Olympic Stadium, Athens

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It is also called Olympeion (in Greek: Ναὸς τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου Διός)and is located in the centre of Athens, south from Zappeion. It is dedicated to Zeus who was the king of the Ancient Greek gods. Construction began in the 6th century BC. It was fully completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd c. AD.

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Being that Athens is thought of as the birth place of the Olympics, its quite fitting that they have a stadium named for it. It beautiful in its understated simplicity and is viewable from the Acropolis and is about a 25 minute walk from the south slope. Once there you can see right into the stadium and the oval track. It was quite tempting to want to hop the fence and run a few laps but I didn't have my track shoes with me...so much for bringing home the gold.

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The Olympic 2004 Stadium was officially completed and opened, joined or preceded by the official completion and openings of other venues within the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (OAKA). You may watch the OAKA Plaza and Arch adjacent to the Olympic Stadium and the Velodrome in the late evening at my pics here.

You may watch my 2 min 48 sec VIDEO-clip Greece Athens Part III with popular Greek music.

The Olympic Stadium was named after the man to win the first (modern) Olympic marathon race in 1896. Located in the area of Maroussi in Athens, it is the major Greek stadium and hosted the athletics events and the football (soccer) final at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It also hosted the opening & closing ceremonies in 2004.

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Reconstructed and restored for the first modern Olympics (1896), the Kallimarmaro Stadium occupies the same site as the original Panathenaic Stadium built in 330 BC, although the present design is a replica of the rennovations of the stadium by Herodes Atticus in 144 AD.

It's an odd shape by 21st century stadium design - long and thin (no 400 metre running track here)! But even this design can still seat up to 60,000 spectators (you'd never believe that figure looking at it).

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I have been told that the Greeks call the stadium Beautiful marble. I remember it from television as the finishing point of the olympic marathon. If you remember the front runner being stopped by a mad man and still made it in at third place and still very happy for this! A very good sportsman and winner in my mind!!

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Ancient Greeks used to build stadiums, theatres and odeons, usually on the slopes of hills and mountains near cities. Those stadiums were made of wood.

But in 1894, Georgios Averof, built 1 of marble. It still exists. In fact, this is where the 1st modern Olympic Games took place in 1896.

So, don't miss visiting this 1st large modern stadium and seeing where the modern Olympic Games started.

The trek's 204m long and 33,36m wide here and the stadium accommodates about 60,000 spectators.

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I guess the boss saw we were on the back of the truck and he screamed at the workers for letting us on. We got off and kept walking and took some pictures of the Olympic stadium. On our way out we saw the older couple who we earlier told there was no way to get into the main complex. They were headed out disappointed that they had come all that way and could not get a chance to see the main complex. Say what you will being cute does help, especially for Kate and Allie;) On the train, we discussed how we would get back to the airport. We decided to take the train. The train to the airport requires a separate ticket. Kelly and Allie had made up their minds not to buy the ticket. They said if they got caught they would cry and pretend that they do not know what is going on. That would probably work for them. I on the other hand purchased a ticket. I don’t think that defense would work as well for a guy and I didn’t want to see the inside of a Greek prison for a train ticket. I said goodbye to Kate and Allie, their flight was about 2 hours later then mine and they wanted to got to the Acropolis again.

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When writing about what happened next all I could think about was the quote. ”For half the population all you have to do is bat your eyelashes or cry.” You will see why in a moment. After saying goodbye to Luke we headed to the Olympic stadium by train. When we got there, there were only a few people there. Allie and Kelly commented on how the complex was not as impressive as the one in Sydney, nor was it well maintained. It looked like it was unfinished or left abandoned in it’s own. It did not look as good as the complex I saw in Barcelona either. We snapped a few shots but found out that the Olympic complex was closed. An older couple asked us if we had found a way in and we had said no. We walked a bit and saw a truck with a couple of maintenance workers come by. Kelly and Allie asked them if there was a way to get inside. They said sure and pulled us on the back of the truck and gave us some bags of chips from the boxes they were hauling. We had no idea where we were headed but we ended up on the other side of the gate.

Visit Olympic stadium and watch a football match too.
AEK Athens and Panathinaikos will use it as their home for 2005/06 season. In every AEK Athens game last year there was fantastic atmosphere. Best thing to do if you are a sport's fan. Tickets from 15 euro.