The 16-day Athens Games came to an end on Sunday,? the
focus of the world will gradually shift to Beijing, the host city
of the next Olympics.
China ranked second in the gold medal standings and third in the
overall medal haul, with 32 golds, 17 silvers and 14 bronzes.
Clearly it is one of the leading sports powers in the world. But it
has yet to prove its prowess in hosting the world's largest
sporting event.
The Athens Olympics provided the organizers of the 2008
Games with many valuable lessons and a great deal of food for
thought.
As Beijing hopes to use the Games as a lens for the world to
view China's historical heritage, the Athens Games set a good
example in combining Greek cultural and historical highlights with
the sports extravaganza.
The shot put competition, for example, took place in the Ancient
Olympia Stadium. The elegant Panathinaiko Stadium, where the first
modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, hosted the archery events
and become the finish for the men's marathon, the last event of the
Games.
"These are unique Olympic experiences," said Liu Qi, president
of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX
Olympiad (BOCOG).
BOCOG Vice President Jiang Xiaoyu said that the opening ceremony
of the Athens Games, which won wide acclaim for its evocative
tableau of 3,000 years of Greek history and culture, would serve as
inspiration for Beijing. The Athens opener registered a new record
in international TV viewing according to the International Olympic
Committee (IOC).
Liu, who headed a BOCOG inspection team visiting the Athens
Games, also spoke highly of the city's development, saying, "Athens
has done an excellent job in upgrading its infrastructure over the
past several years."
Construction of a subway and other rail links were given high
priority. A new airport was built in 2001, replacing the old
seaside airfield, while a brand-new highway around the city turned
an hour-long stop-and-go trip into a 15-minute breeze.
With more than 1,000 extra cars hitting the Beijing streets
every day and a forecast of 3.5 million vehicles in the city by
2008, traffic is considered one of the biggest challenges Beijing
will face during its 17-day Olympics.
Traffic restrictions, including lanes reserved for a large fleet
of Olympic Family vehicles and reserved parking for authorized
vehicles only near stadiums played an important role in the smooth
operations of the Athens Olympics.
But the high cost of the Athens Olympics demonstrates that
Beijing must carefully monitor its budget.
Greece is the smallest country to stage the Olympics since
Finland in 1952. Athens struggled with construction delays and
organizing blunders, falling behind schedule and even alarming the
IOC into warning it that it was risking the loss of hosting
rights.
Although Greece managed a turnaround and got everything ready
before the start of the Games, the rising costs for venues and
infrastructure projects, mainly due to double and triple shifts to
make up for lost time, and a soaring security budget, drove total
spending up to at least 7 billion euros, according to the Greek
government. The initial budget in 1997 was about 3.5 billion
euros.
Keeping the principle of frugality in mind, earlier this month
Beijing organizers suspended construction on several Olympic
venues, including the state-of-the-art National Stadium.
"We halted construction mainly in order to optimize our design
so that we can save on costs," BOCOG's Executive Vice President Liu
Jingmin said at a recent press conference. "But the new design will
not affect the basic functions of the stadium."
Hopes for hosting the best Olympics ever have run high
throughout China since Beijing won its bid for the 2008 Games on
July 13, 2001. But staging the Games is a far more daunting and
complicated task than winning the bid.
As former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch said, "The
[Athens] Games are a great success, and they put the bar very high
for Beijing 2008 Games."
(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2004)