San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Aug 14 2004
Flame lights a Greek revival
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Athens — To rousing cheers of “Hellas! Hellas! Hellas!” the
442-member Greek delegation marched into the Olympic Stadium on a
wave of emotion Friday night as the Opening Ceremonies of the Games
of the 28th Olympiad reached a crescendo of sound and sentiment,
silencing skeptics the world over who had doubted it could be done.
Minutes later, sailor Nikolaos Kaklamanakis lit the Olympic cauldron
to bring to a conclusion ceremonies that ran nearly 3 1/2 hours and
touched upon Greece ancient and modern and upon the nation’s unique
role in the history of the Olympic Games.
“This is the new Greece waiting for you to discover,” said Athens
2004 head Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the woman credited with
rescuing the Olympic bid from internecine squabbles and three years
of mismanagement. “You will be revived. Greece is here tonight. We’re
ready. The Olympic Games — welcome home.”
Perhaps 2 billion people worldwide and 72,000 in person watched as
the 35-year-old Kaklamanakis, familiar to Greeks for his sailing
skills in the Mistral class, touched the Olympic flame to a
needle-like device attached to a fulcrum.
Upon being lit, the stiletto-like device was raised back into
position by a huge counterweight. At that, fireworks went off to more
cheers, and people slowly walked from beneath the stadium’s stylish
arched glass roof into a balmy summer night in this northern Athens
district of Mousassi.
“It was incredible,” said U.S. middle-distance runner Alan Webb.
“Just watching the flame being lit was well worth it. I thought that
was the highlight.” The cauldron will burn continuously for the next
16 days, until the 2004 Summer Olympics conclude on Aug. 29.
American archer Jennifer Nichols said the lighting of the cauldron
“gave me a feeling of awe, like I can’t believe I’m here.”
During the ceremonies, a piece of the pyrotechnics lodged high in the
latticework of a crane outside the stadium and remained burning as
visitors exited to an acrid aroma.
An equally familiar smell was noticeable inside the stadium, that of
fresh paint. Outside, trees had been planted mere days before to
brighten a tableau of dirt reflecting a frantic rush to complete the
facilities in time.
These are the Games that Athens had hoped to host in 1996 for the
centennial celebration of the modern Olympics, which had been
established after a hiatus of 1,500 years. But Atlanta won the bid
instead.
Greeks take almost perverse pride in their last-minute ethic in
getting things done, and indeed they got things done on the most
important day of the Olympics.
But even as all of Greece celebrated the arrival of a sporting
festival developed here in 776 B.C. as a paean to the gods and
revived in 1896 under the precepts of fair play and sportsmanship,
the potential of shame lurked: National hero Kostas Kenteris, the
defending Olympic champion in the 200 meters, faced a possible ban
for skipping two mandatory drug tests.
Kenteris and sprinter Katerina Thanou became the big story Thursday
night and early Friday morning after both missed tests and after a
motorcycle accident in which they were said to suffer minor injuries.
Their cases were being reviewed by an International Olympic Committee
panel hours before the Opening Ceremonies were to begin.
The artistic portion of the ceremony was constrained by time because
the nearly 10,000 athletes from 201 nations had to wait to walk into
the stadium. It was nevertheless classy as more than 2,400 volunteer
performers referenced Greece from antiquity to the present day in
stylized vignettes rolling by on floats.
Greek civilization was presented as an evolution of art, science and
mathematics under the heading “Clepsydra,” described as “a dreamlike
parade depicting stylized figures that look as though they have been
brought to life from Greek frescoes, mosaics, sculptures and
paintings.”
The ceremonies quickly transitioned from art to athletes. Competitors
from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe celebrated their time on the global
stage in a slow gambol before spectators and a segregated section of
dignitaries.
Among the royalty, Queen Sofia of Spain attracted the most attention
in her pale lime-green dress and her obvious bodyguards with
earpieces. There was no Fidel Castro sighting, as in Olympics past.
The parade of athletes is always a highlight for its very definition
of human diversity. Attire ranged from ghastly Ward Cleaver-like gray
suits for the men of Armenia to genuine leopard-skin loincloths for
the men of Burundi. The women of Moldova wore silky pink slacks and
pink halter tops above bare midriffs.
Bermuda, true to tradition, sent out grown men wearing black blazers
with red shorts and knee-high black socks.
The U.S. delegation was the largest, with 538 athletes, not all of
whom took part in the ceremonies because of imminent competitions
today. The Americans were casual and well-behaved in their uniforms
from Roots, a Canadian company that caused a marketing furor with
berets at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.
Despite Greece’s relatively proximity to the continuing conflict in
Iraq, the Americans received an enthusiastic greeting when they
entered the stadium, putting them in the same league, ovation-wise,
as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and nearby Cyprus. Israel was met
mostly with silence.
In contrast to the U.S. delegation, sauntering in six abreast, the
east African nation of Djibouti was represented by one athlete,
tennis player Abdo Abdallah, who by necessity carried his country’s
flag.
The most rambunctious country was Italy, its men specifically. A
number of them mugged for the camera, kissed the lens and tarried to
such an extent they had to be herded back to their delegation by
black-clad production people acting as sheepdogs.
The tallest flag bearer in Olympic history was someone familiar to
U.S. sports fans. Basketball player Yao Ming of China, at 7-feet-5 or
perhaps 7-6, led his country’s delegation clad in cream-colored
slacks and red jacket. During the NBA season, he plays for the
Houston Rockets.
North and South Korea marched in together, most athletes holding
hands above their heads. Earlier in the day, International Olympic
Committee president Jacques Rogge spoke of the possibility of the two
Koreas forming one country as Germany did after the fall of the
Berlin Wall.
While Armenia was noticeable for its drab suits, easily the worst
fashion statement of the evening was turned in by the athletes of
Kyrgyzstan, who wore hats that can only be described as demented
stovepipe Tyroleans, like the Swiss wear only much taller.
In any event, it was hats off to Athens and all of Greece for an
event seven years in the making, three years in the delaying and
finally brought to fruition with frantic effort.
For complete Olympic coverage — including interactive guides to
featured sports — go to sfgate.com/olympics/.