World Report

Reward for time, effort and money spent on Olympics will be economic development

The Pancretan Stadium of Heraklion accomodates 33,000 spectators

owever its athletes perform in the Olympic Games, Greece is set to emerge a clear winner. Seventeen days of direct TV broadcasting to a world audience of 4 billion viewers daily will put the country in the international spotlight and showcase its modern face.

Spyros Capralos, General Secretary for the Olympic Games, says: “The Games will be a great success. They are an opportunity for Greece to show to the world its great past and history, as well as its modern face. They prove we are capable of successfully staging one of the largest and most complex events in the world.”

It has not been an easy task. The 2004 Games are the biggest ever, with more than 200 national teams taking part. According to Mr Capralos, Greece has had to do much more to prepare itself than any other country that has hosted the Olympic Games. “Not only have we had to construct modern sports facilities for the best athletes in the world to compete, we also had to build a lot of the infrastructure, which in other host countries was already in place.”

He is convinced the Olympics will be a triumph and will leave the Greek people proud of what their country has been able to accomplish. “The Olympics will leave Greece a great legacy. People will realise the benefits they have brought to our country only after the Games are finished. Looking back, they will say that all the sacrifices, the effort and the money spent was worth it. After all, Greece will be a much better country.”

The legacy of the Olympics will be a transformed, modern and confident Greece

Spyros Capralos
General Secretary for the Olympic Games
‘People will say all the effort and money spent were worth it’

Fanny Palli-Petralia
Alternate Minister of Culture
‘The Games will be a springboard for our future development’

Fanny Palli-Petralia, Alternate Minister of Culture, says the Games will be the springboard for the future development of Greece. “They will benefit the economy and the standard of living. The infrastructure we have created will change the lives of people all over Greece.

“After the Olympic Games Greece will be a different country. We are going to develop it more and try and improve life for all the inhabitants of the nation.”