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Barcelona readies for the biggest sporting event
BARCELONA. Dec 25: As Barcelona's Olympic year dawns, arenas, stadiums and an entire seaside village arc eme-
rging from myriad construction sites round the city, bul no one knows how many countries they will haw to accommodate, reports Reuter.
The Olympic family has already expanded to welcome thc Baltic states, but as the Soviet Union disintegrates and Yugoslavia splits Into separate republics, new anthems may need to be learned, new flags sewn.
“We never want to say no to a new recognised national Olympic committee."said Jose Miguel Abad, chief executive of the Games Organising Commit lee COOB 92. "We are not going to run faster than the world, but we will try to respond to the new situation."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said its door is open to Croatia and Slovenia as soon as they gain international recognition. Twelve Soviet republics have agreed to compete under the old Soviet flag al the Winter Games in Albertville but some say they want new (erms for
While athletes may need to be reorganised in their Olympic village, under construction alongside a new marina and beaches, they will not be pushed out by the new nations.
Abad said that at a recent
IOC meeting In Ijtusannc it had been agreed that the number of athletes for the new Soviet republics would not exceed that for a united Soviet team.
"If the number of athk-tes in the Sqvlct team were 100, then Inal number would be divided between lb< different republics , Abad said.
Abad, a serious, sometimes lugubrious man, is confident preparations arc on target for a successful gam^s seven months hence. He is happy 'ibout the- money — There will be no profit and no deficit " — and even sanguine about security
Some 15,000 police and other security forces, mindful of the potential threat from Basque separatist guerrillas or foreign groups, arc being
drafted Into the' Barcelona area to ensure a peaceful Olympics.
"We can’t haw an absolute zero guarantee, but I believe we arc prctly close to It", Abad said.
COOB has spent fiw years preparing the games which open on July 25.
"Progress has been good and I am reasonably satisfied. But I am not kidding myself that things could not still go wrong. We can allow no triumphallst optimism. Il is at the end that you need the greatest mental strength." Abad said.
"I think we have managed to change the image of Spaniards as an easy-going, amiable people who can't organise," Abad said
His main concern was io
motivate the COOB staff for the final seven-month surge to a successful Olympics.
"People coming to something like the Olympics lend to make global judgements. If we show thiit we haw done our work properly and create a good, welcoming atmosphere, then small mistakes gel submerged tn the whole and success Is assured." Abad declared.
To a layman's eye there Is still a lot of work to be done on some sites, though several buildings arc already complete.
On Monljuic hill, commanding a panoramic view of all Barcelona, the main Olympic stadium and ihc supreb Palau San Jordi, which will house gymnastics and volleyball competitions. haw king been ready
and in use.
At Valle D’Hebron. on the northern edge of the city, the cycling velodrome and tennis and volleyball courts appear to need merely finishing touches.
It still takes a leap of the imagination to envisage the completed village, which 1s emerging from Europe’s l^iggest construction site and giving Barcelona a new seafront district where previous^ warehouses and railway tracks blocked access to the
The six-slorcy blocks In red and beige brick which house 2.012 apartments arc ready apart from some Interior fit-tings.
Two skyscraper towers, which dominate, the village skyline and will a<-commodatc
banks, offices and restaurants, look almost ready for occupation.
But outside some trenches still gape, awaiting pipes and cables. Roadways and lawns arc still to be laid and everything lies under a chaotic cowring of machinery, mud and dirt.
Abad himself secs no problems. "What is left to be done is more aesthetic than substantial," he said.
Organisers haw, tragically, had to revise some plans. Pop star Freddie Mercury's death from AIDS this year robbed the Olympic opening ceremony of what promised to be one of its most electric moments.
Mercury and world-renowned Catalan operatic soprano Montserrat Caballe were to have sung an Olympic anthem they Jointly wrote and haw recorded. Now a video of their performance will be screened Instead.
Bul the IOC have said American basketball superstar Magic Johnson can take part in the Games despite being infected with the HIV virus that can lead to AIDS.
All Olympic competition areas and villages are to be nonsmoking zones. There -will be no alcohol available in the Olympic village, no television or phones in Individual rooms.
Would COOB consider distribution of free condoms to athletes ?
That would not be for us to decide," Abad said. "But if national Olympic committees wanted their athletes to have free condoms, we would have no problem with that."