Greece's Preparation Of The Olympic Games example essay topic

The reporting of Greece's successful presentation for the 2004 Olympics before the International Olympic Committee in 1997 conveyed surprise since Greece failed in its bid for the 1996 Games. Reporting immediately focused on Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki as the leader of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee and who also delivered the proposal in front of the IOC. The 2004 Olympics in Greece was a success despite the overwhelming pressure put on the Greek organizers by the IOC and international concerns for security. Articles by 2000 commented on the slow progress and offered considerable criticism after the IOC threatened to take the Games out of Athens.

The Athens Organizing Committee acknowledged the challenge in its bid to the IOC in preparing an ancient city with a modern infrastructure and the promise of having a secure Games with its projected plan to succeed on both issues but the reporting before the Games offered little assurance this would be done. Failed Bid for 1996 Summer Games The Economist correctly predicted in its 1990 article "Home again for the Olympics?" that a Greek Olympic bid committee would have to do more than rely on emotion alone to impress the IOC. The Economist reported that the European Community would pay half the cost for Greece staging the Olympics but not even a huge financial gift could make up for a government "desperately short on cash". Even a decade before September 11th, security was cited as a major factor against awarding the Games to Greece as well as Athens' poor infrastructure. A 1997 analysis for the Greek failed bid in the Sports Illustrated article "It's all Greek to them" also included a critical opinion of the presentation given by Greek actress Melina Mercouri. Both the Economist and Sports Illustrated articles stressed that the Greek Olympic bid committee did more than just fail to impress but also alienated the IOC by demanding that the Olympics must be held in the country of the Games origin and offering no constructive plan to rebuild Athens' infrastructure.

Success in Winning the 2004 Games The winning bid for the 2004 Games was built on the lessons learned from its mistakes in its pitch for the Centennial Games of 1996. "It's all Greek to them" was written shortly after Greece's successful bid for the 2004 Games and provides a contrast to the failing bid for the 1996 Games. The Sports Illustrated article portrayed Greece as giving a concrete plan to address infrastructure concerns and gave considerable amount of praise for the "riveting theater" presentation delivered by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and quotes an admiring IOC member, "Gianna did it all by herself". Most articles with mention of Daskalaki commend her as the face and driving force for the winning bid, such as Business Week's article on June 7, 2004 giving her credit for "energizing preparations for the Summer Games". Critical Analysis of the Slow Progression of Athens Build Up to the Games Acquiring the 2004 Games was only the first hurdle for the Greek organizers. The toughest task was the implementation of its proposal to the IOC.

By 2000 Greece's slow progress in reaching its proposed timetables such as construction of Olympic venues, lack of mass transit, and hotel accommodations was expressed in magazine articles with descriptive and critical titles, for example the Economist's article "Greece's Olympic Worry" October 7, 2000, "Greece Hits the Wall" by Time International July 10, 2000, and Maclean's "Olympic Mess" July 24, 2000. All three articles portray the Greek organizers as infective due to the bureaucracy of getting any task completed on time whether it was the large project of completing the Olympic Village down to even the smallest details citing the example of the former Athens Organizing Committee (ATHOC) president unable to hire a typist for over three months as reported in the Time International article. But all three articles did offer some hope that Greece would be able to cut through the red tape by the rehiring of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki to head the ATHOC. The Economist called her the "tough Cretan lawyer who masterminded Greece's Olympic bid", Maclean described her charisma and leadership, and Time International focused on her demand of having a "free hand" to force her reorganization through the bureaucracy.

While praising the decision for Daskalaki to step in the warning in these articles in 2000 was the threat by the IOC that the games might be taken away from Greece. By late 2001, Time International wrote an article focused less on the bureaucratic problems and more on the progression of the improved infrastructure. Its article "Race Against Time" published December 10, 2001, featured a short question and answer session with Daskalaki who portrayed a sense of urgency with the remaining time left until the Games. Dinah Robinson's article in the 2001 December issue of the Business Traveller described the hundreds of construction cranes and the changing attitude of getting projects done on time.

The completion of a new airport in March 2001 was cited as a major accomplishment to help the transportation concerns of the IOC and since the article was written the IOC warning of losing the Games had been lifted. On the eve of the Games Time International and Guardian Unlimited published accounts of Athens almost not finishing preparations in time. On May 24, 2004, Andrew Purvis reports in Time International an article "Athens Clears a Hurdle: The gods smile. The roof fits.

By August the games should be camera ready. Will they be visitor friendly" that provides a brief description of past setbacks and the progress made since Daskalaki reorganized and scaled back some of the more excessive projects. Duncan Mackay's article on July 23, 2004 in the Guardian Unlimited, "Athens is suddenly winning the race to be ready", gives more of a perspective by Greek officials in their quotes expressing their satisfaction at "defying predictions". Both articles express a general feeling of relief on part of all involved in the 2004 Olympics including the citizens of Athens who had to live through the construction for the past four years. Greece's Received Mixed Reviews on Security Concerns Since the 1972 Munich Games security became one of the main concerns and requirements the IOC placed on any host city.

With Greece's large coast line and its close location to the Middle East there was always a concern about the threat of terrorism. Security issues would dominant the American and British governments' fears after the September 11th attacks in the United States. While the city's infrastructure was showing progress the reviews on security were mixed almost until the beginning of the Games. The most critical of all statements is found in Maclean's 2000 article, "Olympic Mess" quoting former CIA director James Woolsey commenting that the chances of someone "getting killed" during the Olympics in Greece were "pretty good". Kerin Hope's piece "Greece Focuses On Olympic Security" is a short article explaining the concerns of terrorism in Greece less than a month after the September 11th attacks. Her focus was the anti-American extremist group November 17 (N 17) that had assassinated a British military attach'e in Greece in June 2000.

Hope reported that there were fears that N 17 would carry out more attacks on British or United States officials if the US invaded Afghanistan. Business Week's "Let the Games Begin-On Time; Will Athens be in shape for the Olympics?" by Jack Ewing also raised the issue of security in its December 15 2003 issue as being "perhaps the most enormous worry". Jack Ewing compared the budgeted $825 million budget for Greece to be more than three times the cost of the previous Summer Games in Sydney. This budget would steadily go up as the games approached. Risk Management in August 2004 reported that $1.2 billion had been spent and Information Week in the same month said that security costs would go over $1.5 billion. Jared Wade's article in Risk Management "Ready or not" was its cover story and provided details of the personnel training and technology involved in securing the Games.

Several United States athletes were quoted as security as their overwhelming concern such as Serena Williams comments, "My security and my safety and my life are a little bit more important than tennis". Wade's article was balanced with the quoting of Athens security officials and Daskalaki's statement that the Athens Games "has the budget, the personnel and security strategy we need to do everything humanly possible to protect the Olympic Games". The article covered the surveillance equipment covering the entire city as well as the training of over 70,000 security personnel. Wade also showed the international cooperation in the form of a security advisory group including the United States, Britain, France, Israel, and Australia. Even with the amount of security there were real concerns about Greek extremist groups. Wade included the bombing in Athens just 100 days before the Olympics by a group called Revolutionary Struggle meant as a warning that more bombings were to come.

Wade's article offered many comparisons to previous Olympics security preparations and used in particular the 1996 Games in Salt Lake. The general attitude expressed in the article was the seriousness that the Greek government showed by its willingness to go over budget and the level of cooperation and requested assistance from other countries. The Risk Management article is in sharp contrast to the portrayal of some of the same information expressed in Newsweek International. On March 8, 2004, less than six months before the Games it ran an article titled "Olympic Insecurity; The Athens Games will be the biggest - and most expensive-peacetime security operation ever. It's not on schedule".

Where Wade's article showed the Greeks requesting of assistance in a positive manner, Newsweek International's article is an opinionated perspective with downbeat descriptions, "Greek officials are frantically seeking help from their friends". The Newsweek International article is a more sensationalized piece focused more on opinions by using quotes to show the worries of individuals and worst case scenarios "like a crop-duster spreading sar in over the opening ceremony". Most reporting on the security was focused on the cost and the amount of personnel such as Business Week's article on June 28, 2004, "How Safe? In terrorism's shadow, Athens gears up for the most security conscious Games" that ended with a fact sheet on the breakdown of the security personnel and the resources available to the Greeks both internal and foreign assistance. Information Week's article, "Unprecedented Security Network For Olympics", on August 10, 2004, went into greater detail of the technology that would be used for policing, such as the street surveillance cameras and the software to help in identifying potential threats. The Reporting After a Successful Summer Olympics The postscript analysis was extremely supportive of the Greek's hosting of the 2004 Olympics.

Critical titles of articles before the Olympics contrast the equally enthusiastic captions such as The Banker's article on September 1, 2004, "Greece Goes For Gold and Wins - Greece's Success In Putting On The Olympic games Has Demonstrated That Small Countries Can Achieve" as well as Business Week's September 13, 2004 article, "A Big Fat Greek Triumph; The Games's uccess should help Greece's economic and cultural standing soar". The Business Week article by Jack Ewing gave an optimistic view of what lies ahead for Greece after its successful hosting of the Games. Ewing focused on the Greeks' positive outlook and his own changed perceptions of Greece following the Olympics, "Greeks shed reputation for being disorganized". As Ewing described the payoff off the Olympics as incalculable, Philip Pangalos in the Institutional Investor did try project what, if any, monetary value might the Olympics bring to Greece. In Pangalos' October 2004 article, "Greece after the party's over: can the Olympic boom be kept alive?" , he acknowledged the success for the Games but stressed that it was too soon to accurately predict whether the Games would be the financial boom that the Greek government was hoping it would become.

The article pointed out the cost of the Games and its placing of a huge burden on an already stressed Greek economy. The article portrays Greece's economy after the Olympics as the fastest growing in Europe due to the construction needed for the Olympics but reported that the economy would slow down considerably with no more vast construction taking place. Pangalos gave a mixed analysis of Greece's ability to turn its economy into a success. He does report that one area of a post-Olympic economic benefit would be tourism due to much improved infrastructure. Business magazines The Banker and Business Week as well as the Travel Trade Gazette's article, "Greece: Post-Olympic Athens", all reported on Athens much improved roads and mass transit system.

The Travel Trade Gazette article is most useful for enticing organizers of conferences by the reporting of the improved infrastructure as reason to visit a much cleaner and more accommodating city than ever before. Left over from the Olympics were the venues that could contain large conferences as well as for future sporting events. The article features the capacities of some of these venues as well as the city's more disabled visitor friendly sites due to the Paralympic Games being staged immediately after the Summer Games. Analysis of reporting on Greece's preparation of the Olympic Games follows a pattern of initial praise in Greece being awarded the Games then a sudden pessimism towards the Greek's readiness.

By 2001 there was some optimism with the appointment of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki to head the Athens Organizing Committee. The consensus of reporting on Athens' infrastructure by 2003 was that considerable progress was made but Greece might still not be ready or at most be ready only at the last minute. But reporting after September 11th replaced infrastructure with security as the main topic of concern. Greece received mixed reviews in its security preparations right up until the beginning of the Games. In the end the Greeks did succeed in its construction, transportation, security and organization in putting on the Games and perhaps most surprised were the reporters that expressed their shock in the titling of their articles immediately following the Games. It is still too soon to see the lasting payoff of the Olympics but the reporting so far is optimistic.

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