Photographs obtained by the Associated Press (AP) Thursday show two pieces cut into the shape of a ship’s hull being lowered into a hole in the middle of the main Olympic stadium which AP says will be featured in the Opening Ceremony of the Athens 2004 Games. AP also reports that the Olympic flame will burn in a giant copy of the torch used in the global relay. Olympic organizers refused to comment or give details about the Aug. 13 Opening Ceremony, which is a closely guarded secret, but they have denied repeated reports that the stadium field will be flooded in a spectacle to recreate Greece’s interplay of sea and land.
A report into Athens’ recent blackout is expected to be ready by the middle of next week, according to Greece’s Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas. And Athens chief prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos called for the launch of an urgent preliminary investigation to determine whether any individuals should face criminal charges for the blackout. A report on the blackout will be made public in about five days.
Members of the international press corps started moving into their offices at the Main Press Centre (MPC) and the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), the first Olympic venues to open for business, on Tuesday. The MPC will welcome 5,500 accredited media representatives from now until the end of the Games, and the IBC will be home to about 10,000 broadcasters as the nerve centre for all broadcast operations during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The MPC will be home to all accredited written press, photographers and non-rights-holding broadcasters for 24 hours a day from July 27 until the end of the Games. The IBC, located adjacent to the MPC, will be the base for all the Rights-Holding Broadcasters and will be the centre of all broadcast operations undertaken by the Host Broadcasting Organisation, Athens Olympic Broadcasting.
A report by the Worldwide Fund for nature (WWF) released Friday claims that Athens Olympic organizers have failed in their pledge to deliver a green Games. According to the report preparations for the Olympics were damaging wildlife habitat and threatening the ecology of mountains near Athens. The WWF gave Athens an average of only 0.77 out of four across a comprehensive series of ecological scales. The report claims Greek organizers have made no effort to integrate the environment in planning the Games because the IOC failed to enforce the regulations enshrined in its own charter. On a positive note the report did highlight progress on public transport and environmental awareness.
