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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Olympics 2004 gets underway on Friday : Faster, higher, stronger by Dinesh Weerawansa The world's greatest sporting extravaganza - the Olympic Games, are finally returning to their ancient birthplace, Athens, this week.
The Athens 2004 summer Olympiad will combine history, culture and peace with sports and 'Olympism'. The people of Greece will host unique Games on a human scale, inspiring the world to celebrate the Olympic values. This has been the vision of the Athens Olympics. The estimated 10,500 plus athletes drawn from 201 countries are coming from different cultures, social and economic standards and even levels of performance. But the 16 days of competition in 28 sports in 33 Olympic venues will bring them so much closer. Perhaps there could well be language barriers but sign language, or the so-called language cards distributed in Athletes Village, is good enough for them to pass their messages across.
Greece welcomes over 12 million tourists each year and is among the world's top 15 tourist destinations. But those records would easily shatter as all flights would lead to the Greek capital, which has reserved 57,000 beds in 29,000 rooms to meet the demand. Over USD 600 million has been invested on security infrastructure and equipment. This is apart from staffing, training and security operations. The organisers of the summer Games have come up with a good blend of rich Greek culture and modern sports techniques to present a sporting event which would be a lifetime experience. Of course, those who get an opportunity even to stand along a footstep of the grand Olympic Stadium for Friday's spectacular opening ceremony, could call themselves extremely privileged. That is going to be a treat which is hard to emulate by any other sporting event. The finish of the Olympic marathon is even more significant. The history of Panathinaiko Stadium is in the finish for the marathon. The venue, widely known as Kallimarmaro - the ancient marble stadium, began some 2,300 years ago. Historic records indicate that a stadium existed on the site as early as 329 BC during the time of Lykourgos, pupil of Plato. It was used to host the Panathenean Games, a festival held to honour Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and patron of Athens. Last Olympics in Sydney, four years ago, brought sweet memories to Sri Lanka. The Sydney 2000 Games turned out to be a golden chapter in the annals of Sri Lanka sports as our sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe rewrote history. She clocked a career best 22.28 seconds to win the bronze medal in women's 200m. It was Sri Lanka's first Olympic medal in 52 years after the first ever medal by the late Duncan White in London, 1948. Sri Lanka will field an eight-member contingent for the Athens Games this year. Jayasinghe will be the overall captain of the Lankan contingent which include five athletes, two swimmers and a shooter. Among the elite athletes included in the Lankan team are Asian Games triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha and Asian Championship double gold medallist Rohan Pradeep Kumara Fernando. Star swimmer Condrad Francis has just returned to Colombo, from Australia where he is on an IOC scholarship, to join the Sri Lanka contingent which would leave for Athens in the early hours of Monday (9). The solitary rifle shooter in the side is former Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Pushpamali Ramanayake. Early historic records date the first Ancient Olympiad to 776 BC, when the core values of Olympism first began to develop into benchmarks of human creativity and excellence. Over the years, the Games would illuminate examples of extraordinary achievement. They would become the stage for the celebration of noble competition and the educational value of sport until 393 AD, when Emperor Theodosius abolished them for being "too pagan". Thanks to the untiring efforts of Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, Dimitrios Vikelas, and other contributors, the first Modern Olympiad was held in the country of its origin in 1896. The Greeks and the whole world embraced their revival and once again turned them into the greatest celebration on earth. In the century to follow, the Games travelled to countries around the world, encountering a wide range of cultures and civilisations, facing new challenges, growing, and evolving before the modern summer Games marked its centenary in Atlanta, 1996. The organisers of the Athens Olympics have set their own mission. Apart from organising a technically excellent Olympic Games, they want to provide the athletes, spectators, viewers and volunteers, a unique Olympic experience, thus leaving behind a legacy for the Olympic Movement. They also want to display the Olympic ideals in a contemporary setting through their traditional Greek symbols. The mission of the Athens Games include promoting and implementing the Olympic Truce through the Torch Relay, controlling the commercial aspect of the Olympic Games, promoting the cultural and natural heritage of Greece in the eyes of the world, to showcase the achievements of modern Greece and its potential for the future, to protect and enhance the natural environment and promote environmental awareness and to promote the benefits of the Games throughout the country. There are and will be thousands of sporting events in the world every year, but none of those could even come near Olympics. It has its own breed, identity, passion, celebration and atmosphere which none could match. That is why the Olympic Games are, and would remain, the greatest sporting event on earth!
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
The
Greek capital is not only the city in which the ancient Olympiad was born,
but also where its revival began with the modern Olympic concept way back
in 1896. Over 10,000 sporting ambassadors from over 200 countries will
unite in Greece, to engage in noble competition.
When
the curtain finally comes down, these athletes in the Olympic family would
become so close and find it hard to say goodbye. Sports is such a unique
mode of taking the message of peace across the globe and Olympics is one
classic example how sportsmen and women could unite in harmony with one
vision and goal.
