Olympic Irony, Poetic Justice Obtain as Women Accede in Games Leadership

When the Olympic flame arrived in Athens on August 12,the setting, just in front of the Parthenon, was as ancient as the Games themselves, but one glance at the dignitaries speaking made it clear: These are not your ancestor’s Olympics.There, shaking hands and exchanging gifts, were the mayor of Athens and the head of the Athens Olympic Committee. And for the first time at any Olympics, both the mayor of the host city and the head of the national Olympic Committee were women.Mayor Dora Bakoyannis and the committee president, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalakis, wore trousers for the occasion – a flowing white suit for the mayor and, for the committee president, silky evening slacks in a bright Barbie-pink.Their elegant appearances and frequent use of the terms ‘Madam Mayor’ and ‘Madam President’ made it clear that history – or, as a women’s studies professor might put it, her story – was being made up on that ancient rock.The evening was full of poetic justice and Olympic irony.When the first modern Olympics were held in Athens 108 years ago, only men participated. The ancient Olympics were an even stricter men-only affair with all male judges, athletes, and, for the most part, spectators. (Unmarried girls accompanied by their fathers were allowed to attend.)And there was no room for a little Yentl action at the ancient Games. Athletes competed in the buff – charioteers excepted – and, eventually, their trainers were required to appear nude as well.Legend has it that this drastic step was taken after a noblewoman dressed as a man to watch her son compete, and was found out when she jumped up in glee at his victory and her chiton slipped.Three thousand years later, that scandal is just something to laugh about as we watch Athens’ fearless ladies lead these Games, which everyone was so sure would be a big mess until they started to run beautifully.Both women can be credited with the Games’ success. Ms. Angelopoulos-Daskalakis led Athens’ Olympic bid committee, but after the host city honors were secured she was unceremoniously dumped – for a man. Then his leadership was deemed lacking, he was fired, and another gentleman appointed.Finally, in April 2000, then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch announced that the committee president had squandered the first two years of games’ planning, basking in the glory of having been chosen instead of building venues and infrastructure.Planning was so far behind schedule, Samaranch warned, that the IOC was considering relocating the Games. Now the committee had to cram seven years of planning into just four years. It was a job too big for any man – so they gave it to a woman, rehiring Ms. Angelopoulos-Daskalakis.She whipped it into shape, with a few mishaps along the way, and is now enjoying the fruits of her labors. “Every time I would go into the stadium, I was ready to cry,” she told reporters at an August 11 press briefing about the opening ceremony.As for Mayor Bakoyannis, the daughter of the former prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis, she was born in 1954, only two years after Greek women were given the right to vote.Ms. Bakoyannis didn’t run for office until her husband, a member of Parliament, was killed by a radical Marxist Greek terrorist group on November 17, 1989, prompting her to run for Parliament.Her election as mayor of Athens inspired enthusiastic newscasters to proclaim 2002 “the year of the woman,” given that Ms. Bakoyannis became the first female leader of Athens in the city’s 3,000-year history.The self-described “practical politician” hasn’t traded on her historic status, concentrating instead on improving quality of life in Athens, adding green spaces, reducing the stray-dog population, and improving disabled access to the city sights.Having Athens under a woman’s control could be seen as a return to the city’s roots: it was dedicated, and named for, the goddess Athena, who beat out Poseidon for the title of patron of the city by offering its citizens the olive tree, a symbol of Athens. As keepers of the Olympic flame, Ms. Bakoyannis and Ms. Angelopoulos-Daskalakis also recall the hearth goddess Hestia.The Olympics they’re tending to seem as impressive as any previous Games. But they may also be somewhat girlier, if the opening ceremony is any indication. It featured hundreds of men in tight white body stockings (they were dressed as kouroi, the nude statues you remember from art history), anatomically correct male dummies (as I walked to the stadium entrance the firstthing I saw were dozens of life-sized male buttocks that appeared to be made out of papier-mache, props for the kouroi presentation) and a performance by Bjork, the Icelandic singer who is the musical equivalent of a chick flick.It also had serious muscle: flaming Olympic rings rising out of a lake on the stadium floor, athletes from 202 countries, and a Cycladic idol illuminated by geometric diagrams (who says women aren’t good at math?).It’s true that the opening was organized by a man, artistic director Dimitris Papaioannou, that the women athletes participating in the games stand to make less money in endorsement than their male counterparts, and, that, with notable exceptions such as gymnastics, male team sports generate more interest than female teams.But there is no denying that at the Athens 2004 Olympics, the image of these two strong women looms large.Just ask the mayor of Beijing, diminutive Wang Qishan; organizers of the closing ceremony have built a slanted platform for him and Ms. Bakoyannis to stand on so he doesn’t appear significantly shorter than the statuesque Athenian mayor.The future of Greek politics may prove that measuring up to these women should have more male politicians worried. In a statement at the opening of the Olympics, Ms. Angelopoulos-Daskalakis quoted the Ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles’s statement that “Man is the measure of all things.” If the Olympics are any indication, it may be time to rephrase that.

Olympic Irony, Poetic Justice Obtain as Women Accede in Games Leadership

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