And as Friday's opening ceremony nears and six more athletes were thrust into the spotlight over drugs, IOC president Jacques Rogge hailed it as a mark of success that the battle against cheats was being won.
Rogge and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis delivered upbeat messages as last-minute magic from Athens helped sweep aside gloomy visions of wet concrete and unsold tickets, and primed the ancient city to welcome the Olympics home.
“Security has been, and remains, the number one priority at the Games. The IOC has full confidence in the Greek government,” Rogge told an IOC meeting.
“These efforts are justified, as, going beyond the Games, what is at stake is protecting society, democracy, civilization and freedom,” he said in an apparent reference to the threat of attack by Al Qaeda and other militant groups.
“We have taken all possible measures with the cooperation of friendly and allied countries. We have done what is humanly possible so that all athletes and visitors feel safe,” Karamanlis said in a national television address.
“Greece is ready for a successful Games under conditions of maximum security.”
Olympic security issues are among those which will come under the spotlight when Craig McLatchey , CEO of Olympic Games Knowledge Services, addresses the first International Sports Security Summit in London on October 27 and 28.
The war on drugs put the focus on an American sprinter, two Greek baseball players, a Swiss cyclist, an Irish athlete and a Spanish canoeist.
Bernard Williams, a gold medal winner in the US 4x100m relay team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, tested positive for a banned substance at a meeting in Seville in June, said the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Williams had received a warning but remained eligible to compete in Athens, USADA said.
“Hands up, I did it,” Irish 10,000m runner Cathal Lombard, 28, was quoted as telling a newspaper, acknowledging a test had found banned erythropoietin, known as EPO, in his system. He has now withdrawn from the Games.
Swiss cyclist Oscar Camenzind was also named and shamed after testing positive for the same blood-boosting substance, which enhances endurance.
The list of offenders grew with Spanish canoeist Jovino Gonzalez also testing positive for EPO. A Spanish Sports Council spokesman said Gonzalez had been dropped from the Olympic team.
Greece's Olympic authorities said Greek-American baseball players Derek Nicholson and Andrew James Brack had tested positive.
Athletes who fail a drugs test can expect to be banned for at least two years. The Athens Olympics are the first Games since the introduction of a global anti-doping code.
“It is encouraging ... that it is becoming increasingly hard to cheat,” said Rogge.
