Terror leaves personal scars on Athens

Although it's been three years since the terror attacks on the United States, the Olympic Games is suffering in the aftermath.

Although it's been three years since the terror attacks on the United States, the Olympic Games is suffering in the aftermath.

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Tales of the huge security operation here are legendary - the 1.5 billion dollars spent on making sure the first post-September 11 Games do not fall victim to bloodshed; the 100,000 security personnel on duty around the clock; the presence of NATO aircraft and American navy gunboats patrolling the Greek seas.

But the legacy of the attacks on New York and Washington has also sparked private anguish over whether or not to take part in the Games which get underway here on Friday.

America's 1996 Olympic tennis champion Lindsay Davenport has skipped Athens fearing for her safety in the Greek capital.

"It's an awkward feeling to go somewhere where Americans aren't really wanted," insisted Davenport.

"A year ago I was dying to go, I was so excited but then I had a different feeling."

Before she pulled out through injury, six-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams was also debating her place in the light of the Madrid train bombings in March which killed 190 people.

"It's definitely a concern of mine," Williams said at the time.

"I would be kind of naive to say it isn't. You have got to be really careful in the world these days. There is so much going on.

"I think my security and my saftey and my life is a little bit more important than tennis, and so if it became a real concern to where I personally wouldn't feel comfortable, then I wouldn't go to Athens."

American rower Xeno Muller is another who has preferred to stay at home.

"When you have three children and a wife and you leave them to go overseas, and you see somebody's head getting cut off then you start having clouds in your head for," Muller told reporters recently.

But for all the stay-at-homes, there are as many gotta-goes.

Muller's rowing teammate Jason Read saw the horror of September 11 up close when he was at the site of the World Trade Centre bombings in his capacity as a New Jersey fire chief.

"I was at Ground Zero for the better part of a week," Read, 26, said.

"It was the most momentous event in my generation's lifetime. Seeing last rites given to guys my age, bodies that weren't intact, body after body and being next to them, that was difficult to deal with."

Read has no fears about the Games.

"It's a very challenging time abroad. With that challenge brings a certain appreciation for our country. This country is resilient. That spirit is amazing," he said.

The aftermath of the 2001 attacks has since led to the readmission of Afghanistan into the Olympic fraternity.

They last competed in the Olympics in 1996, but were then banned when the Taliban regime disapproved of sport.

But with the Taliban ousted, Afghanistan is back - and women's 100m entrant Robina Muqimyar is likely to be carrying the country's flag at the opening ceremony.

"There was nothing for us girls to do under the Taliban except stay at home," said Muqimyar, who has a personal best of 15.06sec and who will participate wearing a headscarf and tracksuit trousers.

Like Afghanistan, Iraq is also looking ahead to the Games knowing that failure won't, as it did in the past, lead to brutal punishment metered out by Uday Hussein, the country's sporting chief under the reign of his father.

"I am very happy and at the same time I'm very frightened," said 19-year-old Ala Hekmat, a 100m and 200m sprinter.

"It's the first time I'll go abroad and I am the only woman in the team. It's a big responsibility."