Memories of S.L.'s golden moment surface as torch passes to Athens

ATHENS — On a balmy 86-degree night, or about 60 degrees warmer than the last time opening ceremonies were held, Salt Lake City's Olympics were finally relegated to has-been status.

Amid the usual pomp, ceremony, flashbulb-popping, cell phone-talking and flag-waving that is the modern Olympics, the Athens Summer Games of 2004 arrived right on schedule on Friday the 13th, despite dire predictions to the contrary, a little over 2 1/2 years since Salt Lake's Olympic Winter Games began on Feb. 8, 2002.

As in Salt Lake 2 1/2 years ago, military helicopters kept watch from above, and magnetometers were placed at every stadium entrance, although things do seem to be loosening up on the terror front. At the media gate, the magnetometer was turned off entirely, and everyone was waved through as if it were 1896 — the last time Athens held the Games — all over again.

By far my favorite part of the 2004 Games, so far.

Half-a-world away from the world shaped by 9/11, the tension doesn't seem as palpable. Rifle-carrying soldiers line the Olympic perimeters, and you still can't go where you want to half the time, but the vigilance isn't as intense. Earlier in the day Friday, I left my cell phone in my pocket and the metal detector beeped as I went through, yet no one bothered to call me back. In Salt Lake 2002, I would have been surrounded by three German shepherds.

Wars and terror alerts certainly didn't keep any nations away from Athens. A record 202 national Olympic teams paraded around Olympic Stadium, two more than at Australia four years ago. The delegation from liberated Iraq received a particularly warm reception, marching out of the shadow of ex-Olympic chief Uday Hussein's autocratic rule.

And Afghanistan was back in the fold, its IOC ban lifted now that the Taliban government that would not allow women to compete is out of power. Two women are on the five-person Afghanistan Olympic team; one of them marched into the world spotlight Friday night. In that respect, the terrorists did not win.

More than 10,000 athletes from the aforementioned 202 countries have come to Greece to compete over a 17-day period in slightly more than 300 events. Contrast that to the 1896 Athens Games — the first of the modern era — when the competition lasted 10 days and involved 245 athletes from 14 countries in 43 events.

This year's U.S. team, at 531 members, is more than double the entire field of 108 years ago.