Austerity measures leaves Greek Olympic buildup in a shambles
April 6, 2012 Leave a comment
What a shame for Greece.
from The Guardian
The Greek Athletics Federation has been forced to indefinitely suspend all domestic competitions because severe funding cuts have made life impossible for athletes, coaches and support staff. In just over a month’s time Greece will host the Olympic flame lighting ceremony ahead of London 2012 but, as the suspension highlights, the country’s own Olympic preparations are a shambles.
Tradition dictates that the Greek team always lead the procession of athletes during the Olympic opening ceremony, but the government’s cuts mean that this summer the country will be sending its smallest squad since the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Only 75 athletes will travel to London, less than half the number who attended the Games in Beijing and only a sixth of the number who competed at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
The head of the athletics federation, Vassilis Sevastis, said: “The cuts in funding for the federation, last year and this year, are so extensive that they do not allow us to cover our basic needs. We can’t do our job properly. We’re at a dead-end financially.” The federation’s budget was cut by a third in 2011 and by a third again in 2012. It has €6.5m (£5.4m) to spend this year. It is not enough to cover basic operating costs and leaves coaches and other support staff unpaid for their previous year’s work.
Greek athletes, including the world indoor high jump champion Dimitris Chondrokoukis, have criticised the government for cutting funding. “The conditions are unacceptable and facilities are a big problem,” Chondrokoukis said. “There is lack of heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. Nevertheless, we all keep trying. I do it purely for personal reasons.”
Chondrokoukis’s father forbade all politicians from attending his son’s welcome-home celebrations after his recent success at the world indoor championships, saying: “Politicians are closing athletic facilities; it is unbelievable what is happening. No politician has the right to congratulate or partake in an athlete’s triumph.”
The long-jumper Louis Tsatoumas, who holds the European record with 8.66m, added: “We face so many difficulties in our preparations. The tracks we are using often have no lighting and the indoor gyms this winter have had no heating. It is sometimes below 10 degrees Celsius. It’s a worry because many athletes can get injured during training.” The indoor training centre at the 2004 Olympic stadium is said to have a leaking roof, so when it rains athletes have to work around buckets put out to collect the drips of water.
Other Olympic sports have also been affected by the austerity measures. Greece’s government invested around €30m in the run-up to the Beijing Games. The same amount had been pledged for this Olympic cycle but in the event the national Olympic committee did not receive a single euro in 2010 or 2011. As a result the gymnastics, weightlifting, sailing and water polo teams – Greece’s women are the current world champions – were unable to travel to their Olympic qualifying events. The International Olympic Committee had to step in to provide emergency funding.
Athens hosted the Olympics only eight years ago but the legacy of those Games has been disastrous. “Heaven and hell,” is how Spyros Kapralos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, describes the contrast between Greek sport then and now. “The success of the 2004 Olympics was lost when the lights went out at the end of the closing ceremony as our country had no plan to capitalise on their success,” Kapralos says. Now the venues for the Games sit unused, unwanted, and crumbling.
