Greeks scrambling to get Athens ready for Olympics

[Inkara1]

Plenty of Work Left Before Athens Olympics

ATHENS, Greece - The sprint to the Olympics is being run through an obstacle course.

Frantic work — including on the main stadium — slogs on in mud, through rainstorms and at night. Roads and squares are ripped up for repaving or new rail lines. Cement mixers and cranes snarl city traffic. Whirlwinds of dust spin through neighborhoods.

Ready or not, the Athens Games will start 100 days from Wednesday.

"My major challenge is the same as that faced by everybody else involved in games preparations: Stay focused and make every minute count, because we don't have a moment to lose," chief Athens Olympics organizer Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said.

Preparations for these games have been racked by delays and glitches. Four years ago, about the biggest last-minute concern officials in Sydney had was planting flowers outside arenas.

And for Athens' 4 million residents, the frustrations and burdens of living in a giant work-in-progress could get worse before the Aug. 13-29 Olympics begin.

Source

They're so far behind that the 2004 Olympics are in danger of not being declared the "best Olympics ever."

 

[Gonz]

Bad timing Inky.

Three bombs have exploded outside a police station in the Greek capital, Athens, just 100 days before the start of the Olympic Games.
They injured a policeman and badly damaged the station in the central district of Kalithea, near several hotels to be used by Olympic officials.

 

[Oz]

Hell, all they need is a field for the lads and lasses to run around on

Don't see wot all the panic is about...

 

[MrBishop]

Well...it's the OLYMPICS and it's coming back to it's point of origin, so as Olympics go...it HAS to be a big deal.

On the other hand...all those people who are ocmplaining now won't be when all the money from the Olympics starts rolling in. This is a huge cash-cow for any city that holds it...Athens won't be any different.

 

[Professur]

Really Bish? So when does the Big Owe get paid off?

 

[MrBishop]

It was paid off years ago...or rather, would've been if the politicians hadn't diverted the moneys towards other 'more important' matters...such as $100k offices for the Mayor etc...

The 1976 Olympic Games return to the American continent to be hosted by Montreal, Canada. In an attempt to avoid any repetition of events like Munich, the Canadians invested 100 million dollars for security. With an original budget of 300 million dollars, the city of Montreal is still paying the expenses of the ’76 Games, which exceeded $1.5 billion. The mechanical roof of the Olympic stadium was not completed until 1985, and never worked properly. Despite this the Games were a great success, with 6000 athletes from 88 countries participating in 198 events. This participation would have been the highest ever, if, at the last minute, 32 countries mainly from the African continent, had not withdrawn in a show of protest for the participation of New Zealand in the Games. The African countries had asked for a ban on New Zealand because it national rugby team had toured South Africa, a country under the racist Apartheid regime. The request was denied and these countries withdrew.

[size=-1]Competitively, the highlight of the Games was the performances in gymnastics by a 14 year-old girl from Romania, Nadia Comaneci. She made history as the first athlete who was given a perfect score in Olympic Game history. In particular, she received 4 tens in the uneven bars, the most difficult event in gymnastics. The final medal count for Comaneci and Romania was 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.

If they'd left the fuckin' roof alone, and spent the taxes on paying back the debt instead of on idiocy... that big ol' toilet bowl for aliens would've been paid off by now. Beurocrats!!
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[Rose]

well ... if you're a fan/reader/whatever of John Titor (time traveler), then this will be the last olympics for quite a while anyway ...