Athens 2004: Pound Admits to Fears Over Athens Pollution

Dick Pound, one of the International Olympic Committee's most senior members, has revealed he voted to award the 2004 Olympics to Rome because he feared that Athens would cause the competitors serious health damage.

Pound, who was the IOC vice-president when the decision to award the games to Athens was taken in 1997, has for the first time publicly criticised the evaluation commission that reported on the strengths and weaknesses of cities bidding for the 2004 games but who failed to mention the air pollution in the Greek capital.

"I was astonished and you must remember, according to the media, hundreds of people die in Athens each summer, just trying to breathe, never mind competing athletically," he said. "To this day when I hear the world 'Athens' my visceral memory dating back to my first visit is the stench of diesel fumes. The conditions in Athens made the much-vaunted smog of Los Angeles [the hosts of the 1984 Olympics] appear to be a breath of fresh air."

Pound's comments come in a hard-hitting new book, Inside the Olympics, to be published by Wiley in Britain later this month. They will be of special interest to Britain's Paula Radcliffe, the favourite for a gold medal in the marathon but whose chances could be affected by the fact she suffers from asthma, which could be made worse by the poor air quality in Athens.

Projections are that Athens will be the hottest Olympics in history. That dubious honour is held by St Louis in 1904, where the average minimum temperature was 22C and the maximum 31C. In Athens they expect the temperature to range between 24C and 34C.

Pound said: "The [evaluation] commission blithely assured us that, in the late summer, when the games would be held, the winds normally change to come off the Mediterranean and would carry away all the pollution. I am sure we all look forward to this miracle."