🚀 go-pugleaf

Review: Olympics in Athens, Atlanta: Track and Field and Soccer.  
        (more of a review of the olympic experience than event results)

:summary at the bottom:

I went to the tuesday semi final game, argentina v. portugal.  great
game, lots of fun.  I had top shelf rim of the stadium seats ($27)
and they were actually very good.  soccer is spread out enough on the field
that even with these "nose bleed" tickets, you could see everything (unlike
US football which is a little compacted into one area).  78,000+ in 
attendence, and 95% of them were there at the 6pm kick off, so if there were
traffic problems, people still managed to get there on time.  this was
a successful event for ACOG and the IOC.  everything when smoothly, getting
in and out of there was not difficult.  I parked on a street 1.3miles from the
stadium and getting through security was easy.  My parents drove into town at
3pm, and NEVER HIT A TRAFFIC PROBLEM ONCE.

Next day (wed), I dreaded the logistics of getting to and from the
Olympic stadium in Atlanta, but it was a breeze!!!  left Athens at 6.20am,
took us78 to 138 down to I-20.  went north on 285, I saw the indian creek
marta station was full (watch for the "full" sign underneath the marta
sign on 285, its clearly visible), so I went another 1 mile up to memorial 
drive and over to kensington station marta.  parked, walked right on a 
train!  it was easy!  got to the georgia state station, and along with 
thousands of other people walked down to the olympic stadium, through 
the security check, and was in my seat at 8:40!!  2hr 20min from athens
to Olympic seat.  the events were well organized and a lot for fun. I saw
11 heats of Mens 200m qualifying (including johnson and fredricks), 6 heats
of W 200m qual., Decathlon 100m and pole vault qual (o'brien,fritz, and
hoffman), W 1500m.  $32 bought me a good ticket for 4 hours of T/F events,
lots of fun. 

1pm  walked to centennial olympic park, about a 30min walk, and an enjoyable
one at that. It started to rain alittle, but it was light rain, and cooled
us off quite nicely. We ate lunch near the coke museum, and I WAS NOT RIPPED
OFF!  it was a small diner, I paid $2.99 for a large coke and a chicken breast
sandwich.  the olympic park was easy to get in and out of.  did some people
watching and had a good time!  I had a klondike ice cream bar too!  bud
world had a huge huge tv, that about 200 hundred of us cheered at the US 
sycno-swimming team took the gold.  okay,  it you think things went well up
until this point, listen to this, it gets better: got to marta@omin at 4:05pm,
I was in my car at kensington 25 minutes later.  I was at home in athens
watching the simpons at 6pm!  less than two hours to get from the omni to 
my couch!  and I keep it under 70mph!!!  plus athens soccer traffic!

:summary:

the olympics are a success.  ACOG and all the volunteers are very helpful.
the security is everywhere.  I felt safe. people are talking about untrained,
unqualified security..  the security I saw was made up of US Border Patrol,
Immigration Patrol, and county police from around the state.  thats good
security.

everyone, the crowd, the ACOG staff/vols, and the security people are all
friendly, and happy to be there.  

Marta was great,  very helpful hard working people.  hey, look at my travel
times!!

commericalism:  I don't know what the hell everyone is talking about.  I saw
no corporate logos in side either event.  the street vendors  I saw where 
food/bev companies, mostly "Crystal Springs" water, and they are doing people
a good service by reminding them to drink water.  the Centennial Park had
some commericalism going on, but it was acceptable (it Budwiser wants to 
erect a huge air conditioned tent and show the Olympics on huge tvs, and
try and sell beer, fine!  the longest line I saw was to the "Olympic
super store"!  if people want to buy stuff let 'em! I actually wish I had
gone in there to see if they had an official olympic "shop til you drop"
bumper sticker....

the only problem:  sometimes (10% of the time) scores were reported late
(i.e. 2nd heat 200m results were posted during the 4th heat) this happened
3 times, and really, it only is a problem for the media, because we saw
the finish! this happened 3 times in 4hrs, and the scores were only 10 minutes
late.  hell, IBM is handling the scoring, so whada expect?

overall, after two days of events (and with 2 to go), I had a good feeling
about humanity and I'm proud to be a Georgian.  thats not bad considering
1) I drove in Atlanta, 2) I rode MARTA, 3) I was around 120,00 other
people all day.

ACOG and the people of Georgia are pulling this thing off and making it
work! 

Tips:  drive to atlanta to the way I did.  carry water.  they let water in the
parks,  I bought a bottle of water for a $1 and refilled it all day long
in and out side of the venues.

BTW: I just talked to my father and he has seen handball, field hockey,
soccer, and last night boxing.  He feels the same way I do.  He liked 
boxing the best (14th row).