http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/24/sports/o...rts/24OLYM.html

It would be so amazing to see the Olympics in Athens. I hope they can get it together. The only downside I would see is the usefulness of the buildings after the fact. I don't know much about Athens, so perhaps someone can fascilitate this side of the coin.

All I gotta say is I hope Athens can get their act together because so far, the IOC has NOT been happy with their progress. If they can get things in order it will be a nice Games. Nice to be back in their home country.

Lest anyone think that pulling an Olympic games from a city and assigning it to another is unheard of, In 1972 the people of Denver voted against a bond package that was necessary to fund the Winter Olympics that had been awarded that city for 1976. The IOC pulled the games and rescheduled them for Innsbruck Austria, where they had been held not ten years earlier in 1964.

The IOC, after this visit, has committed itself to Athens. After this point there's simply not enough time to organize everything in Seoul or Sydney, which are the two cities the IOC was considering as an alternative. In today's Times, an IOC official is quoted as saying that the games will be in Athens even if it some competitions "have to be held in the streets." Hardly a ringing endorsement.....

GREAT! Can't ya just see it now, the 100 meter dash held down the center of the main drag in central Athens?

Of course, several of the disciplines do have street races, running, walking, biking, modern pentathalon, triathalon. But I guess it would kinda suck for the Yachters.