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| | More than a year after the Athens Olympics, the Games' chief organizer says Greece is still reaping benefits from hosting the event despite its huge cost. "I do believe the Games paid off for Greece and Athens," Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. "There have been so many changes for the better." Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who is widely credited with rescuing the Games from near collapse, said Athens was still enjoying the modern transit system, new airport, boosted security systems, and updated telecommunications put in place for the Olympics. She also said employment had continued to go up, partly because of a significant jump in tourism since the Olympics. She said Greece had seen a 15 per cent jump in tourism, and Athens a 20 per cent rise, this year. Americans, she added, were making up a high percentage of the increase. "This is a testament to the effectiveness of our exposure during the Games," she said. Angelopoulos-Daskalaki was in Boston to give a speech at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government. Angelopoulos-Daskalaki spearheaded the successful bid in 1997 to bring the Olympics back to their birthplace, only to be swept aside by Greece's former Socialist government. She acknowledged that there were still some issues that may affect Greece's post-Olympic legacy. She said the enormous costs of the Games have caused the people of Greece to pay "more now than they should have had to pay for the pride, growth and respect that are their Olympic legacy. |
