Athens Wins the 2004 Summer Games
01:21 p.m Sep 05, 1997 Eastern
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuter) - Athens, founder of the ancient and modern Olympics, was on Friday awarded the right to stage the 2004 Summer Games.
The Greeks, who failed in a bid eight years earlier when they applied to host the centennial Olympics in 1996, won in a five-way fight with Rome, Cape Town, Buenos Aires and Stockholm.
Rome, the eternal city, had been seen as favourite but most observers felt the decision was too close to call in the week leading up to Friday's vote by 107 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members.
When IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch announced the result at the Palais de Beaulieu, Greek bid leader Gianna Angelopoulos hugged members of her delegation and kissed them on the cheek while supporters chanted her name.
Athens, rejected in favour of Atlanta for the 1996 Games, won at the second attempt by adopting a totally different approach.
At the first attempt, they were criticized for acting as if they had a right to the Games, 100 years after Athens hosted the first modern Olympics.
This time the personable Angelopoulos wooed IOC members, convincing
them of Athens's efforts to modernize its infrastructure
and facilities.
Olympics-Athens defeat Rome in fifth round
of voting
01:29 p.m Sep 05, 1997 Eastern
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept 5 (Reuter) - Athens defeated favourites Rome in the fifth and final round of voting on Friday for the right to stage the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Athens was in front in each round of voting and almost clinched the verdict in the previous round, falling just two votes short of an absolute majority when Cape Town was still in the running.
The votes by 107 International Olympic Committee members were as follows (lowest vote in each round eliminated):
First round:
Athens 32
Rome 23
Stockholm 20
Buenos Aires 16
Cape Town 16
Second round (tiebreak):
Cape Town 62
Buenos Aires 44 (eliminated)
Third round:
Athens 38
Rome 28
Cape Town 22
Stockholm 19 (eliminated)
Fourth round:
Athens 52
Rome 35
Cape Town 20 (eliminated)
Fifth round:
Athens 66
Rome 41 (eliminated) ^REUTER@
Naked support for Greece brings arrest warrant
01:31 p.m Sep 08, 1997 Eastern
ATHENS, Sept 8 (Reuter) - One man's support for Greece's Olympic bid was found on Monday to be too blatant even by patriotic Athenian standards.
Demosthenes Vergis, well-known for his political pranks, distributed posters of himself naked across the city, his private parts pointing at a photo of Primo Nebiolo, Italian head of the International Amateur Athletic Federation.
Athens won the right to host the 2004 Olympic Games on Friday, beating Rome, whose bid Nebiolo strongly backed.
Nebiolo publicly questioned Athens' ability to organise the Games and was accused of using the recent athletics world championships in the city to disparage Athens.
Greece's public prosecutor was not
amused by the posters and ordered Vergis' arrest for indecency.
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