Education for Sustainable Development
October 2004
Banner photo: © SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
"Dream Olympics"
I started chanting in 1976 in Athens, Greece, when I was eight years old; both my mother and my sister began to chant at the same time. All my life I was involved with sports. From 1978 when I was 11, I started fencing. I entered the national team of Greece and was a member for 10 years.
I also studied physical education in Greece and continued in the USA with a Master's in Sports Management and Marketing. In 1996 I joined the Organizing Committee for the Athletics World Championship in Athens in 1997, and in 1999 I joined the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee. From the beginning I had the responsibility to manage all projects involved with the training of the athletes before and during the Olympics.
When I started we were only 57 people on the organizing committee in 1999 and by the time the games ended we were 10,500 people. At the same time, our SGI organization was also expanding and on July 3, 2003 we established a legal body of SGI-Hellas after 30 years. I felt somehow we were growing together in leaps and bounds.
Importance of Unity
In 2000 I was fortunate to work with the Sydney 2000 Organizing Committee, and this experience helped me plan our training sites for the Athens 2004 Olympics. But one thing struck me--that there were often problems with a lack of unity. So I was determined through my Buddhist practice to somehow create the unity necessary to ensure successful games in Greece.
Many times I was very discouraged, but with my practice I always found a way to stay positive and move things forward. I wanted everyone to see that the Olympics would be great for all Greece and for the whole world. I started to focus on my team with the spirit of Nichiren, who says we can achieve anything when we are united; "many in body one in mind."
Knowing that training conditions just before the Olympics are very important to the athletes and that they spend much more time in training sites than in the competition venues, I made the determination to organize and plan the best possible training sites.
During the summer of 2003, I was appointed as the venue manager for the Dekelia Olympic Complex, which included 10 training sites for 15 sports, plus the depot for all buses (375), vans (80) and cars (100) that were planned for the transportation of athletes and officials. Overall I was responsible for 2,400 staff and the training of 4,000 athletes.
One of the biggest challenges was a huge negative media blitz saying "the Greeks can't do it," " typical Greek work" . . . this was very discouraging to all of us. We had only one choice, to believe in ourselves. I chanted for everyone at that time. Then we received guidance from our boss that we should listen to what the media was saying, check ourselves, improve what we had to do and not be defeated by the negative things they said. That gave me great courage.
I was determined not to be defeated. It was obvious in my venue that our working team was something special. We worked as one, all with the same passion and determination! We had more applications to work with us than anyone else.
Success
I continued to chant for good health and no injuries for everyone. We did not have any injuries of any athlete and not one complaint. But the biggest gift for me and my staff and volunteers were the smiles of the athletes coming and going to train.
On a personal note, I was honored to be chosen to run with the Olympic flame in the Sparta area in Greece. As an expression of my gratitude to SGI, I offered the torch to the SGI-Hellas organization to be later presented to President Ikeda in Japan, as for me the flame is a symbol of world peace.
I am very proud of the great success of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, very proud of the hard work we all did together to make these Olympics the "Dream Olympics" . . . OUR DREAM OLYMPICS!
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