message seemed to be, ëYes, you underestimated us, but we Greeks forgive you, now sit back and let us entertain you'; then, for the next seventeen days and nights, amazing feats followed in dozens of sports with emotional highs and lows aplenty, rich in unforgettable experiences and lacking in petty annoyances and rivalries as the sports stars of the world strutted their stuff; and a closing ceremony that emphasised the leveling nature of sport and its ability to cut across political, racial and religious boundaries, binding us closer together. The sight of more than 200 nations marching together, honouring the Olympic truce, was one to savour. Perhaps the most telling evidence of the overwhelming sense of brotherhood were the protests that prompted the shelving of plans of first George Bush and then Colin Powell to attend. In what was a huge, fortnight long celebration of peace and goodwill, their presence was clearly unwanted. They threatened to ruin the party, and wisely changed their minds.

And entertain us the Greeks certainly did. The hero of the Games was unquestionably Michael Phelps, the nineteen-year-old swimming sensation from the United States, whose six gold medals and one bronze was the greatest Olympic achievement since Mark Spitz's seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Romania's triumphant gymnasts emphasised their supremacy with a haul of three gold medal for Catalina Ponor that had sportswriters comparing her with the world's best ever gymnast, fellow Romanian Nadia Comaneci. And I would question whether there has ever been a more successful coach in the history of the Olympic Games than the Romanian team's doyen of gymnastics, Octavian Belu. On the track, Kelly Holmes flew the British flag with gold medals in the 800 metres and 1500 metres double, as did the Moroccan superman Hicham El Guerrouj. The men's 100-metre dash was one of the all-time great finals, with two hundredths of a second seperating the winner from the third placegetter, and the three Kenyans finishing 1-2-3 in the final of the men's steeplechase was a dream come true for that country. Sportsmen and women competing in minor sports became national heroes as they took the opportunity to perform on the world's stage, and ran with it. For sports fans across Europe it negated the need to get up in the middle of the night to watch events ñ the fact that there is no time difference between Bucharest and Athens presented a real treat for anyone watching from here.

Greece was unquestionably the smallest country to be awarded the Olympics in recent memory, and don't forget that the Olympic Games has increased in size by more than 50 per cent since the Los Angeles Olympics of 20 years ago. The real winner was the country itself, which managed to host a safe, well-organised, enthralling and poignant feast of sport, peopled by 10,090 athletes, 17,500 media (a tenth of them from the American television network NBC), 45,000 security personnel, attended by millions of paying customers and watched by billions worldwide. It seemed that the only people that were missing were the terrorists, if you do not count that crazy Irish priest who knocked the leader into the crowd during the men's marathon, forcing him to drop back and finish in third place.

ëThis is an example of what we Greeks can do,' said Athens' mayor Dora Bakoyianni. Until reasonably recently Greece was regarded as the basket case of the EU. Having transformed its capital city, overhauled its transport system and charmed everyone by staging the warmest, nicest Games ever, one that was every bit the equal of the benchmark Sydney Olympics, that reputation is well and truly scotched forever.

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