Organizers of Athens 2004 announced that about 10,500 athletes, a record 40 per cent of them women, will compete for 301 gold medals at the Athens 2004 Games being held August 12, to 29.
The opening ceremony of the Games will take place August 14, but the preliminary round of the soccer competition begins two days earlier in Athens, and in four other Greek cities.
The soccer competition will be the only athletic event that will be held outside the Athens area. Preliminary contests are scheduled for Patras in the southwest, Salonica in the north, Irakleon on the southern island of Crete and Volos in the centre-east of Greece.
ATHOC executive broad member Spyros Kapralos said, “the 28 international athletic federations in charge of the 37 athletic events have given their approval to the program”.
He added, “we placed a lot of attention on the two weekends where 68 gold medals will be given out. We took into consideration that the spectators and the television viewers prefer athletic contests on weekends, but we did not want to overload them as was the case in the last Saturday of the Sydney Olympics, where 40 gold medals were awarded”.
Kapalos said that there would be a limit of 2,000 participants for the track and field events and 800 for swimming contests.
He added that the Olympics-ending marathon race would be held on the classic route from Marathon to the Panathinaiko stadium in the centre of Athens where the first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in 1896, although the time of the event has not yet been decided by the International Athletic Federation (IAAF).
The cycling road race will be held on August 14, with the route taking participants through central Athens, passing such tourist sites as the acropolis and the parliament building.
The archery event would take place in the Panathinaiko stadium.
The price of tickets for the events as well as the distribution policy will be decided in two months by the International Olympic Committee.
More than 22,000 applications have been received so far from volunteers and ATHOC media spokesman Serafim Kotrotsos said, “this is very satisfying and we are optimistic that we will reach out goal”. Sixty thousand volunteers are needed for the Games.
Also, the Olympic Village will house 17,000 athletes in 2,292 lodgements spread over 124 hectares at Acharnes, northwest of Athens. After the Games the site will be used for low-income housing.