The race will start above the plain of Marathon at a site surrounded by mounds of earth, pebbles and stones. On the fabled battleground beyond, a flock of sheep chew their way past a collapsed Ottoman house and a desiccated palm tree.
Other than that, there is no sign of life. No officials, no labourers, no construction foremen exhorting them to tug the levers of the bulldozers that also stand idle.
But it is here, on this wasteland 41km from Athens, that world athletes will gather in less than 120 days’ time to run the ancient route that gave the marathon its name.
The race will be the signature event of the Athens Olympic Games, yet the road still resembles more of an obstacle course than a showpiece, an embarrassment that recently provoked George Souflias, Greece’s new public works minister, to exclaim that ”the entire route is unacceptable”.
Much of the 41,6km course is dug up or dotted with duct tape, craters, water pipes and roaming sheep.
The state of the marathon in many ways reflects the chaotic nature of Athens’ Olympic preparations, which have been criticised repeatedly over the past few months and were under scrutiny again on Wednesday as the International Olympic Committee concluded another inspection.
The Greek effort, it seems, has fallen victim to the Levantine practices of cronyism, nepotism and corruption — habits that allegedly flourished during 11 uninterrupted years of Socialist rule.
Time and again, say critics, small, inexperienced enterprises were handed large-scale projects on the simple premise that their owners may have been a ”cousin of a cousin of a minister”.
Security has also been an issue, as has the country’s Kafkaesque bureaucracy. A national predilection for political infighting must share some of the blame too.
Several construction projects were held up by the discovery of archaeological treasures or by locals using an arcane legal system and resorting to the courts to try to stop sports venues being built.
Insiders cite ”too many chiefs and not enough Indians” for the apparent chronic lack of decision-making.
”What we are seeing is Greece’s incompetence being laid bare,” says Costis Hadjidakis, a conservative Euro MP. ”All of its inefficiencies, its administrative and legal problems, have become obvious in the preparation for the games.”
It is nearly seven years since Athens was awarded the 28th summer Olympiad, the biggest event modern Greece is ever likely to host. Europe’s oldest capital won the bid on two counts: as the ancient and modern birthplace of the games, and because an estimated 70% of the sports venues were already in place.
After the commercial excesses of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, organisers agreed that Greece was the best placed to inject the event with renewed romanticism.
But barely four months before the delegations of a record 202 participating countries, 11 000 athletes, 6 000 media representatives and 2-million visitors descend on the capital, the Greeks have produced a lot of earth but little else.
Across the sprawling metropolis, the hulks of half-finished buildings, billed as Olympic gems, are evidence of shameful construction delays. At least half of the 39 Olympics-related projects are behind schedule, according to officials.
Despite government denials, there are doubts over whether a much-needed tramway linking Athens to seaside stadiums, and a suburban rail line connecting the city to its distant airport, will be ready on time.
The new Greek prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, chose bleak language to describe his country’s predicament. Greece, he said, faced ”choking deadlines”.
”Not a single hour can be wasted,” insisted the leader, who has taken personal charge of the troubled preparations since his centre-right party swept to power last month.
Increasingly, the delays have given way to a freneticness on Olympic sites that is hard to ignore. While the preparations for the marathon route outside Athens appear to have ground to a halt, inside the capital labourers now toil around the clock — to the point that deaths on construction sites have soared.
The eerie sound of welders’ blow torches can be heard at the main Olympic stadium night after night.
”As you can see, they’re up there 24 hours,” beamed Nikos Georgatsanas, a guardsman pacing the gravelly moonscape at 2am.
It is here that workmen are racing to assemble what many had hoped would be the jewel of the Athens games — a 13 000-ton, €119-million glass-and-steel dome designed by the acclaimed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
The dome includes a futuristic sliding canopy, but the elaborate design has, say opponents, exposed the poor feasibility studies blamed for so much of the chaos that has marked the preparations.
Parts of the canopy are being put into place this week, but unless the government passes an urgent review later this month, IOC inspectors are likely to recommend that the dome is ditched.
Radical revamp
The race against the clock has already prompted the pragmatic Karamanlis to radically revamp many of the original plans.
The conservatives have been forced to abandon the construction of a roof over the main outdoor aquatic centre — raising the spectre of TV broadcasters being blinded by the glare and spectators burned by the pitiless summer temperatures.
The government has said it will scrap an extension to the suburban railway and cut back beautification of the unseemly marathon route after the sudden insolvency of the contractor assigned to upgrade the course.
Speaking to The Guardian, Greece’s public order minister, Giorgos Voulgarakis, played down the delays.
The Olympics had got so big, he grumbled, that ”even the UK, or France, or some other big European country” would experience such setbacks if the games were held there. Only 170 years ago, he said, Greece belonged to the forgotten southern reaches of the Ottoman empire.
”There was a basic lack of infrastructure. For example, we didn’t have a proper metro system. We had to build it, which is why there were also delays,” he explained.
Athens is the first city to host a summer Olympics since the September 11 attacks in the US. Ensuring a safe games in the age of al-Qaida style terrorism, and in a country that borders several volatile areas, has meant Greece has been forced to mount the biggest, and most expensive, security operation in the history of the games.
”Security is our top priority and we have spent nearly €1bn making sure these games are not 100%, but 120% safe,” said Voulgarakis.
”We have bought the most technologically sophisticated systems in the world. All of this has come from our own resources. It has been paid for by the Greek people. The delays will not affect security preparations in any way.”
The draconian measures, which include the deployment of some 55 000 police officers and military personnel, are in addition to Greece requesting extra sea and air patrols from Nato and signing 37 security protocols with its EU partners.
Backdrop of terrorism
Heightened terror concerns across Europe after the Madrid train bombings have meant that Greek officials expect security costs to soar even further – adding to budget overruns that could double the total €4.6bn initially earmarked for the Olympics.
Against the backdrop of terrorism, the Athens games have not only become the most symbolic Olympics but potentially the most meaningful sporting event in modern times.
But for all the problem-prone preparations, IOC officials still believe Greece will rise to the occasion. In a rare display of praise during his last visit, the chief IOC inspector, Denis Oswald, described the hastily built new soccer stadium as ”truly amazing”.
”The Greeks have this Mediterranean mentality that is like the syrtaki dance, we start very slow and then speed up,” says Costis Hadjidakis, an MEP. ”That’s why we’ve now started working 24 hours a day. The Greeks are very lazy and very disorganised but they’re also very clever. When they decide to work they can create miracles.” – Guardian Unlimited