It's official: Athens ready for the Games

Athens is finally ready to host the Olympics its organisers proudly boasted today.

With just two days before the 28th summer games opens, the city’s mayor and the Olympic organisers said security was in place, the venues were built and its notorious transport problems solved.

“I report to you that Athens is ready,” Dora Bakoyannis, the mayor of Athens told a packed press conference of international media gathered in the city.

“Yes we are excited the Olympics are coming back home.”

The Greeks have faced heavy criticism over security fears and claims that the venues would not be built in time.

But the mayor said the city was now poised for a spectacular sporting event.

“I would never say I told you so,” she said.

“But I would say trust the Greeks. They made it.

“We have received much criticism from abroad – some we deserved, some less deserved, some not at all.

“Greece is the smallest country to ever have hosted the Olympics in the current massive scale.

“There were admittedly some unjustifiable delays in some Olympic projects.

“At the same time the tragedy of September 11 led to an understandable heightened alarm over our security and the corresponding increase in security measures we have taken.

The Greeks have spent €1.2bn on security, the highest amount ever spent on a games, and will have 70,000 security personnel deployed, backed by Nato troops.

Mayor Bakoyannis rejected continued security fears.

“You are probably in the most secure place you can possibly be in August 2004.”

Earlier the Athens Olympic Committee president told a press conference close to the main Olympic stadium the Greeks had also defied the doubters. Gianna Angelopoulos-Baskalaki said: “What we promise we deliver.

“The most comprehensive, best staffed, best funded security strategy of the history of the Olympic Games is in place.

“We believe we have done everything that was humanly possible to have a safe and secure games.”

Hundreds of thousands of visitors will be in the city for the first post 9/11 summer Olympic Games.

A mock evacuation of the Olympic Stadium with 77,000 volunteers took place last night and the stadium was evacuated within 17 minutes, the press conference was told.

Transport worries had also been eased by the introduction of “Olympic lanes and new roads”.

Ticket sales currently stood at 2.6million and was increasing daily towards the target of between 3.1 and 3.4million tickets sold.

The games open with a spectacular ceremony on Friday evening.