When the Olympic Games were first created, they were designed as
a unifying symbol for countries to join together and enjoy the
rivalries of athletic competition.
Now, though, as the Olympics return to Athens, Greece, all
Olympic athletes, including some of UCLA’s finest, are
surrounded by the threat of terrorist attacks, causing anxiety and
tension for the 2004 Summer Games.
UCLA baseball alumnus Nick Theodorou, who is competing for
Greece, expressed his concern.
“There’s something that’s probably going to
happen,” he said. “But $750 million is being spent to
protect the athletes with help from the U.S., so I feel safe.
It’s my parents I’m more concerned about.
“There’s something more likely to happen to random
people and the fans.”
UCLA’s athletes have had unparalleled success in the
Olympics, winning a gold medal in every competition since the 1932
Olympics. The 2004 Olympics, though, will be the first since the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the landscape of foreign competition
has changed dramatically.
The 14 current UCLA athletes participating in the games will be
housed in an Olympic Village that is surrounded by chain-link
fences with sensors and accompanied by a force of 70,000 Greek
police and military personnel that are patrolling the area.
UCLA pole vaulter Yoo Kim (competing for South Korea), for one,
feels the security for the games will provide adequate protection
for the athletes.
“I think it will be all right,” Kim
said. “Obviously I hope that nothing bad happens, but it
is a risk that I think we athletes are willing to take because we
know how important the Olympics are to us.”
In addition to the normal security, UCLA’s 10 athletes
competing for the United States will be provided with extra
internal perimeter security because U.S. athletes are seen as being
at greater risk to be targeted by terrorists.
Jennie Finch, a pitcher on the U.S. softball team, told
NBC’s “Today” television show in a live interview
Tuesday, “We have two secret agents “¦ that travel with
us at all times.”
Beyond the Olympic Village, there are security checkpoints at
every athletic sporting event and traffic checks throughout all
major methods of transportation.
The most comprehensive vehicles of Greece’s security,
though, may be the Greek air force jets and NATO AWACS surveillance
planes patrolling the air throughout the two-week event, according
to USA Today.
In the end, despite the $1.5 billion spent on security, Greece
has a very large task ahead of it. With its very large coastline
and a security task force that is still trying to catch up from the
failures of the past Greek organizing committee, the country may
have to perform last-minute heroics to make these Olympics
successful.