As the Flame makes its journey, Greece gets ready for the Best Games Ever
Article and pictures by Bill Gatzoulis.
The ATHENS 2004 Olympic Torch Relay began from Olympia, Greece on the 25th of March 2004. From there - and under the responsibility of the Hellenic Olympic Committee – it traversed the Peloponnese and the islands of Argosaronikos for the duration of a week and it finally arrived at the Zapion Megaro by helicopter on March 31st 2004. Katerina Thanou transferred the Flame to a specially designed and manufactured altar in the Panathinaiko stadium. The Flame stayed there until the 4th of June 2004, when its international route began from Sydney. The Olympic Flame returned to Greece via Cyprus on July 9 after traveling across all five continents of the world and began its journey through all the prefectures of Crete on July 10.
While the 2004 Olympic venues were being completed in Athens, Thessaloniki and the other Olympic cites, the Olympic Flame was making its journey throughout the islands and mainland of Greece. Having already visited the southern part of the Peloponnese, most of the Aegean Islands, Thrace and the Eastern part of Macedonia, on Friday July 23, 2004 the Flame left its overnight stop at Polygiros in Halkidiki and arrived in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, the capital of Greece’s Macedonia province. With a chain of 197 torchbearers set up, the Flame was then relayed through many of Thessaloniki’s municipalities until it was finally brought to the Lefko Pirgo (White Tower) area where the players of the Hellenic Olympic basketball team lit the Olympic cauldron. The celebration continued after the singing of the Olympic and Greek national anthems with an address by the mayor of the city, Vasilis Papageorgopoulos and then with a display of acrobatic Gymnastics by members of Thessaloniki's Gymnastic team (rated number 3 in Europe), music concerts, dances, and fireworks displays.
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Local residents warmly received by the Flame at Thessaloniki’s Lefko Pirgo |
The captain of the Hellenic Olympic basketball team brings the Flame to the Olympic altar. |
The players of the Hellenic Olympic basketball team light the Olympic cauldron. |
Among the 197
torchbearers in Thessaloniki was Jackie Chan, world-famous actor starring in
many martial arts films. He is shown above holding one of the first copies of
the brochure “Birth
of the Olympic Games”. The brochure, which was printed earlier on Friday in Thessaloniki, was produced by the Pan-Macedonian Association Inc. (USA) and was
given to Mr. Chan by the Pan-Macedonian Association Vice-President, Nina
Gatzoulis (also above with Mr. Chan).
After an overnight stay in Thessaloniki, the journey of the Olympic Flame through Greece’s Macedonia
province continued towards Pella,
Giannitsa, Dion, Veria, Naousa, Edessa, Florina, Kozani, Kastoria, Neapolis,
Tsotili, Pentalofos, and Eptahori and other cities and towns with pass-through
visits or overnight stopovers, then headed to Greece’s Epirus province where
thousands of residents and visitors greeted it at Epirus’ capital,
Ioannina.
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The Olympic Flame
moves by motorcade past Tsotili and heads towards Pentalofos |
From Ioannina the
Flame continued south to Thessalia and Evia and by August 4th the Flame had
left impressive celebrations at Delphi behind and headed for a stopover at the
historic Roumeli town of Amfissa. It then continued on to Itea, Galaxidi and
Nafpaktos, where a Chinook helicopter carried the Torch party to the Ionian
island of Zakynthos for its overnight ceremony and festivities.
After visiting the
remaining Ionian Islands of Kefallonia,
Ithaki, Lefkada, and Kerkyra, the Flame returned to the mainland and on August 8th, Greece's winning
Euro 2004 football team joined the national Olympic football team and a host of
other celebrities to carry the Olympic torch across the newly completed
Rio-Antirio Bridge from the mainland to the Peloponnese. The
suspension bridge is the longest of its kind in the world. It was completed in
June after seven years of construction and crosses the 3km-long Corinth strait
and.
The journey from
there will take the Flame through the northern part of the Peloponnese heading towards its final
destination. On August 12, the eve of the opening
ceremony, it will reach Athens where a marathon party of Greek music and songs
awaits it. On August
13th 2004, in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Greece, it will
light up the main caldrion in the Athens Olympic Stadium for the entire world
to see. The celebrations that will follow are promised to be like no other ever
seen. Although the plans are secret, the planners have said not to expect a
Broadway type presentation but something spectacular in strickly European
fassion.
Having
visited all five continents represented by the Olympic Rings, the first
for a torch relay, by the end of the 78-day relay of 11,300 torchbearers, the
Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay will have visited 27 countries and 207
destinations (33 worldwide and 174 in
Greece), and covered 4,066 km. In Greece, more than 7,000 torchbearers of all ages would
have passed the flame and thirty-five cities and archaeological sites and equal
numbers of concerts given by 26 renowned Greek artists would have welcomed the
Olympic flame from the moment it returned to its homeland.
As the
Flame was still making its journey, all the Olympic venues were completed and
Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis announced that:
“Greece is ready to hold the best Olympic Games ever and the safest Games
humanly possible.”
Route maps from: http://www.athens2004.com/en/home/
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World
Tour Route |
Greek
Tour Route |
* End of Day Celebrations.
Overnight
stay locations of the Olympic flame
Locations
the Olympic flame has visited
Locations
the Olympic flame will visit