Carla-Mae’s Journal: Day Three

Three US Fencing Olympic Team staff joined the ranks of athletes as participants in the travel triathlon. The goal was to wend our way to the fencing venue by public transportation. Our advice – don’t do it. Stick to Athoc or USOC mode of transportation. How did people get to the old airport before many of these new roads and rail lines were constructed??

The tram between the Pireus port and the Hellinko venue area is brand new. We discovered it only became operational two weeks ago and worked 1 in 4 times!! It is hazardous to one’s life as there is barely enough room to stand and yet not be knocked down by the tram!

To get to the nearest Metro from the Olympic Village one must ride the bus for 10 minutes. (And for me that is after a half hour bus ride from the ACG to the Village.) The Metro then takes one into the heart of Athens in about 20 minutes where you change to another metro line. Then we had to find the right bus outside this brand new station where construction was still proceeding finishing up the station. Fortunately our team leader, Bob, has good sense of direction and led us through the islands of safety to the bus stop. With sign language and a few words in Greek we even got on the right bus.

It is amazing the changes that have occurred in the Hellinko area since the last visit fin March. It is as if a vast hand swept over the land and seeded the ball fields, completed the canoe/kayak course, and decorated the old airport hangars. Getting to the front of the fencing “hangar” we had to traverse security-screening operation. One could tell the persons manning the screening were relatively new to the task and needed to have bags emptied for any dark objects, checking out cameras and keys. They took their job seriously but until they gain more experience, there could be some serious delays getting through security.

Believe it or not, the venue had been readied for the test event in March but apparently was stripped down some time afterward and only recently rebuilt or in the process of being rebuilt. Will it be ready for the first day of competition on August 14, one week away? Undoubtedly it will though it will take many more hours to complete the tasks. For want of the proper rugs in the right color, the scoring equipment cannot be set up, which delays the full testing of the technology for the competition and for all the media needs.

It is definitely a pattern here that the schedule for facility operation is on a different time sequence than one would desire. The venue will have a sitting capacity of 6,000 and is the same design as done in previous Games. The key is what is not seen – the amount and type of lighting for the television production, the type of rugs in appropriate colors, the staging of the finals. For these finals, the referee will be placed in a more difficult situation with the bleachers on each side of the length of the strip. Thus the referee will not look into a back drop or black wall but rather will have audience and lights to contend with.

From there we traversed a bridge spanning a heavily traveled roadway to reach the tram station heading towards the port and a cruise ship the USOC has rented for its operation center. We were considering it as a possible place for fencers to stay the night before their competition. It was concluded that it would be best to leave them in an environment with which they were familiar – back in the Village and not move them around. The travel time between Village and venue is much less than we had been told, in great part due to the fact that Athens has instituted Olympic lanes only. Those lanes are only for official Olympic Games transportation and anyone caught misusing the lane is fined 150 euros. By American dollars that is almost $200. Travel from the Village to the port where the ship is docked takes a half hour or so and space is limited and there is little to do at the port itself.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

• Although it is really hot, it is not very humid.
  
• There are no mosquitoes.
  
• It hardly rains and days are filled with sunshine.
  
• Although several of us have the required international driver’s license, we all feel it would be pushing Lady Luck driving here in Athens. The drivers are nuts, dislike rules and think pedestrians are objects to ignore.
  
• There are shower curtains for the handheld showers but hot water is a scarce commodity.
  
• The towels are absorbent, thicker than normal for Europe and each person gets two towels.
  
• The midday meal is excellent at the ACG but no other meals are provided so it is catch as catch can. Power bars are a ready fill in.
  
• There is always something to eat at the Village dining room, open 24 hours.
  
• Our replacement athlete’s credential will allow the athlete to enter the official training building in Dekalia but they need to sprout wings to get there as they cannot go into the Village which seems to be the only way to the practice building. Problem waiting for solution.
  
• There are laundry facilities at the ACG apartments so no excuse… Washing is fine, dryer is lacking in sufficient power but with balconies with each apartment sun drying is quite feasible.
  
• There is an endless supply of bottled water, coke, sport drink, fanta orange, iced tea…
  
• One can’t drink enough water to offset the evaporation from the skin and the dehydration from the heat.
  
• The apartments at ACG and in the Village are air conditioned so there is a respite from the heat. And the buses that transport us everywhere are also air conditioned and quite comfortable.