Following a comment by IOC vice president Kevan Gosper, who told Australia’s Herald Sun that the quality of the 2004 Games “were in danger of deteriorating” if the Greek government did not catch up with delays, relations between Athens 2004 and the IOC are at a new low.
Gosper also said the IOC was considering employing its own staff within the Athens organizing committee because of the delays, which the IOC denies. But the IOC said it planned to step up monitoring of Athens’ efforts to make up time.
IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau said of Gosper’s comments, “full time (IOC) staff within ATHOC is not an option…there was no decision made on this. It is not in the plans to do this at all but there will be an increase in small delegations going over to Athens to monitor progress”.
According to a source, Gosper has since contacted ATHOC officials and said his remarks were misrepresented.
An IOC coordination commission will visit Athens in April for an inspection.
