Sports of The Times; Olympic Doomsayers as Cyclical as Cicadas

By GEORGE VECSEY

Published: May 22, 2004

LIKE 17-year cicadas, journalists emit their own cyclical loud buzzing noises before every set of Summer Games. Listen. You can hear us now, fretting about construction, security and ambience in Athens in August.

The other day, the Greek prime minister, Costas Caramanlis, visited the offices of The New York Times. We peppered him -- politely, of course -- about the progress of these Games.

Then one of his delegation gracefully noted that he had heard rampant pessimism before Sydney in 2000. ''You've been reading our clips,'' I said, fully aware that things have seldom been as bad as we had feared. And thank goodness for that.

Peter Ueberroth loves to tell the story about the gloomy scenario of Los Angeles grinding to a halt on so-called Black Friday in 1984. The organizer of those Games, Ueberroth says he commandeered a helicopter at the alleged triple-witching hour and broadcast his own traffic report over local stations.

''There's a car on Interstate 5,'' Ueberroth claims to have said. ''And there's another one on Highway 101. I see a truck on I-10.'' And so on.

Los Angeles was never so manageable than during those 17 glorious days. As an Angeleno friend of mine said, ''Everybody went to Hawaii.''

If I'm honest about it, I admit there is always something to fear before every Olympic Games. Ever since 1972, we've had to worry about Olympic terrorism. Three Games were overshadowed by boycotts -- in 1976, in 1980 and in 1984. In 1988, there had been a change of government in South Korea, with a whiff of tear gas going around the world. In 1992, I drove from France to Spain worrying if Basque terrorists had already infiltrated Barcelona.

Atlanta in 1996 never had a chance to be as accommodating as Los Angeles or as enthusiastic as Seoul or as romantic as Barcelona. Then, beyond the tackiness and poor planning, there was the coward's bomb that killed a woman having fun in Centennial Park on a Friday night.

Still, for all my carping about the buses not running well and many volunteers having no clue, I enjoyed living in a sweet neighborhood just east of downtown. Atlantans get all misty when they recall the good times of 1996. Funny how things work out: a whole swath of my family now lives around Atlanta, and my wife and I enjoy our every visit.

What was the concern before Sydney? Oh, I remember: There was a scandal involving tickets and privileges for the big shots. In that egalitarian society, people were angry. In the long run, good on you, mate. The Games were fine.

Out of curiosity, I looked up some before-and-after electronic clips by me and by some of my most esteemed colleagues here at The Times.

Los Angeles, 1984

''Most feared, especially by critics of the Games, is Aug. 3 -- Black Friday, some people here call it -- when track and field competition is scheduled to begin at the Coliseum and swimming and boxing competition will be under way nearby.''

Robert Lindsey, April 3, 1984

''It was with no small amount of gloom and doom that some of us awaited this summer's assignment to Olympo-mania. The word from L.A. was full of paranoia about security over terrorism, predictions of ultimate traffic gridlock and grimness over the Soviet-inspired withdrawal. But the fear and trembling was overrated. Los Angeles is shrugging off the Olympics, just the way my hometown shrugs off big events.''

Vecsey, Aug. 8, 1984

Seoul, 1988

''When asked if there is an alternate plan for the 1988 Summer Games, scheduled for South Korea, the leaders of the Olympic movement say there is no such thing. The real question is: How could there not be -- even if it exists only in somebody's head?''

Vecsey, June 24, 1987

''The stadiums were built, the roads were widened, the river was controlled, and flowers and banners have been placed on the major roads in this massive city.''

Vecsey, Sept. 17, 1988

Barcelona, 1992

''If the Spanish authorities in charge of security for the Summer Olympics were tempted to become complacent by the easing of international terrorism, they have their own home-grown Basque separatist movement to remind them that the unthinkable can happen.'' Alan Riding, July 11, 1992

''Barcelona put on a tremendous Summer Games because it has been evolving for 2,000 years or so, because in the era following the dictator Franco, the Catalan people are finding their voice and their creative spirit, and because they ponied up the pesetas to build new roads and new facilities.'' Vecsey, Aug. 10, 1992

Atlanta, 1996

''About 75 percent of the school-bus drivers in the metropolitan and suburban area on whom they were depending as potential applicants were women. Their fears of battling traffic daily to get to Olympic bus-driving jobs as well as concern about safety combined to keep the number of applications low, Ms. Drew said.''

Ronald Smothers, June 27, 1996

''In this day and age, putting on these Summer Games may be an impossible task for any host, without turning the place into a logistical nightmare. Even before the bomb, Atlanta had the feel of an armed camp. . . . On Saturday night, I was in a good Olympic mood -- until the press bus took one hour to traverse the one mile from the stadium to downtown. I left Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona with magic feelings about their Summer Games. Sorry, but I just don't have those feelings about Atlanta's Summer Games.'' Vecsey, Aug. 5, 1996

Sydney, 2000

''Barring protests by Aborigine groups -- who are still debating how they want to use the global platform of the Games to increase awareness of their unfortunate past and uneasy present -- the torch's arrival should lift morale, as well. But what Boultbee and others worry about is what the public reaction will be if, as is customary, hundreds of seats are left empty by sponsors and their guests once the Games begin. Yet for all the grumbling and the loss of Olympic innocence, there is ample optimism here.'' Christopher Clarey, Feb. 28, 2000

''Juan Antonio Samaranch, the I.O.C. president, was absolutely right last night to return to the grand Olympic custom of calling these 'the best Olympic games ever,' a tradition he suspended -- to the eternal sadness of the Atlanta organizers -- after the 1996 T-Shirt Shack Games. Order has been restored, but not particularly by the Swiss gang, nor even by the able Australian organizers, but by the Australian people themselves.'' Vecsey, Oct. 2, 2000

Now we are getting ready for Athens. A lot of Greeks are already sad because the world has obsessed about their three-year delay in building for these Games.

Barring something truly awful, I suspect the events will take place largely as scheduled. We may be bumping into fresh paint and stepping over construction rubble, but the Greek people cannot help but be warm and capable hosts in the things that really matter: friendship, food, drink, directions, conversation.

Most of us will have a good time. In the meantime, journalists will continue to fret on schedule, just as cicadas buzz. It's in our job description.