The Olympic Games of 2004 , plays of XXVIIIe Olympiad of the modern era, were held with Athens (Greece) of the 13 to the August 29th 2004. Most of the tests proceeded with the Olympic Complexe of Athens (ΟΑΚΑ) while certain tests took place in other urban sites, with the Pirée, in the area of the Attique, even for football in the four other Olympic cities: Salonique, Volos, Patras and Héraklion.

Athens was preferably selected with the cities following candidates: Rome (Italy), the Cape (South Africa), Stockholm (Sweden), and Buenos Aires (Argentinian). Previously, the towns had been eliminated of Istanbul, Lille, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Seville and Saint-Pétersbourg.

Relay of the Olympic flame

The return of the Olympic Games in their original cradle, 108 years after the first plays of the modern era with Athens, gave place to a course of the Olympic flame in all the countries where Olympic Games of summer or of winter of the modern era were organized but also on all the continents and sub-continents, after its departure of the sanctuary of Olympie in the Péninsule of the Peloponnese.

Once returned in Greece, once all the dèmes (departments) crossed, the relay runners of the flame in particular made him cross new the Pont Rion-Antirion above the Golfe of Corinth. The carriers were the members of the team of Greece of football who had gained the championship of Europe of the nations to the Portugal in June 2004.

The evening of the August 13rd, the last relay runner, that which lit in front of 72.000 spectators, the flame drawn by Santiago Calatrava Valls, was Níkos Kaklamanákis, victorious of the Mistral category to Atlanta in 1996.

During the opening ceremony, the national delegations ravel according to the alphabetical order into force in Greece, that of the Greek alphabet. Countries in “Saint (E) -” pass in first (in Ayia/Ayios Greek), the first to be ravelled being St Lucia. The Greek flag penetrates at the head of the delegations like wants it the habit, but the Greek sportsmen enter at the end of the procession, since they represent the organizing country. As with the plays of 2000, both Korea S ravelled together behind a white banner carrying the silhouette light blue of their Péninsule.

Polemics

On the construction of the infrastructures

Indicated like host city in 1997, Athens accumulated the delays on the calendar of constructions of the Olympic sites and the public infrastructures. So much so that, at the summer 2003, one year before the opening ceremony, only a site intended for the audio-visual mediums was officially ready. The whole of the delays is explained by political reasons (corruption, competition between ministries and bodies décisionnaires, lack of communication…) and techniques (lack of know-how, markets closed at the foreign companies, archaeological discoveries, bad design, reduction of the budgets…).

It is also in a moving geopolitical environment that the preparation of the Plays was carried out. Indeed, with the Attacks of September 11th, 2001 to the the United States of America, then those of Madrid, the March 11th, 2004, safety took a considerable share in the organization of the event. Without real knowledge of the international terrorist threat, the Greeks had to as well re-examine all their device at the human, budgetary level as technical, with in particular an increased security of the infrastructures during and after work.

Under the pressure of the foreign mediums, sponsors, certain nations fearing for safety of their athletes and CIO, but also for questions of national pride, the Greek government and the organizing committee (Athoc) put the twice the work to make up for lost time. That resulted in a slight rise of the costs (effective increased, overtime, insurance policies…), but also by an increase in the industrial accidents. Certaines ONG thus denounced the massive recourse to an illegal foreign labor to mitigate the insufficiencies of the basin of local employment. In the absence of control of the factory inspectors, these accidents would have cost the life at least twenty people. accessible Sources: Humanity , Le Figaro , Le Monde , the Echoes , Parisian the , the Sunday newspaper .

On the rules of entry

It was interdict to enter on the spot of competition with flags of country not taking part in the Plays and to distribute advertizing leaflets. In fact, for the flags, each one brought to it his (Basque Drapeau, Corsica, imagination, but also flags Tibetans with Chinese protest with the key). The Greeks were not looking at.

Doping

It there had twenty-five listed cases of doping, implying competitors in athletics, oar, baseball, boxes, cycling, haltérophilie and fights. Seven concerned athletes medal-holders at the conclusion of the competitions. Only in athletics, three gold medals were withdrawn, before even as the athlete does not receive it.

202 delegations present

The Kiribati, the Palaos and the Eastern Timor took part for the first time in the Olympic Games.

Sports

Table of the medals

1: The island of Taiwan takes part under the English name of its Olympic national committee, only tolerated by the China: Chinese Taipei .

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