OLYMPIC GAMES START IN ATHENS
Olympic Games return to their homeland. The 28th summer Olympic games start
in Greece on Friday after 108 years ago it hosted the first games of our
time.
More details from correspondent Konstantin Garibov.
The flame of the 28th Olympic games will be lighted in Athens, the home
of ancient and modern Olympic games. Ten thousand artists, including 2
thousand professionals will take part in the colorful opening ceremony
that includes performances on ancient themes at 10.pm Moscow time. Seventy-seven
thousand people at the stadium and about four billion television viewers
will watch the ceremony. Olympic truce declared by the United Nations starts
with the lighting of the Olympic flame. According to the ancient tradition,
during the period of Olympic games there should not be any war in the world.
This time the period is from the 13th to the 29th of August. As a symbol
of peace 202 Olympic delegations, including more than 470 sportsmen from
Russia will parade under their national flags during the opening ceremony
at the main stadium. Russian team’s standard-bearer is four-time Olympic
champion, swimmer Alexander Popov. Earlier, weight lifters, wrestlers and
handball players were standard-bearers. This is the third time Russia takes
part in the Olympic games since 1912. Russian flag was hoisted in Atlanta
in 1996 and for the second time in Sydney four years later. In both games
Russia occupied the second place in medal counts. According to the president
of the national Olympic committee Leonid Tyagachev, Russian team is aimed
at winning the first place in medal counts and 30 gold medals. The United
States, China, Australia, Germany and France are Russia’s main competitors.
However, the three-time Olympic champion in figure skating Irina Rodnina
preferred not to make forecasts.
Irina Rodnina said that making forecasts is the most ungrateful thing.
Every sportsman who attends the Olympic games dreams about gold and the
highest awards. Irina Rodnina said that she would wish Russian sportsmen
and their trainers only gold medals.
Russian Orthodox Church has for the first time sent a priest to Greece
to render spiritual support to the Russian delegation. All main religious
communities in the country wished them success.
Meanwhile, Olympic games have already set records and made sensations.
South Korean sports woman Pak Sen Hek set a world record in the archery
preliminary competition. The first unexpected result was the 4-2 victory
of Iraqi soccer team over Portugal. Greece spent more than one billion
euros for guaranteeing security. This is four times more than that of Sydney
Olympics. Greek special services cooperate with their colleagues from seven
countries, including Russia.
08/13/2004
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