Beating the summer 250 years ago

MADRID: Security, SARS and a multi-billion-dollar TV deal will dominate the Olympic agenda in the countdown to next year’s Athens Games.

Looking farther ahead, the International Olympic Committee is relishing the prospect of a heavyweight battle for the 2012 Summer Games with the news that London has joined the fray.

In a week of heightened fears following bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the IOC which met in the Spanish capital last week, said its security experts were happy with arrangements in the Greek capital 15 months before the 2004 Games. Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli said a team of Olympic security experts, working with the Greek government, had reviewed arrangements in Athens and delivered a positive report.

Athens Olympics chief Gianna Angelopoulos also assured IOC president Jacques Rogge that construction on every venue for the Games was now underway and that "now is a time for confidence."

"We are 15 months away from the opening of the 2004 Games," Angelopoulos said. "We need to keep working every day. We have no time to lose but now is a time for confidence. Athens will be ready on time."

Rogge is determined that the deadly SARS virus should not disrupt the Games or its warm-up events and urged sports leaders not to overreact. He warned federations not to discriminate against athletes from areas hit by the bug, which has killed more than 600 people worldwide.

"It may be that exceptional circumstances need exceptional measures," he told sports federations. "But today that is far too soon."

Urging officials not to panic, he said: "Nobody knows what the situation will be in two weeks’ time.

"If governments have given approval (of travel) then there is no right to deny participation.

"It is a matter of respect (to Asians). We must not be over-zealous."

There was no lack of zeal in welcoming London’s official declaration to bid for the 2012 Games, sports leaders immediately installing England’s capital as a front-runner.

"All the elements are there in place for a first class bid," Olympic President Jacques Rogge said. "They will be a front-runner if they tackle the challenge well."

After months of delay, London joined New York, Madrid and Leipzig as an official candidate to stage the Olympics. Paris and Moscow are likely to join the race in the next few weeks.

The U. S. rights to televise the 2012 Games, along with the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Salzburg or Pyeongchang, are up for grabs and next month the IOC hopes to award them. Current rights holders NBC together with ABC, CBS and Fox will have to pay around $ 2 billion for the 2010 and 2012 rights although IOC Director General Francois Carrard stressed they would not necessarily go to the highest bidder.