Greece is the word

Greece has been the setting for some crucial decisions of the Olympic Movement over the years. Philip Barker explores the historical significance of the country as the world of sport prepares to meet there once more.

Back in March, an Olympic Flag was raised above the historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens at the start of the first International Olympic

Committee Session of 2021. The entire meeting was scheduled to take place in the Greek capital, but the pandemic showed no signs of diminishing. Organisers were forced to cancel the physical gathering and instead the IOC met on a virtual platform. By a twist of fate, Greece will, after all, welcome much of the Olympic world in 2021 after it was chosen to replace Seoul as host of October’s Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly.

Athens was originally picked as the setting, but in September organisers changed tack and plumped for Crete.

The Mediterranean island has come into contact with the five rings before, and ANOC’s invasion is due to be the biggest Olympic event held there since the Torch arrived en-route to the Athens 2004 Games.

After journeying across the world, it was Crete where the Flame first touched down again on Greek soil.

Organising Committee President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki carried the Torch from a special plane, named Zeus, and it was greeted by thousands in the island’s capital Heraklion.

A cauldron was ignited by Stella Pilatou, a long jumper from Crete who went on to compete at the Games.

The Flame continued to make its way around the island, and the London 2012 Relay also visited.

Heraklion hosted matches as part of the Athens 2004 football tournaments, including a women’s semi-final, and Cristiano Ronaldo was among those to play there.

There have often been difficulties of one kind or another when the Olympic family is about to gather in Greece.

When Athens hosted the first Olympics of the modern era in 1896, an IOC Session was held by what was then a fledgling movement with an uncertain future.

Only a handful of members were able to join IOC President Demetrios Vikelas and secretary Pierre de Coubertin - a smaller gathering than most Executive Board meetings today.

At the time, there was a complex political situation in Crete which was seeking independence from Turkey. Pro-Greek feelings fuelled by the Games saw conflict in the immediate aftermath of 1896.

Ten years later, Athens staged “Olympic” Games once again. These were originally intended to be held at the midpoint of every Olympiad, but were only held on this occasion.

Crete, with an unusual status as a “semi-independent” territory, is thought to have sent seven athletes to compete for the island.

By the time a full IOC Session returned to Athens in 1934, more problems loomed.

Preparations were now in full swing for the 1936 Games in Berlin, after the German capital had been chosen as host five years earlier. However, two years after this, Hitler rose to power.

The brutality of the Nazi regime towards the Jewish community was soon revealed.

Assurances had been given at the 1933 IOC Session in Vienna, but the subject again generated headlines.

British member Lord Aberdare reported “new and violent opposition in the press” and “a certain hesitation” in accepting

PHILIP BARKER HISTORIAN, INSIDETHEGAMES

invitations to participate in Berlin.

American William May Garland talked of an “exaggerated campaign” in his nation’s newspapers.

But the German member Karl Ritter Von Halt insisted that “every facility was given to non-Aryans to take part in the Games and to train for them”.

IOC President Comte Henri Baillet-Latour commended his German colleagues, saying he was “conscious of the serious effort they had made in Germany to keep sports outside politics”.

His statement indicated the IOC’s readiness to accept reassurances at face value, but it soon became clear that Jewish athletes were indeed being excluded.

Among those frozen out was German high jump record holder Gretel Bergmann, at the very least a potential medallist. Her achievements were even stricken from Nazi sports records.

The IOC members of 1934 were taken to the spiritual home of the Games in Ancient Olympia, and they also stopped in the small village of Tegea.

Here, a monument commemorates the discussions which led to the launch of the first Torch Relay, which was held before Berlin.

It was also the IOC’s 40th anniversary, with Hermann Göring, the head of the German Luftwaffe who was later sentenced to death as a Nazi war criminal, among those to attend the celebrations.

At the Session, gliding was confirmed as a demonstration sport for Berlin, scarcely without irony given the events to come.

A World War and 20 years passed before the IOC returned to Athens in 1954. By now, international travel made a much larger attendance possible.

Coubertin’s widow Marie sent a greeting saluting “those who contributed to reestablishing this most grandiose manifestation of the highest of civilisations”.

An unusual election chose the host city for the 1956 equestrian events alone, as Melbourne could not stage the sport due to Australia’s quarantine laws. Stockholm won by a convincing margin over Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and Los Angeles.

Cold War politics also cast a shadow over IOC meetings in Athens. The Soviet Bloc sponsored the acceptance of the People’s Republic of China, which was voted through by 23 votes to 21. Despite this, it was almost 30 years before a PRC team competed at the Olympics.

The acceptance of the East German Olympic Committee was another longrunning issue discussed in Greece.

This was initially rejected in 1954, but the matter lingered in the background by the time of the 1961 Session in Athens.

East and West Germany were then competing under the same flag, but it was an uneasy peace. A few weeks after the Session, construction began on the Berlin Wall.

At the same meeting, the Soviets lobbied for wider IOC representation for International Federations. Their attempts were unsuccessful, although the idea was adopted many years later.

The Soviets also gave their backing to a proposal by Frenchman Comte Jean de Beaumont, who said it was “imperative for the IOC to envisage seriously assisting the new countries of Africa and Asia”.

What he described as “sports aid” eventually took full flight as Olympic Solidarity.

It was also in Athens where it was decided that the 1964 Tokyo Olympics should take place in October. Like this year a quarantine period was discussed, although this one was only for horses.

The question of amateur status remained at the heart of the Olympic Movement, then led by President Avery Brundage who ardently defended the concept.

He was supported by others at the Session, including Sweden’s senior member Bo Ekelund who insisted that “no professional athlete is permitted in the Olympic Games”.

By the time the IOC Session returned to Athens in 1978, the question had not been resolved.

In a scenario familiar to modern sporting observers, Los Angeles was the only candidate for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

“While it is disappointing that there is only one candidate city for the Olympic Games, it is not surprising,” IOC President Lord Killanin said.

Los Angeles had previously lost out to Montreal for 1976 and Moscow for 1980.

“I think I should make it clear that if there is only one applicant it does not necessarily mean that it will get the Games,” Killanin warned.

There was extensive debate, with the official minutes from Athens running to almost nine pages.

When all was said and done, the IOC awarded the Games to Los Angeles but only “provisionally”. This was subject to the city “entering into a contract in accordance with Olympic rules”.

The issue of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, during the time of

Nazi rule, was discussed in Greece. Photo: Getty Images The end of the women's marathon at the Panathenaic Stadium during Athens 2004. Photo: Getty Images

PHILIP BARKER HISTORIAN, INSIDETHEGAMES

Los Angeles was awarded the 1984 Olympic Games in Athens. Photo: Getty Images

If this proved impossible, “the provisional award would be withdrawn and new applications called for,” the IOC said.

The 1984 Games were eventually staged in Los Angeles, but only after long discussions over contracts.

In those days, the Winter Olympics were held in the same year as the Summer Games. Three candidates wanted to host 1984’s winter gathering.

“The decision you take will be fundamental for the future of the Games,” Killanin told the membership.

Gothenburg went out in the first round, leaving a tussle between 1972 hosts Sapporo and eventual winners Sarajevo. The Yugoslav city was described as “stable from a political, technical and geographic perspective”.

Sixty-nine of the 84 IOC members were present, and there was discussion once more about the composition of the organisation.

Ethiopia’s Yidnekatchew Tessema was among those to call for membership to be limited to one person per country.

By 2004, when the IOC returned to the city for the Athens Games, there were still only around 100 members. Today, this figure has not changed by much.

The build-up to Athens 2004 was far from straightforward. At one stage, the IOC threatened to strip Greece of the Games after frustrating and consistent delays.

In early 2004, the ANOC General Assembly was held in Athens and hailed as the largest gathering of National Olympic Committees yet, but it came against the backdrop of uncertainty.

Any visitors to the Olympic Park would have encountered a construction site and piles of earth as work continued until the last moments.

The return of the dynamic AngelopoulosDaskalaki, who had previously led the bidding team, eventually proved decisive in restoring lost momentum.

By the time the IOC Session gathered in August, a remarkable transformation had occurred.

“A number of projects which had been considered impossible had been achieved,” IOC Coordination Commission chairman Denis Oswald exclaimed.

“They had reached a status that they could only have dreamed of a year before.’’

Senior IOC figure Alex Gilady described progress as “spectacular” and suggested the work had “saved Greece and the IOC from great humiliation”.

The first part of the Session was notable for what was described as “a sad procedure”. It was certainly highly unusual as Indonesia’s Mohammed Hasan was expelled after being jailed for fraud.

IOC President Jacques Rogge told a worldwide television audience that Athens 2004 had been “dream” Games.

Both shot put competitions were held at Ancient Olympia, a site the Movement invariably visits when meeting in Greece.

Coubertin did so in 1894 after rallying support for the first Games, and he repeated the trip in 1927 as part of a group which made a seven-hour train journey from Athens.

A monument to mark the restoration of the Olympics was revealed and Coubertin called on the youth of the world to “keep the flag flying”.

In 1938, his heart was interred into a monument at the site and Olympia continues to hold great importance.

Members of the IOC Executive Board met there in 1996, to mark the centenary of those first Athens Games, and did so again in October as part of a weekend of events in Greece.

As the current members of the Olympic family prepare to gather in Crete for this year’s ANOC General Assembly, the world of sport faces many well documented obstacles, just as it has before.

It should be a year of celebration in Greece as 200 years ago, the country’s War of Independence began.

This year is also the 125th anniversary of Athens 1896, but the coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed any plans for festivities.

Despite this, the Olympic Flame for Beijing 2022 is set to be ignited in Olympia and the renovated International Olympic Academy is due for a grand re-opening on its 60th anniversary.

The Museum of the Modern Olympic Games, closed for much of the last decade, will also open its doors after improvements, once again to chart the history of a remarkable institution.

Those meeting this year in Crete will hope that sport’s next chapters will include some much-needed positivity.

The first IOC members gather for their Session in Athens in 1896.

Photo: Getty Images