Everything about 2004 Summer Olympics totally explained
) — a tradition echoed
with this Games' medalists. The colours of
the logo come from the
flag of Greece.
|Nations participating = 201
|Athletes participating = 10,625
On
2004 November 13 the Greek embassy estimated the costs of hosting the Olympics at 8.954 billion Euros (about
$11.2 billion in 2004) not including construction made regardless of the Games, but including 1.08 billion Euros ($1.35 billion) in security costs.
NBC Universal paid the IOC $793 million for U.S. broadcast rights, the most paid by any country.
NBC made it possible for the network to broadcast over 1200 hours of coverage during the games, triple what was broadcast in the U.S.
four years earlier. Between all the NBC Universal networks (NBC,
CNBC,
MSNBC,
Bravo,
USA Network &
Telemundo) the games were on television 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Following the
September 11, 2001 attacks, concerns about
terrorism were much higher. Greece increased the budget for security at the Olympics to €970 million (US$1.2 billion). Approximately 70,000 police officers patrolled Athens and the Olympic venues during the Olympics.
NATO and the
European Union also provided minor
support, after Athens asked for co-operation.
When the
International Olympic Committee expressed its concern over the progress of construction work of the new Olympic venues, a new Organizing Committee was formed in 2000 under President
Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. In the years leading up to the Games, Athens was transformed into a city that uses state-of-the-art technology in transportation and urban development. Some of the most modern sporting venues in the world at the time were built to host the 2004 Olympic Games.
Construction of the venues
By late March 2004, some Olympic projects were still behind schedule, and Greek authorities announced that a roof it had initially proposed as an optional, non-vital addition to the Aquatics Center would no longer be built. The main Olympic Stadium, the designated facility for the opening and closing ceremonies, was completed only two months before the games opened, with the sliding over of a futuristic glass roof designed by
Spanish architect
Santiago Calatrava. The same architect also designed the
Velodrome and other facilities.
Other facilities, such as the
streetcar line linking venues in southern Athens with the city proper, were considerably behind schedule just two months before the games. The subsequent pace of preparation, however, made the rush to finish the Athens venues one of the tightest in Olympics history. The Greeks, unperturbed, maintained that they'd make it all along. By July/August 2004, all venues were delivered: in August, the Olympic Stadium was officially completed and opened, joined or preceded by the official completion and openings of other venues within the
Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA), and the sports complexes in Faliro and Helliniko.
Late July and early August witnessed the Athens Tram and Light Rail become operational, and these two systems finally connected Athens with its waterfront communities along the
Saronic Gulf, such as its port city of
Piraeus, Agios Kosmas (site of the sailing venue), Helliniko (the site of the old international airport which now contained the fencing venue, the canoe/kayak slalom course, the 14,500-seater indoor basketball arena, and the softball and baseball stadia), and Faliro (site of the taekwondo, handball, indoor volleyball, and beach volleyball venues, as well as the newly-reconstructed
Karaiskaki Stadium for football). The upgrades to the Athens Ring Road were also delivered just in time, as were the expressway upgrades connecting Athens proper with peripheral areas such as Markopoulo (site of the shooting and equestrian venues), the newly constructed
Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, Schinias (site of the rowing venue), Maroussi (site of the OAKA), Parnitha (site of the Olympic Village), Galatsi (site of the rhythmic gymnastics and table tennis venue), and Vouliagmeni (site of the triathlon venue). The upgrades to the
Athens Metro were also completed, and the new lines became operational by mid-summer.
The lighting ceremony of the
Olympic flame took place on
March 25 in
Ancient Olympia. For the first time ever, the flame travelled around the world in a
relay to former Olympic cities and other large cities, before returning to Greece.
EMI released
Unity, the official
pop album of the Athens Olympics, in the leadup to the Olympics. It features contributions from
Sting,
Lenny Kravitz,
Moby,
Destiny's Child,
Hikaru Utada and
Avril Lavigne. EMI has pledged to donate US$180,000 from the album to
UNICEF's HIV/
AIDS program in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
At least 14 people died during the work on the facilities. Most of these people were not from Greece.
Before the games, Greek hotel staff staged a series of one-day
strikes over wage disputes. They had been asking for a significant raise for the period covering the event being staged.
Paramedics and
ambulance drivers had also been protesting, as they wanted the same Olympic bonuses promised to their security force counterparts.
Mascots
Since the
1968 Winter Olympics in
Grenoble,
France it has been the tradition to have a mascot for the games; for 2004, the official mascots were sister and brother,
Athiná and
Phévos (pronounced in Greek, Athina and Fivos), named after Athena,
the goddess of wisdom, strategy and war, and Phoebos,
the god of light and music, respectively. They were inspired by the ancient
daidala which were dolls that had religious links as well as being toys.
Online coverage
For the first time, major broadcasters were allowed to serve video coverage of the Olympics over the
Internet, provided that they restricted this service geographically, to protect broadcasting contracts in other areas. For instance, the
BBC made their complete live coverage available to UK high-speed Internet customers for free; customers in the
U.S. were only able to receive delayed excerpts.
The International Olympic Committee forbade Olympic athletes, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from setting up specialized
weblogs and/or other websites for covering their personal perspective of the games. They were not allowed to post audio, video, or photos that they'd taken. An exception was made if an athlete already has a personal website that wasn't set up specifically for the Games.
NBC launched its own Olympic website, NBCOlympics.com. Focusing on the television coverage of the games, it did provide video clips, medal standings, live results. Its main purpose, however, was to provide a schedule of what sports were on the many stations of NBC Universal. The games were on TV 24 hours a day on one network or another.
Technology
As with any enterprise, the Organizing Committee and everyone involved with it rely heavily on technology in order to deliver a successful event. ATHOC maintained two separate data networks, one for the preparation of the Games (known as the Administrative network) and one for the Games themselves (Games Network). The technical infrastructure involved more than 11,000 computers, over 600
servers, 2,000
printers, 23,000 fixed-line telephone devices, 9,000
mobile phones, 12,000
TETRA devices, 16,000
TV and
video devices and 17 Video Walls interconnected by more than 6,000 kilometers of cabling (both
optical fiber and
twisted pair).
This infrastructure was created and maintained to serve directly more than 150,000 ATHOC Staff, Volunteers, Olympic family members (
IOC,
NOCs, Federations), Partners & Sponsors and Media. It also kept the information flowing for all spectators, TV viewers, Website visitors and news readers around the world, prior and during the Games.
Between June and August 2004, the technology staff worked in the Technology Operations Center (TOC) from where it could centrally monitor and manage all the devices and flow of information, as well as handle any problems that occurred during the Games. The TOC was organized in teams (for example Systems, Telecommunications, Information Security, Data Network, Staffing, etc.) under a TOC Director and corresponding team leaders (Shift Managers). The TOC operated on a 24x7 basis with personnel organized into 12-hour shifts.
Opening Ceremony
The widely praised
(External Link
) Opening Ceremony by avant garde choreographer
Dimitris Papaioannou held on
August 13,
2004 began with a twenty eight (the number of the Olympiads up to then) second countdown paced by the sounds of an amplified heartbeat. As the countdown was completed, fireworks rumbled and illuminated the skies overhead. After a drum corp and bouzouki players joined in an opening march, the video screen showed images of flight, crossing southwest from Athens over the Greek countryside to ancient Olympia. Then, a single drummer in the ancient stadium joined in a drum duel with a single drummer in the main stadium in Athens, joining the original ancient Olympic games with the modern ones in symbolism. At the end of the drum duet, a single flaming arrow was launched from the video screen (symbolically from ancient Olympia) and into the reflecting pool, which resulted in fire erupting in the middle of the stadium creating a burning image of the Olympic rings rising from the pool. The Opening Ceremony was a pageant of traditional Greek culture and history hearkening back to its mythological beginnings. The program began as a young Greek boy sailed into the stadium on a 'paper-ship' waving the host nation's flag to haunting music by
Hadjidakis and then a
centaur appeared, followed by a gigantic head of a
cycladic figurine which eventually broke into many pieces symbolising the Greek islands. Underneath the cycladic head was a Hellenistic representation of the human body, reflecting the concept and belief in perfection reflected in Greek art. A man was seen balancing on a hovering cube symbolising man's eternal 'split' between passion and reason followed by a couple of young lovers playfully chasing each other while the god
Eros was hovering above them. There followed a very colourful float parade chronicling Greek history from the ancient
Minoan civilization to modern times.
Although the
National Broadcasting Company in the United States presented the entire opening ceremony from start to finish, a topless
Minoan priestess was shown only briefly, the breasts having been
pixelated digitally in order to avoid potential fines by the
Federal Communications Commission (and because the
"Janet Jackson" incident was still in recent memory). Also, lower frontal nudity of men dressed as ancient Greek statues was shown in such a way that the area below the waist was cut off by the bottom of the screen. In most other countries presenting the broadcast, there was no
censorship of the ceremony.
Following the artistic performances, a parade of nations entered the stadium with over 10,500 athletes walking under the banners of 201 nations. The nations were arranged according to
Greek alphabet making
Finland, the
Philippines, and
Hong Kong among the last to enter the stadium. Based on audience reaction, the emotional high point of the parade was the entrance of the delegation from
Afghanistan which had been absent from the Olympics and had female competitors for the first time. The
Iraqi delegation also stirred emotions. Also recognized was the symbolic unified march of athletes from
North Korea and
South Korea under the
Korean
Unification Flag. The country of
Kiribati made a debut appearance at these games and
East Timor made a debut appearance under its own flag. After the Parade of Nations, during which the Dutch
DJ Tiësto provided the music, the
Icelandic singer
Björk performed the song
Oceania, written specially for the event by her and the poet
Sjón. On this occasion, in observance of the tradition that the delegation of Greece opens the parade and the host nation closes it, the Greek flag bearer opened the parade and all the Greek delegation closed the parade.
The Opening Ceremony culminated in the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron by 1996 Gold Medalist Windsurfer
Nikolaos Kaklamanakis. The gigantic cauldron, which was styled after the Athens 2004 Olympic Torch, pivoted down to be lit by the 35 year-old, before slowly swinging up and lifting the flame high above the stadium. Kaklamanakis would later win his silver medal in the men's mistral behind
Israeli windsurfer
Gal Fridman. Following this, the stadium found itself at the centre of a rousing fireworks spectacular.
Closing ceremony
The Games were concluded on
August 29,
2004. The closing ceremony was held at the
Athens Olympic Stadium, where the Games had been opened 16 days earlier. Around 70,000 people gathered in the stadium to watch the ceremony.
The initial part of the ceremony interspersed the performances of various Greek singers, and featured traditional Greek dance performances from various regions of Greece (Crete, Pontos, Thessaly, etc). The event was meant to highlight the pride of the Greeks in their culture and country for the world to see.
A significant part of the closing ceremony was the exchange of the Olympic flag of the Antwerp games between the mayor of Athens and the mayor of Beijing, host city of the next Olympic games. After the flag exchange a presentation from the Beijing delegation presented a glimpse into Chinese culture for the world to see.
Beijing University students (who were at first incorrectly cited as the
Twelve Girls Band) sang
Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) and the medal ceremony for the last event of the Olympiad, the
men's marathon, was conducted, with
Stefano Baldini from
Italy as the winner.
A flag-bearer from each nation's delegation then entered along the stage, followed by the competitors
en masse on the floor.
Short speeches were presented by
Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of the Organising Committee, and by President Dr.
Jacques Rogge of the
IOC, in which he described the Athens Olympics as "unforgettable, dream Games".
It should be noted that Dr. Rogge had previously declared he'd be breaking with tradition in his closing speech as President of the IOC and that he'd never use the words of his predecessor
Juan Antonio Samaranch, who used to always say 'these were the best ever games' (with the notable exception of
Atlanta 1996). Dr. Rogge had described
Salt Lake City 2002 as "superb games" and in turn would continue after Athens 2004 and describe
Turin 2006 as "truly magnificent games".
The national anthems
of Greece and
China were played in a handover ceremony as both nations' flags were raised. The
Mayor of Athens,
Dora Bakoyianni, passed the Olympic Flag to the
Mayor of Beijing,
Wang Qishan. After a short cultural performance by Chinese actors, dancers, and musicians directed by eminent Chinese director
Zhang Yimou, Rogge declared the 2004 Olympic Games closed.
A young Greek girl, Fotini Papaleonidopoulou, lit a symbolic lantern with the
Olympic Flame and passed it on to other children before "extinguishing" the flame in the cauldron by blowing a puff of air. The ceremony ended with a variety of musical performances by Greek singers, including
George Dalaras,
Haris Alexiou,
Anna Vissi,
Sakis Rouvas,
Eleftheria Arvanitaki,
Alkistis Protopsalti,
Marinella and
Dimitra Galani, as thousands of athletes carried out symbolic displays on the stadium floor.
Sports
The sports featured at the 2004 Summer Olympics are listed below. Officially there were 28 sports as swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo are classified by the IOC as disciplines within the sport of
aquatics, and wheelchair racing was a demonstration sport. For the first time, the wrestling category featured women's wrestling and in the fencing competition women competed in the
sabre. American
Kristin Heaston, who led off the qualifying round of women's shotput became the first woman to compete at the ancient site of Olympia but Cuban
Yumileidi Cumba became the first woman to win a gold medal there.
The demonstration sport of wheelchair racing was a joint Olympic/
Paralympic event, allowing a Paralympic event to occur within the Olympics, and for the future, opening up the wheelchair race to the able-bodied. The
2004 Summer Paralympics were also held in Athens, from
September 20 to 28.
Participating NOCs
All
National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the Athens Games, as was the case in 1996. Two new NOCs had been created since 1996, and made their debut at these Games (
Kiribati, and
Timor-Leste), therefore along with the re-appearance of
Afghanistan (missing the
2000 Summer Olympics) the total number of participating nations increased from 199 to 202.
Yugoslavia competed in 2004 as
Serbia and Montenegro (code changed from YUG to SCG) and
Hong Kong as
Hong Kong, China. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that NOC contributed.
(host)
Venues
Competition venues
Association football venues
Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki
Karaiskaki Stadium, Athens
Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patra
Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion
Panthessaliko Stadium, Volos
Non-competition venues
Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport
International Broadcast Centre IBC
Main Press Centre
Olympic Village
Olympic Youth Camp (Shoinias)
ORS (Olympic Rendezvous at Samsung)
Goudi Depot (VIP Transportation)
Hellenikon Depot (Press/VIP Transportation)
Dekelia Depot (Athletes Transportation)
Vari Depot (Judges/Referees Transportation)Further Information
Get more info on '2004 Summer Olympics'.
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