In a look back at the history of the bid for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, their impact on modern Greek society and economy and their use even today, twenty years later, they proceeded to the 9th Delphi Economic Forum held in Delphi 10 – 13 April and is under the auspices of A.E. of the President of the Republic, Mrs. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach and Gianna Angelopoulou – Daskalaki, Ambassador in Personalities, President of the Claiming Committee for the Olympic Games ATHENS 2004, President of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games ATHENS 2004, under the coordination of the journalist of the newspaper Ta Nea and SKAI, Pavlos Tsimas.
Taking the floor first, Thomas Bach spoke about Greece as a timeless symbol of the Olympic Games. According to him, “over 3000 years the amazing Greek culture gave a gift to humanity, the Olympic Games. We are grateful to the Greeks for this, the Olympic Games are an institution loved by millions of people around the world. With the revival of the Games in 1896 Pierre de Coubertin ensured that this legacy would continue. Greece will always have a special place in our hearts, and in mine.”
He also praised the contribution of Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki to the institution: “The 2004 games will always be associated with Gianna Angelopoulou Daskalaki”, who, as he said, “turned Athens’ candidacy into a winning attempt to claim the Olympic Games , she was the one who managed to mobilize the organization in an excellent way”.
He also referred to her key intervention when the preparations of the facilities were not on schedule: “At the time she took over, the preparations for the Games were not on the best possible track. But it brought unity, it taught a lesson that a Greek will always be a Greek and that it would strengthen this gift of Greece to Humanity.” He also characterized the 2004 Olympic Games as “unforgettable, dream games” adding that they are rightly considered a return to the roots because through them the ancient heritage was connected with the modern reality.
He also underlined their advantages for Greece, stressing that “Athens 2004” created a new culture of volunteering, as 160,000 people applied for volunteers, contributed to the renovation of the historic center of Athens, the improvement of the transport network and the early start of the metro network. In fact, he praised their role in promoting Greece as a tourist destination, as from the 12 million visitors in 2003, in 2015 the country received 24 million.
At the end of his placement, he also referred to the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, noting that they will be the first Olympic Games with full gender equality, with an equal number of competition places for female and male athletes, and the first with the reform of the Olympic agenda from the beginning to the end.
In the same section, Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki spoke from the platform of the forum about the importance and legacy of the 2004 Olympic Games in modern Greece, pointing out that “we did what no outsider expected, but neither did we ourselves and we finally succeeded” .
“All these years I meet people and they tell me about 2004: “I was there too”, with pride, pride and emotion. We must go beyond emotion, however. Greece first claimed for the second time in 10 years and we had to change the basis of the claim and the image of our country abroad. We did not claim them by hereditary right, but on the basis that we will organize the best Games. They didn’t believe us, it wasn’t easy to convince them, but we convinced them. Second, Greece was the smallest country to undertake the Olympic Games and succeeded. He left a manual of organizational excellence, good operation, cooperation between public and private bodies, which should not be left unused. And thirdly, the games succeeded because they became a national affair, a bet of every Greek woman and every Greek. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t even have made it to the opening ceremony.”
It is worth noting that Gianna Angelopoulou – Daskalaki gave her answer to Pavlos Tsimas on whether the games contributed to the subsequent economic crisis, saying that the budget for the Games was 2 billion, 98 million, 400,000 euros. We returned a 130.6 million euro surplus to the state. What you don’t know was that according to the Oxford University study, it was the second cheapest Games after Los Angeles in 1932. In another question about the total cost of Infrastructure and Projects undertaken by the Greek state, the IOBE did research in 2015 and found that for the period 2000-2010 6.5 billion was spent on Olympic Projects, while in 2004 alone, 2.5% was added to the GDP, the state had 2.9 billion euros in tax revenue etc., without counting revenues from tourism. The Olympic Games did not bankrupt Greece, the numbers speak for themselves.
Twenty years later, she added that it is never too late to take advantage of the Olympic Heritage, the infrastructure, the know-how, the thousands of people who were trained. “Greece got back on the map when it did the Olympic Games” he noted from the podium of the conference, adding that if it weren’t for the Olympic Games, basic infrastructure projects would not have been completed on time. “Imagine our life without these projects, while the Greek economy also benefited greatly. For me, however, the image that Greeks and foreigners gained about the country is of greater value. This has not evaporated, no matter what Greece has been through” concluded the leader of Athens 2004.
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