HOW quickly they forget. Only two weeks ago the Greeks were in a paralysis of soul-searching and breast-beating over the farce that surrounded Konstantinos Kenteris, a missed appointment with the dope testers and a dodgy motorbike crash.
It was deemed to be a national shame. He was a disgrace to Greece, worthy at the very least of a public horse-whipping in Syntagma Square.
And yet on Thursday evening, the boos rang around the Olympic Stadium as American Shaun Crawford and his fo
llowers, so to speak, lined up for the final of Kenteris’ event, the 200 metres. A belated protest at his inability to defend the title he won in Sydney.
Kenteris said he was thrilled by the boos that greeted his absence from the 200m final. "It was the best thing I have heard in years," he said. "The behaviour of the public vindicates me."
Whether the investigation into his medical records and the shady past of his former coach Christos Tzekos will also vindicate him remains to be seen.
The police have already taken documents from his premises and have also found small amounts of anabolic steroids at his warehouse. They have also seized the hospital records of Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou.
In addition to that, the ex-deputy sports minister Giorgis Lianis has acknowledged that he gave Tzekos about 182,000 to prepare his athletes and there was confirmation of reports that Tzekos had approached the previous government with a 6 million plan to prepare 150 athletes to become medal-winners through artificial means.
Unlike Kenteris, this case looks likely to run and run. And it may get very messy.
IT IS not just Kenteris supporters who have been unhappy with the way things have been going during the Games. Dimitra Kanellopoulou, head of the Greek prostitutes’ movement, has been expressing her concern that profits during the Games have been going down, so to speak.
Apparently the Sydney Games was a sex bonanza with around 10,000 prostitutes working overtime to meet demand. According to the industrious Kanellopoulou, Athens has failed to measure up in that department.
"We haven’t seen the slightest increase in demand," she said gloomily, adding that she only deals with licensed prostitutes and not with any ladies who may be moonlighting or who have come in from abroad.
The poor girl has more to worry about it seems as the government is about to crack down in brothels after the Games. The last time they did this dozens of hookers camped outside the interior ministry in protest so we are all looking forward to a repeat performance with some amusement.
IT IS amazing. You spend three years planning to bid for the Olympics and then seven years building for the Olympics (or in Greece’s case, three years arguing about who is going to build and only four years actually building). You are nearing the end of the Games and someone asks what the plan is for the venues after the Games.
So, only ten years to think about the answer to a question that you know is pretty inevitable. Want to know the answer from the Greek government this week?
"Unfortunately, there isn’t any plan." That’s it. The prime minister, who has only been in power since March, apparently asked his cabinet to start thinking about post-Olympics usage last week. Does London’s Millennium Dome leap to mind by any chance? There are also likely to be legal kickbacks as the state company managing 14 Olympic facilities has said that some were handed over without the contracts being fulfilled.
"Their priority was on Olympic use and there was not enough planning for the day after," said one spokesman. The Dome, the Dome, the Dome. Beijing, London, Paris, New York, take note.
INTERVIEWED about the brightly coloured uniforms worn by the thousands of volunteers scattered around Athens, Julie Harcus and Craig Shearer could not help giving away their roots. "We would wear them but you really need a bit of sunshine and a tan to carry off the bright colours. We’re a bit too pale for them." Spoken like true Scots.
THERE was a sense of awed disbelief when the American Misty May - am I the only one to think that name belongs in the world of adult entertainment? - produced a casket of ashes after she and Kerrie Webb won the women’s beach volleyball gold medal and scattered them on to the sand. Her reason? "Everyone else had their family here, so I brought my mom."
HANDBALL is perhaps not the most global of sports but in some countries it is, if we might borrow from Leonard Cohen, Bono and others the overworked cliche, the favourite game. In Denmark, for example, women’s handball is considered the second sport behind football with top players such as the most fragrant Kristine Andersen making an extremely healthy wage.
Miss Andersen is one of those who also makes a bit of cash from promotional activities, though the two players who are about to get the most exposure are the Hungarian duo Anita Gorbicz and Anita Kulczar.
Gorbicz appears on the cover of the September issue of FHM while the other Anita also appears inside with her team-mate, wearing very little. Very little indeed, so I have been told. Unfortunately, boys, if you want to read about them you will need to travel to Budapest. It is only the Hungarian issue.
ONE of the most irritating aspects of the Games is the constant requests from everyone, spectators, volunteers and periptero owners for Olympic pins, those little badges you can stick in your jacket.
In this case they seem to end up along the accreditation ribbon. In some cases, it now seems to be a form of currency the way cigarette cards with football stars on them used to be.
Apparently the US basketball pin is among the most valued and some volunteers have taken to blackmail to obtain them, only allowing access to certain areas in exchange for the wretched little pin.
