The new playing field
Drug tests will be tough. The sun is brutal and Anti-Americanism could sway judges and crowds
After dealing with politics and doping, athletes will be relieved to run out on the track or jump into the pool. For the most part, athletes who have tested the athletic venues now being completed by the Greeks have been effusive in their praise. But some athletes will face unprecedented challenges because of Greece's hot summers, budget constraints, and seaside geography.
Greek heat--last August saw daily highs in the upper 90s--threatens all endurance athletes with heatstroke. And it may have other surprising effects. Swimming records are generally set in water between 78 and 81 degrees, but Athens's roofless lap pool could heat up beyond that. All swimmers will be affected equally, but hot water could prove costly to a select few. Professionals like America's eight-medal hopeful Michael Phelps will earn $1 million from Speedo for a record medal count, with extra cash for breaking world records.
At least the pool has fresh water. Because Athens is hot, dry, and lacking in big, steep rivers, Greek engineers designed a 300-some-yard artificial pretzel of man-made boulders and filled it with the salt water they have in abundance. Not only are the rapids thrilling Class 5-ers (the highest class), but paddlers may have to negotiate them nearly blindly, says Joe Jacobi, who won gold in 1992 and will compete again this summer. Salt water foams up, hiding rocks and slalom gates, and it can sting the eyes and fog up goggles.
But the challenge excites Jacobi. He's so familiar with his home course on Tennessee's Ocoee River that he knows every tree. At the ancient home of the Olympics, all the athletes will test their mettle in new ways. "There are going to be some very dramatic moments," Jacobi predicts.
Perhaps the most dramatic turn of events would be an Olympics in which the 202 lands represented manage to get along despite the tensions. "We haven't experienced anything like this before," says Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of the anti-American climate, and he should know--he was captain of the U.S. judo team at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and trained competitors for Olympiads during the Vietnam and Cold War eras. Nonetheless, Campbell is hopeful that the spirit of the games will prevail. "If we ever needed the Olympics," he says, "it is now."
With Rachel Dry
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