THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside Greece email: VEMA [email protected] SEPTEMBER 2004 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 In this issue... Our Primate’s View VANDALISM PAGE 5/23 TRAVEL: Scaling Corinth’s mythical peaks PAGE 16/34 ‘Dream Games’ The Athens 2004 Games, the 28th Olympiad of the modern effort, it provided security in the air, the sea and on land. But era, ended on August 28 with a closing ceremony that cele- in the end, it was the athletes who were at the heart of the brated 16 days of competition and the nation that had played Games, setting as they did several new world and Olympic host to the world. Athens presented the Games with state-of- records. the art venues, and, through an unprecedented multinational FULL REPORT PAGE 20-38 SEPTEMBER 2004 2/20 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA Your Say Who was the Founder of the Modern Olympics? Dear Editor ancient, but not classic games, tive of establishing the modern renovation of the Panathenian I must take umbrage at your and two modern. Prizes were Olympic Games. After becoming Stadium asked him to contribute, journalist K I Angelopoulos, who both monetary and symbolical. a member of the Panhellenic Averoff stated that he would dared to repeat that pathetic non- There was a band playing an Gymnastic Society in Athens, he undertake the renovation of the sense which accords Pierre de Olympic Hymn, specially com- represented the Society in the ancient Panathenian Stadium, at Coubertain as the Founder of the posed for the occasion. The International Athletic Congress his own expense. Modern Olympics. judges were professors of the of 1894 held in Paris. There, he Subsequently, George Averoff He is so glorified because he University, and a herald an- made the first speech suggesting was greeted by all Hellenes as the himself wrote the book, so to nounced the winners. The King that Athens should be the site of principal establisher of the speak. The truth is closer to awarded prizes to winners to the the First International Olympic Olympic Games. In memory of home. The de Coubertain myth sound of the Olympic hymn. Games to be held in 1896. his patriotism, his statue was belittles and denies the pioneer- More Games were to follow in “I claimed Hellas rights with erected in front of the Stadium on ing thoughts of Alexander Sout- years to come. Zappas died in regard to the re-establishment of the eve of the beginning of the sos, the personal and financial 1865, leaving his immense for- a Hellenic institution. Indeed, as Games. support of Epirotes Evangelos tune for the benefit of the modern Victor Hugo put it, the whole civ- So given all of the foregoing, Zappas and George Averoff and Olympics with the purpose to be ilized world has a common available on the internet and con- the sporting leadership of the held every four years “in the grandmother, but we [the Helle- firmed via IOC Archives, how is very first IOC President, Dimi- manners of our ancestors”. De nes] have her as our mother. So it that the Hellenic nation has trios Vikelas. Coubertain was to use this money we are in a way the uncles of the ever allowed Pierre de Cou- The idea for reviving the Games to achieve what Zappas had rest of the peoples. Here is our bertain to claim all of the credit first came from the famous Helle- begun. only advantage, if it is an advan- for founding the modern nic poet, Alexandros Soutsos. In According to his will, his body tage. Here is the source of my Olympics? Even the Athens 2004 1833, the newspaper Helios pub- was buried in Romania, and his request that the restored Olympic website erroneously gives him lished his poem, where he refer- skull at the new Olympic build- Games be inaugurated on our credit without any mention of red to the necessity for reviving ing located in Zappeion, Athens. Hellenic soil”. After the accep- Soutsos, Zappas, Vikelas and WHITE HOUSE the Olympic Games. The news- Visitors can still see the inscrip- tance of the proposition, Athens Averoff. CORNERSTONE LAID: paper was published in Nafplio, tion at Zappeion: “Here lies the became the site of the first institu- Yet without these men there October 13, 1792 the first capital of the new born head”. De Coubertain copied the tionalized Olympic Games and would have been no idea for Hellenic state, in the Pelopon- idea and had his heart buried at Vikelas became the first president reviving the Games, no motiva- The cornerstone is laid for a presiden- nese. Mt Olympus with the inscription of the new-born International tion and impetus and certainly no tial residence in the newly designated Influenced by the ideas of that “Here lies the heart”. Olympic Committee. money. capital city of Washington. In 1800, poem, the great philanthropist Demetrios Vikelas was born in George Averoff, another It is time that the world recog- President John Adams became the first Evangelos Zappas proposed the 1835 in Syros, one of the Hellenic benefactor from Epirus, nized what the Hellenes did over president to reside in the executive revival of the Olympic Games Hellenic islands of the Aegean, was a resident of Alexandria. He a century ago, but which they too mansion, which soon became known AND set about to achieve that and died in 1908 in Athens. He personally financed the erection have now forgotten. as the "White House" because its goal. was a merchant in London, but of the Athens Polytechnic white-gray Virginia freestone contrast- Evangelos Zappas was born in since literature was his real love, School, the Military Academy Ange Kenos ed strikingly with the red brick of near- 1800 in a village at Epirus, he soon became a well-known and the High School and the Girls Olympic Certified Weightlifting by buildings. Northern Hellas. In 1831 he emi- writer. Institution at Alexandria. Coach and Volunteers Member grated to Bucharest, where he In 1894, he took over the initia- When the Committee for the of the Olympic Academy became one of the most wealthi- THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND est land-owners in the country. HURRICANE: Inspired by Alexandros Soutsos’ September 21, 1938 idea of reviving the ancient Olympics Games Evangelos Without warning, a powerful Category 3 hurri- Zappas, proposed to the Hellenic cane slams into Long Island and southern New government to personally finance England, causing 600 deaths and devastating the foundation of Modern Olym- coastal cities and towns. Also called the Long pics. Island Express, the Great New England After his agreement with the Hurricane of 1938 was the most destructive Hellenic Government, the storm to strike the region in the 20th century. [Zappian] Olympic Games were foun-ded. Zappas financed the MUNICH PACT SIGNED: erection of a building for exhibits, September 30, 1938 as well as the excavation and restoration of the ancient Panat- British and French prime ministers Neville henaic Stadium in Athens. Chamberlain and ýdouard Daladier sign the The athletic competition had Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. more game-like than sportive The agreement averted the outbreak of war character. As there were not ath- but gave Czechoslovakia away to German con- letes at that time, the Organising quest. Committee accepted the partici- pation of workers, porters, etc., SPUTNIK LAUNCHED: who were attracted by the mone- October 4, 1957 tary prizes of the Games. Accor- ding to the press of the time, The Soviet Union inaugurates the "Space Age" many anecdotes took place dur- with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first arti- ing the Games: a policeman who ficial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik was there keeping the order, left after the Russian word for "satellite," was his post and participated in the launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the races. Even a beggar, who pre- Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. tended to be blind, participated in Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and the races as well! weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once While the press criticized the every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 Games, the ideal of the athletic miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had competition was generally accep- an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of ted, and this was the beginning of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) the whole process of the Olympic of 143 miles. Games. The [later] Games of 1870’s took place in the restored Stadium. There were nine games: three classic ancient games, four SEPTEMBER 2004 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21 Editorial Using an Olympic The government and entrepreneurs must do their best to cap- the Boston Marathon or the Frankfurt Bookfair. italize on this unique opportunity. This will be harder to do today than it was the last two times opportunity Greece tried, in the early 20th century and in the late 1970s. (Kathimerini, 31-8-2004) End the travelling circus; Enormous corporate interests are now tied up in the Games' Congratulations, praise and thanks from everywhere! That is bring the Games home viability. Countries are lining up to host what in some nebu- the reaction of the international media to the Olympic Games lous accounting logic is a profitable event. in Athens now that they are over. John Psaropoulos (Athens News , 27/08/2004) Yet Greece has some powerful arguments. For the foresee- The Athens Games brought in a fresh new spirit, according Barring an unforeseen attack or a disastrous turn of organi- able future, Athens will have the most advanced sporting facil- to the major American television network ABC, which praised sation, the Athens Olympics have turned out to be an enor- ities in Europe.