WEB JOURNAL FROM 2004 ATHENS OLYMPICS

August 23, 2004
Athens
4:00 PM
Caption: The scene at the 1896 Olympic Stadium in Athens waiting for the Women's Marathon finish.

By 6:00 PM last evening at the start of the Women’s Marathon race, it was in the mid-90’s and humid! The crowd was already gathering in the 1896 Olympic Stadium in downtown Athens for the finish, some two and one-half hours and 26 miles 385 yards (42.2 km.) away (see photo). The great majority of the banners in the stadium were British, supporters of the world record holder Paula Radcliffe, and Japanese, supporters of Mizuki Noguchi the principle challenger. Music was playing and the crowd was into it, the theme from ‘Zorba the Greek,’ ‘YMCA,’ ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ and others. A big screen TV showed the entire Marathon for the crowd to enjoy.

By the 36 kilometer mark, Paula Radcliffe had dropped out leaving a battle between Noguchi and the former world record holder Ndereba of Kenya. The contest for third place, however, was far from over. The USA runner Deena Kastor had been moving up continuously during the race, from 18th position early in the race, to 13th at approximately mid-race to 8th late in the race. She emerged in the last 5km to 3rd place where she finished! The small USA crowd was wildly supportive! (Photo: Katy Romano cheering for Deena Kastor as she crosses the finish line.) The winning time of Noguchi was 2:26:20; Ndereba was 2:26:32 and Kastor was 2:27:20. Kastor was a surprise 3rd place finisher!

According to the International Herald Tribune report this morning 16 (of approximately 82 starters) athletes dropped out of the race (probably largely due to the high temperatures and the fact that the athletes had the sun in their faces for virtually the entire race) which makes one wonder why the organizers of the race scheduled it for 6 PM in August! Wouldn’t it have been better to run it early in the morning?

The stadium where the Marathon race finished was originally the location of the Roman Panathenaic Stadium, built in the 2nd century A.C. It was excavated and then rebuilt in the late 19th century for the first Modern Olympic Games. It’s very narrow track, now featuring two hair pin turns was originally an ancient dromos, with Herms marking the starting line at the east end.

Here are some Marathon facts:

1. There was no ancient marathon race.
2. According to Herodotus, the fifth century B.C. historian, Pheidippides, or by other accounts Philippides, was a day runner, a professional courier, who ran from Athens to Sparta to ask for the assistance of the Spartans after the Persians landed at Marathon in September 490 B.C.
3. According to Herodotus, Pheidippides did not die after arriving in Sparta the day after he left Athens. In the modern day this distance is 153 miles.
4. A later Roman author Lucian, includes additional information, that Pheidippides did die after running from Marathon to Athens after the battle.
5. The first marathon race was the idea of Michel Bréal, a member of the Académie Francaise. The race was a part of the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens and was only 40 km. in length.
6. The second marathon race was the first BAA Marathon in Boston in 1897.

DGR

August 25, 2004
Athens
2:00 PM
Caption: Olympic Stadium showing one of the 200 m. heats with the Women's Pole Vault in progress.

Among the new events introduced at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games is Women’s Wrestling. Headlines yesterday proclaimed that for the first time in the 108 year history of the Modern Olympic Games and for the first time in 3000 years if you include the ancient Olympic Games, women are allowed to wrestle in the Olympics. This is technically true, but what the sports writers are missing is the fact that there was a tradition in ancient Greece for young women to wrestle. And the interesting point is that the young women were not always wrestling other young women – they were wrestling against men! Greek mythology includes the story of Atalanta the unmarried woman who wrestled (and according to other accounts) ran only against men. There are also the accounts of the Spartan leader Lykourgos who promoted the education of the Spartan youth, that included physical education and training and competition for boys as well as girls, and in some cases they may have competed against one another. Lykourgos lived in the eighth century B.C.! So for Patricia Miranda, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford who won a bronze medal for the USA in Women’s Wrestling in the under 48 kilo category, she is the latest representative of a very ancient tradition!

At the Olympic Stadium last night there was one spectacular event after another. On the way home, when I asked my daughters what their favorite event had been it was tough to get an answer, there had been so many! The Men’s 1500 m. Final pitted Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj against Kenya’s Bernard Lagat. After a slow first 800 m in 2:01, the race evolved into a dual between the two, with El Guerrouj winning in an exciting finish. Or the 3000 m. Steeplechase, swept by three Keyans, Kemboi, Kipruto and Koech, all within 0.83 seconds of one another! Or the Women’s pole vault that continued past midnight resulting in a new World Record for Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia in 4.91 m. Now there is an event that has NO parallel in Greek mythology or Greek history!

The number of athletes who have failed their dope tests continues to rise. Now the count is at 18, not including Kenteris and Thanou who withdrew before the Games. According to the International Herald Tribune, the majority of the violators are from weightlifting and track and field. A number of the press, with whom I have spoken, have indicated that the doping stories have dominated much of the news of the Olympic Games and much of the time of the journalists that they would have spent on other topics--such as stories about the ancient Olympic Games. (Photo: Sign on the road outside the Olympic Track and Field Stadium.)

DGR