The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set a new deadline, May 20, to start setting up the 18,000-ton steel roof above the main Olympic stadium after Athens 2004 missed the IOC’s April 28th deadline. An IOC spokesman said that as other work on the roof had been completed on the ground in advance, the IOC was content to allow contractors three weeks leeway to slide two giant arches in place which will support the main roof. The spokesman added that if by then the slide has not been done, the IOC would have to say that work should stop and resort to contingency plans. On Wednesday trucks and bulldozers landscaped the area around the stadium as hundreds of workers prepared for the final push.
Korea Olympic Committee President Lee Yun-taek told the Yonhap News Agency that North and South Korea will meet at the end of May or beginning of June to work out details on marching together at the Games Opening Ceremony.
Swatch, one of the official sponsors for the Games began delivery Wednesday of 350 tons of state-of-the-art timing and results equipment to be used during the Games. The equipment included 12 massive results boards, specialist timing systems, miles of cable, computers, cameras and starting blocks equipped with special sensors. The Athens Games will employ 310 specialist technicians and use 350 tons of time keeping equipment for 28 sports in 38 venues, compared to the Sydney Games that used 203 technicians and 220 tons of equipment. The equipment also included 32 specialized boards used mainly for team events and 65 giant plasma-screen results boards.
European Union regulators are asking Olympic Games broadcasters and organizers for assurances that mobile telephone and Internet operators can show live images from the Athens Games. The E.U. Commission is concerned that only a few new media operators have bought rights to the Games. Regulators want to know if the organizers and broadcasters offered the new media operators fair terms. They also want the same assurances for the Summer and Winter Games until 2012. The E.U. wants Internet operators and next-generation operators to be ale to bid to show live images. Discussions with the IOC are ongoing.
