Mixed media: Olympian indifference

The Games' return to their ancient birthplace has met international cynicism and Athenian apathy


GREEK FARCE

JAPANESE DAILY: Something's missing from the Athens Olympics - the intangible, critical buzz that makes the Summer Games special. Tens of thousands of seats are empty every day. There's no grand gathering place for athletes and fans, no pulsating heart of the sprawling scene, and less sheer fun than at any Olympics in the past 20 years.

Sydney had Darling Harbour ... where fans and athletes mingled. Atlanta had Centennial Olympic Park, [and] Barcelona offered the charms of its Ramblas. There's no "there" here in Athens. - Japan Times

ARAB VIEW: Thanks to a doping scandal involving two Greek sprinters, one of the most overused phrases of the Games has been Greek tragedy. As the Ottawa Citizen noted: "On the night that Greece dared to dance with the gods of Olympia, a sentimental journey to antiquity was jolted by a modern reality. Doping. A scandal involving two Greek athletic stars has stunned and shamed the host nation ... A fairy tale becomes a Greek tragedy, or is it a farce?" - Gulf Times, Qatar

SOUTH AFRICAN PRESS: Tumbleweed blowing across the car parks, under-worked staff in the box offices and empty seats in the stands. Welcome to Athens 2004. By Monday morning it seemed a safe bet there were a few spares to be had. Surely no one was better placed to help out than the mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis.

"Excuse me?" a spokesperson in the mayor's office said.

We were wondering if the mayor had any tickets she didn't need?

"Don't be silly. This is the mayor's office. We don't have any tickets for you. That would be ridiculous."

So much for the Olympic spirit. - Mail and Guardian, South Africa

INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE: Despite tight security, it is not known if ticket sales have been hit by the fear factor - Greece has mounted Europe's biggest peacetime security operation at the first Summer games since the September 11 attack on the United States. Matters have been made worse by the Games' strict regulations that say spectators may be refused entry to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not want to sponsor the games. - Reuters news service website

CANADIAN COLUMNIST: The Olympics have been hijacked by money, egos and bureaucrats who have become experts at wallowing at the Olympic Games' trough and ignoring the very rules they've established. The biggest news leading into the Games focused on doping and US swimmer Michael Phelps' goal of winning eight gold medals. Cheating and greed, new Olympic mottos. - ABC Radio Australia

BRITISH WEBSITE: Olympic officials insisted today they were happy with ticket sales despite masses of empty seats at many venues. However, they said they could not control corporate sponsors who may have bought tickets and distributed them only for recipients not to turn up. Marton Simitsek, Olympic chief of operations, said 3,285,000 tickets have been sold, eclipsing the 2.7 million sold for the Games in Seoul in 1988 and the 3.21 million sold for Barcelona in 1992.

"This is excellent, especially for a small country which is five times smaller than Korea," added Simitsek. - BBC News

OLYMPIAN IDEAL

SEASONED HACK: Already the battle lines are drawn between those who complain that the modern Olympics are a kind of malign Woodstock of performance-enhancing drugs, and the romantics who still feel the spirit of the Games thump them in the ribs. A detached analysis of the four days thus far points to the conclusion that poor ticket sales have set off the only major organisational alarm. If you want a personal view from the front line, it's this: If you give up on the Olympics, you give the signal to football to take over the world. You hand the keys to the temple to the cheats. - Paul Hayward, Daily Telegraph

GREEK NEWSPAPER: Over the lengthy period leading up to the Games and now that they are under way, thousands gained precious work experience; they came into contact with new technologies and got involved with projects that were unusual for the local economy's size. Private firms will perhaps seek to employ those who gained expertise during the Olympics. The Greek State should inject fresh blood into the ailing public sector by recruiting workers from the same pool. - Kathimerini, English language newspaper