Eugene Bingham: Thanks, Athens, take a bow

COMMENT

Ioannis Zavos briefly held a silver medal, and he deserves gold.

With one simple gesture, he embodied the spirit and ideals of the Olympics that Athens was so desperate to revive in the 2004 version of this international festival.

Dutch rowing eight crew member Diederik Simon headed into town one night to celebrate with his teammates. Somehow, he lost his prize.

Across Athens some time later, Mr Zavos found the medal in the back of his taxi and handed it in. Athlete and medal were reunited.

It's not often taxi drivers get a pat on the back but Mr Zavos deserves to be remembered as one of the heroes of the Games.

His actions displayed the values of integrity and selflessness upon which the Games were founded.

Since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the Olympics have grown and grown, becoming more commercial and more like a giant marketing opportunity every four years.

Athens wanted to stop all that. With the Games returning home, the Greeks wanted to restore the traditional values. To do this, they put on events such as the marathon finish on the original course and the shot put at Olympia. The story of the marathon became the heat and the toughness of the course, rather than the history, and the experience at Olympia was sullied by the drug ban imposed on the winning woman thrower.

In lots of ways, Athens could have made more of its historical connections with the Games.

But in the end it is the people of Athens who have helped the organisers achieve their objective.

The spirit of the Games shone through in the friendliness of the thousands of smiling volunteers and the blazing, infectious patriotism of Greeks watching the competitions.

I will never forget the night the women's discus final, hardly the most popular of events, was set on fire simply because three local athletes were in contention.

Their enthusiasm was heart-warming for the fact that it was the kind of pride that did not seek to belittle others or betray a sense of superiority, in the way that the chants of "U-S-A" or "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" have at previous Games.

The Greek people have made the Games a success. They have pulled off the Olympics despite having a population of just 11 million, and in spite of the in-fighting and political lethargy which delayed the construction of the venues until the eleventh hour.

Some of the venues may not have looked as pristine as those in Sydney - the dustbowl around the main Olympic complex is in stark contrast to the beautifully paved walkways of four years ago - but they have served the athletes, officials and spectators well.

Even the heat has not been as bad as it could have been. Several competitions were marked by extreme temperatures - notably the men's road cycle race and the women's marathon - but the cooling wind helped keep athletes from danger.

In these the first Games since the September 11 attacks, Greece was forced to spend €1 billion ($1.84 billion) defending the Olympians and other visitors - a bill far heftier than that footed by any other Games host. The fear of an attack loomed large in people's minds, even preventing some athletes from coming.

But as of early today, nothing had eventuated, the fears unfounded. The Greeks should take enormous pride in this. Their efforts in making the Games safe were of Olympian standard. Thankfully, the measures were also on a human scale. If there was one thing that terrified athletes and visitors as much as security, it was the fear that they would be stranded in queues.

If there was anything which hung over the Games, it was the "d" word - drugs. It shames the Greeks that two of their own - sprint stars Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou - became the poster kids for the issue.

The Greek reaction has been unusual - on one level there was shame, on another an obsession with conspiracy theories, leading some to believe that Kenteris had been set up in some sort of strange plot. It was these people who led the chants of his name which held up the start of the 200m final for seven minutes.

Between Kenteris, the villain, and taxi driver Mr Zavos, the hero, the Greeks have sure provided their share of leading characters in the drama at these Games.

Athens, stand and take a bow.