The Athens crisis has been off our collective radar screens for awhile, but it hasn't gone away. My local Sunday paper had an article that read, in part:
"From the optimisitic view of the local organizers, the web of Olympic projects is finally taking shape...[But] then there's the darker take on Athens: almost nothing for the 2004 Games is actually finished with less than 10 months left, and even the smallest glitch could be catastrophic.
"...IOC inspectors were duly impressed. But what still troubles them is the precarious balance that could be easily upset with no time for alternative plans.
"...Some of the biggest holes remain in security planning..."
With apologizes in advance to Pego & CO., one needs to ask yet again if the Olympics is sustainable in this day and age. We know that a closed, authoritarian state (e.g., China) can pull it off, but can ANY single city in an open society really do it anymore? I sincerely hope that Athens surprises us all and does a wonderful job. I have my doubts, however, and am fearful about the last point raised in the quote above. A track & field WC is too small for the bad guys to bother with. An Olympics, on the other hand, is entirely too "perfect" a target. In an age when smaller may well be better, the Olympics is the Hummer of the sports world.
Do we run the risk of the modern Olympic movement beginng and ending at Athens?
"From the optimisitic view of the local organizers, the web of Olympic projects is finally taking shape...[But] then there's the darker take on Athens: almost nothing for the 2004 Games is actually finished with less than 10 months left, and even the smallest glitch could be catastrophic.
"...IOC inspectors were duly impressed. But what still troubles them is the precarious balance that could be easily upset with no time for alternative plans.
"...Some of the biggest holes remain in security planning..."
With apologizes in advance to Pego & CO., one needs to ask yet again if the Olympics is sustainable in this day and age. We know that a closed, authoritarian state (e.g., China) can pull it off, but can ANY single city in an open society really do it anymore? I sincerely hope that Athens surprises us all and does a wonderful job. I have my doubts, however, and am fearful about the last point raised in the quote above. A track & field WC is too small for the bad guys to bother with. An Olympics, on the other hand, is entirely too "perfect" a target. In an age when smaller may well be better, the Olympics is the Hummer of the sports world.
Do we run the risk of the modern Olympic movement beginng and ending at Athens?
Comment