Ron C. Judd / Times staff columnist
Ron Judd: Greece a test for Olympic movement as well as competitors

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So here we are again, with a cauldron to be lit and innumerable chests — and perhaps heads — waiting to be thumped.

To the Greeks, it's a matter of national pride.

For a country of relatively modest means, hosting the world's biggest get-together, especially these days, is a bold statement, Games chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki emphasized last week.

It's an answer, in fact, to "those who at times undermined or opposed, or simply ignored the presence of our country," she said.

Well now.

It's easy to see how Greece, a thoroughly underdog modern nation, can get caught up in the we-told-you-so's if the Games indeed defy long odds and come off without a hitch, in spite of the organizational malaise that made International Olympic Committee members awake in cold sweats at night.

But the woman in charge of these Olympics knows she and her cohorts are on the hook for something much greater: perhaps the fate of the modern Olympic movement itself.

The Athens Games, the first Summer Olympics in an age of truly global terror, will provide partial answers to two nagging questions:

Can the world still assemble in peace for a celebration of sport, equality and internationalism? And does the extraordinary cost of doing so preclude other, smaller nations from taking on the task in the future?

The Olympic movement has evolved in a lot of ways — many of them good — since Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France successfully revived the ancient Greek tradition in 1896. It often escapes notice that the French aristocrat conceived the modern Olympics as an event of, for and by the world's elite — its best athletes would participate, its best citizens would enjoy them.
 
But since then, the remarkable power of the ancient Games' simple ideal — people putting aside differences to race around the same track, lift the same stones and throw the same stick — has been taken fully to heart by hopeful global masses. And, even though the modern Games have become, by necessity, a massive business proposition largely waged for, by and at the whim of American television networks, their organizers have followed the people in adopting a lofty Olympic mission.

It is clear that current Olympic leaders, including IOC president Jacques Rogge, would love to bring the Games into new territories, most notably South America, where they've never been staged. That likely would mean awarding a Summer Olympics to yet another small nation.

Greece is the guinea pig.

If the Athens Games are plagued by logistical breakdowns or, heaven forbid, a major terrorist incident, IOC members likely will be reluctant to award future Olympics to anything less than an established economic and military power.

Some Games experts, in fact, predict that the skyrocketing costs of hosting the Games could lead to the establishment of several worldwide Olympic super centers: permanent venue sites on different continents that would rotate the Games between them.

If, on the other hand, the Greeks pull it off in spite of an immense, $1.5 billion security tab that no one could have anticipated in 1997, the Olympic movement might well march triumphantly into the Sao Paulo's of the world.

No pressure or anything, you Greeks.

Actually, the task seems to be well understood, and even accepted, by the Athens Organizing Committee, which proclaims that the nation giving birth to the Games will step to the plate once more to be their "guardian."

Three weeks from now, those words will prove either prophetic or woefully naive.

The Greeks aren't the only ones marching into the opening ceremony with a lot on the line. Current events put American athletes in a role they are unfamiliar with: the public faces of a wildly unpopular superpower. The war in Iraq, for better or worse, has galvanized much of the world in opposition to American policies, multiple polls show.

The recent doping scandals don't help. They essentially prove what most of the world has been saying all along: America, fond of crying foul over other nation's dope cheaters, has a sorry record of cleaning up its house when it comes to illegal substances.

Will all of that translate into boos for American athletes, most of whom actually don't use drugs and have little to say about, let alone to do with, U.S. foreign policy? Or will the even-handed spirit of Olympism prevail?

We'll know within days. Either way, the United States is in the spotlight more than ever, and athletes, one can only hope, will win back some affection with random acts of selfless sportsmanship.

U.S. Olympic Committee members might consider leading by example in that regard. Even while quietly suggesting U.S. athletes might want to restrain themselves on medal stands, they've been publicly espousing the greatest U.S. medal haul ever — 100 medals, topping even the impressive, 97-medal performance in Sydney.

It's a lofty goal, and, especially with drug suspensions of some track stars, perhaps a dubious one.

But the point is: Why even set it?

America already owns by far the greatest share of medals in Summer Games history. Its superpower status not only in the world, but at the Games, is set in concrete. Does anyone really care if the U.S. squad comes home with a triple-digit medal count, or settles for a paltry 89?

None of which is to say that America's finest should pretend to be anything less. The U.S. roster is packed, as usual, with athletes who compete for old-fashioned reasons: pure love of competition. A substantial hardware haul is as much as guaranteed, including, perhaps a larger-than-usual number of medals for local athletes in sports like swimming, gymnastics, shooting, basketball and rowing.

America, more than ever, needs a successful performance on the world stage — whether that translates into medal supremacy or not. And the world, more than ever, needs a successful Olympics.

So cross your fingers, pull up the footstool, and watch these Olympics. Root for your hometown athletes, root for the Greeks, root for your country. And while you're at it, don't forget that greater good:

Root for the Games.

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or at rjudd@seattletimes.com.