Two days to go and the last minute rush ahead of the 20th Winter
Olympics has gone into overdrive in Turin.
Friday's opening ceremony is expected to be followed by 35,000
spectators inside Stadio Olimpico stadium and approximately 2
billion television viewers worldwide.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge is
confident that the transportation problems are just last-minute
glitches in the race for the first winter Olympics in Italy since
Cortina DAmpezzo in 1956.
While Turin itself and the surrounding mountain venues are ready
for the action which gets underway for real on Saturday, the day
after the opening ceremony, the biggest problem remains traffic
headaches.
Getting the Italian drivers to respect the lanes reserved for
Olympic vehicles is proving a problem as is the 2,000 bus drivers
who have been drafted in from all around Italy and are also
unfamiliar with the local roads.
"Like with all games, the final stretch is always the most
difficult one," said Rogge.
"Here and there, a couple of issues need to be solved. But there
are still a few days until the opening ceremony. I'm very confident
these will be very good games."
"What is important is that the fundamentals are very good," he
said. "There is no structural issue. There is nothing that cannot
be solved in a matter of days. I'm confident everything will be
done by the opening ceremony."
The problem over doping controls has been resolved with Rogge
hailing the agreement reached with the Italian government which
allows controls to be carried out by the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA).
Italian Sports Minister and senior IOC member Mario Pescante
confirmed that there would be no police raids on the Athletes
Village.
There had been fears of police raiding the village and taking
athletes away in handcuffs, but Pescante dismissed such fears.
"Police will not enter the village. This is not going to happen,"
said Pescante.
But he warned that any athlete caught taking drugs would face
the Italian legal system and risked being jailed.
"If an athlete tests positive, the Italian court will intervene.
There is no exception. Everybody, no matter from which country,
will be submitted to the Italian law," he said.
The Italian government easily survived a confidence vote in the
lower house of parliament on Tuesday on a series of measures
bolstering security for the Games.
The chamber of deputies voted by 307 votes to 207 in favour of
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, to back
legislation boosting by more than 1,000 the number of police
deployed for the Games.
A massive security operation will be in place with some 15,000
police and military personnel deployed and the use of AWACS
surveillance planes.
Meanwhile, ticket sales have also picked up with more than
700,000 - 85 per cent of the total - already sold and with
organizers planning to offer low-price tickets to school children
for less popular events.
But ski legend Jean-Claude Killy believes that organizers could
have trouble meeting their target of having more than 50 per cent
of the seats occupied even for blue riband events such as alpine
skiing.
"There's a real problem for alpine skiing," Killy said, adding
that it was "becoming more and more tricky" to gain media coverage,
partly because attention largely focused on personalities in the
sport.
"The Italian example shows that interest is directly linked to
the skiers, whereas before, the sport could carry itself," he
added.
For the Turin Games, Killy - who heads the IOC's coordination
commission - underlined extensive efforts by the Italian
organizers, but admitted that his biggest fear would be "logistical
problems" triggered by postponements.
"For example, a 24 to 48 hour postponement of the men's downhill
has been tested. But between the test and the reality, there are
sometimes some surprises," he cautioned.
(China Daily February 9, 2006)