With less than two months before the Salt Lake Winter Games, SLOC has fired its events service manager for the 2002 Olympic Village. Dan Lang, a retired Los Angeles police officer, helped run security for the Olympic Village in Atlanta and was hired by SLOC a year ago to help set up Salt Lake’s Athletes Village. Lang was in charge of helping visitors find their way around the village, checking for proper credentials in restricted areas and supporting public safety operations. Both SLOC officials and Lang won’t say why he was terminated. SLOC plans to replace him.
It must be catchy. Giorgos Papavassiliou, a government official in charge of building the Olympic Village for the 2004 Athens Games, was also given the heave-ho. The Labor Ministry didn’t give any reason for the dismissal and did not name a replacement.
Also in Greece, Athens 2004 organizers announced they have signed an agreement for the construction of a media village to house about 1,600 journalists – one of five such villages needed for the Games. The deal was signed between Amarousion municipality and Athens 2004. The media village will be constructed on 62.5 acres neighbouring with OAKA. There will be restaurants, a post office, banks, news desks, gyms, recreation centres, etc. in the village that are necessary to accommodate the journalists. Athens 2004 will lease the media village from May 1 to Oct. 15, 2004.
And finally, followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice outlawed in China, have been given permits to meditate en masse during the 2002 Games. City officials and Olympic leaders have designated a number of protest zones where gatherings will be allowed during the Feb. 8-24 Games. Falun Gong signed up for time every day during the Games. Some of the 50-minute demonstration slots allow for up to 500 people to gather.
