The Olympic Games were established over 2,500 years ago in Olympia, southern Greece, to honor Zeus, following a tradition created by Hercules, who competed there for the prize of an olive branch. Centuries later all Greek cities honored a truce every four years in order for their best athletes to compete at Olympia. It is estimated that the first formal Olympics were held in 776 B.C. the year that also marks the beginning of dated history. The Games were banned as pagan rituals in396 A.D. by; Roman emperor Theodosius. 15 centuries later, in 1896, the Olympic Games were brought back to life in Athens -then a small, poor country of around 130,000 people - by French sportsman, Pierre de Coubertin.

The construction of the first stadium is generally attributed to the statesmen and orator Lycourgos, about 330 BC. However more than a thousand years ago, the Athenians had celebrated these Panathenaic games, the founder of which was supposed to have been the Attic hero-king Theseus. The ground belonged to an Athenian citizen Deinias, who ceded it to the town for the construction of an arena, as well as an amphitheatre for the Pan Athenian games. But it was five centuries after (140 AD.) that the stadion became one of the most magnificent monuments of Athens, thanks to the munificence of the immensely rich Athenian sophist Herodes Atticos, who had already given more than one proof of his noble and great liberality. This patron of letters built the whole stadion of marble with such an abundance that the contemporaries used to say that the quarries of Mountain Penteli became exhausted. In the dark ages of the Frankish and Turkish domination this magnificent monument was used as a Quarry and only few ornaments had survived. It was difficult to believe that this natural ravine had formerly contained so much glare, grandeur and glory! Yet, as by a stroke of a magic wand. the world saw all this ancient splendor brought to life and the Panathenaic Stadion assuming once more its dazzling ornament of pentelic marble. The miracle was due to the initiative of a single man, Baron de Coubertin, who had the excellent idea of establishing a committee in Paris for the organization of International Olympic Games. The city's ancient stadium was reconstructed in marble by a new Herodes Atticos, the Great patriot of Alexandria George Averoff. He spared no expenses for rendering this vast athletic building its former splendor and magnificence. The work lasted about four years and costed four million francks. The 1896 Games saw 311 athletes from 13 nations competing in nine sports. It included the Marathon race, run from the historic battlefield where the Athenians defeated the invading Persians in 490 B.C., to the all marble stadium of Athens, 42 kilometers away. The race was held to honor the unknown messenger who brought news of the victory and expired from exhaustion. The Games of 2004 will be very different. Athens - now a metropolis of 4 million people-will host over 10,000 athletes participating in 300 events, thousands of sports officials, 30,00ο journalists and media people, and hundreds of thousands of sports fans. IOC President Jacques Rogge admits that the Games may be "becoming too big for one city to hold," pointing out that since 1948, the IOC has added 20 events to each new Olympiad. "Ι proposed to the IOC executive board to make an in-depth study of all the elements that could be scaled down, without affecting the Games", he says. Rogge admitted that the Athens Olympics would not benefit from any changes, but has high hopes for their success. "Greeks have invented the Games and they are really part of their cultural heritage, so there is a lot of support for them," he said.

THE CITY OF ATHENS. Living in Athens is not easy. "Athens has many of the problems modern cities are struggling to resolve," says Telemahos Hytiris, Creek Deputy Minister of Media and Information "but we are tackling our infrastructure problems with utmost determination and perspective". Hytiris lists the city's facilities: "We have a new international airport of high standards, capable of handling 16 million passengers annually. We are building a new road network of 117 km, upgrading existing road networks, creating parking spaces, constructing two new underground railway lines, a new Tramway, a new 32-kilometer suburban railway line, linking the main underground system with the International Airport, and a new state-of-the-art Road Traffic Control and Management System" he says. Hytiris comments on his country largest ever logistical operation. "Every morning from 5:30 a.m. 155,000 people must report for duty. Around 200,000 people must be accredited and 50,000 meals provided, with approximately 100 tones of food being consumed daily in the Olympic Village alone. Moreover, 25 hospitals, 270 ambulances, 35 mobile medical units and five helicopters will be available for any eventuality".

 Gianna Angelopoulou Daskalaki, President of the 2004 Olympics Organizing Committee, who was instrumental in bringing the Games back to Greece, is in no doubt about the benefits: "The Olympic movement wins, by having the summer Games return home to their birthplace; the Greek people win, because of the jobs and public facilities created; the world wins, because it discovers what Greece has accomplished in its modernization; and the athletes win, by participating in a modern event where the noblest competition of sport first began." Some projects will be ready only weeks before the official opening, but Angelopoulou -Daskalaki is convinced  that everything will be working by ' August 13, 2004. Key projects already under way range from new housing for 17,000 athletes and officials, (to be handed over to the Worker's Housing Association after 2004) and the ecologically -friendly Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Center to the fully renovated Olympic Stadium Complex. In terms of  transport, the new Athens Airport is, according to its first president Costis Vaitsos, one of the best in Europe while the Athens Metro will provide a new streetcar line connecting the center of Athens with its seaside suburbs. "We will also have over 120 kilometers of new roads and about 90 kilometers of upgraded roads by the time the Games begin"  says Angelopoulou-Daskalaki. "We will be able to move 1 million people daily by 2004."Olympic Torch photos