Washington Week . Student Voices

Security elevated for Summer Olympics
By Sagar Parikh
Daily Bruin (U. California-Los Angeles)
08/09/2004

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — When the Olympic Games were first created, they were designed as a unifying symbol for countries to join together and enjoy the rivalries of athletic competition.

Now, though, as the Olympics return to Athens, Greece, all Olympic athletes, including some of UCLA's finest, are surrounded by the threat of terrorist attacks, causing anxiety and tension for the 2004 Summer Games.

UCLA baseball alumnus Nick Theodorou, who is competing for Greece, expressed his concern.

"There's something that's probably going to happen," he said. "But $750 million is being spent to protect the athletes with help from the U.S., so I feel safe. It's my parents I'm more concerned about.

"There's something more likely to happen to random people and the fans."

UCLA's athletes have had unparalleled success in the Olympics, winning a gold medal in every competition since the 1932 Olympics. The 2004 Olympics, though, will be the first since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the landscape of foreign competition has changed dramatically.

The 14 current UCLA athletes participating in the games will be housed in an Olympic Village that is surrounded by chain-link fences with sensors and accompanied by a force of 70,000 Greek police and military personnel that are patrolling the area.

UCLA pole vaulter Yoo Kim (competing for South Korea), for one, feels the security for the games will provide adequate protection for the athletes.

"I think it will be all right," Kim said. "Obviously I hope that nothing bad happens, but it is a risk that I think we athletes are willing to take because we know how important the Olympics are to us."

In addition to the normal security, UCLA's 10 athletes competing for the United States will be provided with extra internal perimeter security because U.S. athletes are seen as being at greater risk to be targeted by terrorists.

Jennie Finch, a pitcher on the U.S. softball team, told NBC's "Today" television show in an interview Tuesday, "We have two secret agents ... that travel with us at all times."

Beyond the Olympic Village, there are security checkpoints at every athletic sporting event and traffic checks throughout all major methods of transportation.

The most comprehensive vehicles of Greece's security, though, may be the Greek air force jets and NATO AWACS surveillance planes patrolling the air throughout the two-week event, according to USA Today.

In the end, despite the $1.5 billion spent on security, Greece has a very large task ahead of it. With its very large coastline and a security task force that is still trying to catch up from the failures of the past Greek organizing committee, the country may have to perform last-minute heroics to make these Olympics successful.

[ Back to Student Voices ]

-->