As the strains of the balalaika died away and the final bars of a seemingly endless rendition of a song which will always be remembered as ‘Never On A Monday’ drifted into the Athens night air, the Olympic Stadium was momentarily ringed with the fire of a thousand or more fireworks as the Games of the 28th Olympiad drew to a dramatic close.
The Games, which some believed deeply would never take place, were declared a triumph by IOC president Jacques Rogge, who wisely decided against setting the verbal benchmarking so loved by his predecessor from whom anything other than a ‘best ever’ was considered a kick in the teeth.
Getting into a discussion about the Best Ever Olympics is ultimately as futile as those bar room conversations in which liquid disorientation fuels an ever more fantastic discussion about the best soccer team of all time, or whether Luciano Pavarotti would have been a better opening batsman than Abraham Lincoln.
But, irrespective of empty seats - and ignoring the widely reported legacy of debt - Athens was managed efficiently, looked wonderful on television and produced some magical sporting moments.
The TV networks, Rogge said, were ecstatic about the ratings and that would have delighted sponsors. The security and drug issues that threatened to dominate the Games agenda were treated with the gravity they demanded but never really overshadowed the Games themselves. Indeed, it was always going to be argued that by facing the doping issues head-on and declaring the number of tests and failures, the IOC was taking a massive step forward as a standard bearer for clean sport.
If the story of the Athens Games was to be written as a light novel it would be entitled something along the lines of Gianna Pulls It Off. For if any one individual can be said to have made the critical contribution to the Summer Games of 2004 it is Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, businesswoman, politician, wife, mother and all-round dynamo. I saw her in action what seems like years ago when Athens was bidding to host the Games for the second time, having been beaten by Sydney for the right to stage the millennium Games of 2000.
Back then she crackled with charisma and appeared to have created a magnetic force-field around herself that nobody - not IOC members, not politicians, not journalists – could resist.
Having delivered the Games to her home city she went off to do other things and, it appears, the plot was well and truly lost. As it became clear that projects were running behind schedule and might not be completed at all, Athens began to receive the most dreadful PR. Delays and inefficiency were blamed on the Greek way of doing things and it was easy to detect a ‘told you so’ attitude among some members of the media who used the difficulties as an excuse to suggest that the sloppiness was somehow part of the Athenian DNA.
Sloppiness, laziness and inefficiency is, of course, no part of Angelopoulos-Daskalaki’s make-up. Just when it looked as though the campaign might fail, she was brought back into the front line, rallying her troops, replacing inefficient generals, inspiring leaders to lead and creating a massive enthusiasm and will to win. It appears to have worked because this time it was personal. Nobody wanted to be the one to let her down.
Now, in the afterglow of Athens, one can only imagine that Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki will return to being brilliant at one of the other things she excels at. At home or abroad every door will open to her and were she British she could, at the very least, expect to become Lady Gianna. That’s what happens when you deliver success in the UK and that’s what happened to plain old Clive Woodward when he managed/coached the England rugby union team to victory in the World Cup in November.
After the victory, England became, albeit briefly, obsessed with rugby. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to welcome the team as it rode in an open top bus through central London. TV specials were made and together and individually they scooped every sporting award going.
And Clive Woodward became Sir Clive.
But now Sir Clive who - perhaps co-incidentally perhaps not – has a book out soon, wants to prove himself a modern day sporting Renaissance Man. He’s quit his job at the RFU and says that he wants to manage a football club and, maybe one day, the England national team.
Woodward’s move has shocked the rugby world. But for the diehards the real issue is not that he wants another job, it’s that he has publicly declared that soccer, not rugby, is his real passion. That must be like discovering that after years of apparently happy marriage, your partner had been imagining their first girlfriend/boyfriend every time you’ve made love.
No matter. Sir Clive is a modern sporting man. He has bought an almost corporate style to the preparation of the England Rugby team and expects a certain response from his players. Like Angelopoulos-Daskalaki he has been successful in almost everything he’s done, as a player, coach and businessman. His attention to detail, application of an army of specialists and willingness to embrace technology are legendary.
Sir Clive’s ability to transfer his undoubted skill set from one sport to another may, however, founder on the difference in culture between the sports. Football is, in many respects, a closed society that opens its doors only to others who ‘have played the game’ or who have achieved equivalent celebrity in another field (pop star, soap star, DJ, that kind of thing). Today’s leading players have been brought up in an environment in which they have always been the centre of attention and money is no object.
Rugby players have, generally, been brought up with a different work ethic and approach – not because there’s any inbred difference between the sportsmen as individuals but because their game is not awash with cash. One gets the impression that they are more willing to listen, learn and take orders.
One can only wonder how he will handle some stroppy 19-year-old on £30,000 a week who fails to turn up 10 minutes early for a meeting and demands a transfer at the first suggestion that he should be disciplined.
But Woodward’s major challenge will be to earn the respect of the players. His victory in the Rugby World Cup will give him a foot in the door but whether he has the skills and power of personality to open it fully remains to be seen.
One thing is certain. If he were to manage the England team to any kinds of success it would be one of the greatest sports stories of all time. If it doesn’t work out he may find Gianna Angelopoulo-Daskalaki waiting in the wings.
