A "Critical" Look At Athens Preparation

[gh]

With all due respect to Lefteris, some of this stuff from ESPN's site is too amusing not to post.

For line of the year I nominate the part where he says IOC inspectors keep coming to town looking for evidence of "Weapons of Mass Construction"


http://espn.go.com/page2/s/woodward/030813.html

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My guess is that the ATHOC is closer to an 'ad hoc' committee. There will be much gnashing of teeth in the upcoming months as preparations will appear to fall farther behind schedule, but in the end, as every host has miraculously done, they will work 36 hours a day and it will open splendidly. It happens very 4 years. Greece feels it has something to prove for not getting the '96 Games and they will produce quite the spectacle.

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Anything has got to be better than the '76 Games preparation by our "friends" to the north.

Kurt

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Amusing! I am looking forward to visiting Greece sometime...but definitely NOT during the Olympics.

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Greece is a fantastic country. I spent a month island hopping in the Aegean (sp?) once, it's beautiful. Mind you, I got stuck on Santorini for a week as the ferry couldn't get in due to a storm...the Greeks ferry guys were hopeless. Q "Will a boat come in today?" A "Maybe" Q "When" A "Maybe one hour. Maybe one week" Q "Any better guess?" A "No" It turned out to be the latter!

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Greece is beautiful indeed, if you're island hopping. Athens in the summer is hot and unpleasant. There may be a couple of days of good sights to see, if you've never seen them, but that's it. This is not one of the world's better tourist destinations, except as a starting point for a cruise of the islands.

During the Olympics, of course, there will be the Olympics to see. But it will be as crowded, congested, and generally unpleasant as you can imagine a city being. That having been said, as miserable as it may be, it will beat staying home and watching the crumbs that NBC chooses to feed us track and field fans. I'll be there, but it won't be because I want to see Greece.

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Agree with you about Athens... noisy, congested, polluted and so on, but seeing the antiquities makes up for that, at least once. When I went the islands were unbelievable. The pictures you see of the white buildings and incredible blue sea are real and spectacular.

The last time I competed in Athens was an international vs. Greece. Apart from trying to jump with back trouble the thing I remember most was a psychotic pole vaulter, who subsequently made our "In the slammer" team, for cocaine dealing, throwing much of the furniture from my room off my 6th floor balcony. This included a fire extinguisher which damaged the hotel swimming pool. In the morning the Athens cops wouldn't let us leave the hotel until management coughed up five grand. I doubt that this type of thing goes on these days!

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Marknjh: When you write your memoirs, I will be the first in line to buy a copy! Think about it!

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>Agree with you about Athens... noisy, congested, polluted and so on, but seeing
>the antiquities makes up for that, at least once. When I went the islands were
>unbelievable. The pictures you see of the white buildings and incredible blue
>sea are real and spectacular.

The last time I competed in Athens was an
>international vs. Greece. Apart from trying to jump with back trouble the thing
>I remember most was a psychotic pole vaulter, who subsequently made our "In
>the slammer" team, for cocaine dealing, throwing much of the furniture from my
>room off my 6th floor balcony. This included a fire extinguisher which damaged
>the hotel swimming pool. In the morning the Athens cops wouldn't let us leave
>the hotel until management coughed up five grand. I doubt that this type of
>thing goes on these days!

Mark, where are you from and who was the pole vaulter?

[Law dude]

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Mark, you have a right to remain silent. :-)

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No, he has an OBLIGATION to remain silent.

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>No, he has an OBLIGATION to remain silent.

Why? I am more curious now.

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lol...see if you can find that thread from months ago about the "slammer" team, I named the PV-er there. I wasn't that good of a HJ-er but I do have a bunch of stories!

The same PV-er, who was a true nutcase, also responded to being hit with a grape at a post-meet dinner with the French team by throwing a bottle of wine back at the French team. Result was a bar brawl. Also, in Nice (I think) in the late 1970's, at another reception with the French, he had a disagreement with one of our 110mH guys. This ended up with them rolling around the ground punching the hell out of each other by a swimming pool. A Frenchie thought it would be useful to soak the Brits with a firehose from a second floor balcony. Result, UK vs. France full team brawl. These things don't make the papers! Funny it was always the French, they've not forgiven us from duffing them up at Agincourt (Henry V)!

[tafnut]

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"The same PV-er, who was a true nutcase"

Isn't that redundant? The most normal one I can think of is Hartwig and he only collects huge snakes as a hobby.

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BRAVO! These remarks are worth it. However, I agree that the Greeks will wring their hands, the IOC will cry and moan,and all will be fine when the Opening Ceremony starts. The idea of the shot put in the ancient Olympic Stadium is cool. I hope they do it!