Taki Telonidis, the Western Folklife Center's Media Producer, is producing National Public Radio's coverage of the Olympics in Athens, Greece. Taki worked for NPR for about a dozen years, and in the 1980's went to Greece with reporter Sylvia Poggioli to assist with a series of stories on Greece.
Taki himself is Greek, speaks the language, knows the customs, and has many friends there who have assisted him in this ambitious undertaking. Taki is working with five other NPR staff members: editor Uri Berliner, and reporters Howard Berkes, Tom Goldman and Sylvia Poggioli. They are working out of the main press center which is part of the Olympic Stadium complex. Taki has been keeping us posted with news from Athens and has been submitting daily diaries to the National Public Radio website. You can read his diaries at: http://www.npr.org/news/specials/olympics2004/diary.html
08/19
This morning on NPR's Morning Edition, Taki explained why visiting Olympia and seeing the athletes play in the ancient stadium was such a meaningful experience for him, a first-generation Greek.
"For as long as I can remember, the ancient Greeks have been staring at me. Seeing these living, breathing athletes strut and sweat on this ancient track took me back thousands of years. Suddenly I could imagine the Olympians I'd read about."
Listen to Taki's entire story on NPR's website at http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=3858643
Write us and let us know what you think of Taki's coverage of the Olympics. We'd love to hear from you and we may even put your comments on our website! Send comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Postcards from Athens, by Taki Telonidis
August 27, 2004
A quick note. I just returned from the USA Argentina basketball game and saw the Dream Team bounced out of Gold Medal contention. They were simply outplayed by the Argentinians who shot better, played a really tight defense and moved the ball around more nimbly than the Americans. While team USA had vocal fans in the stands, the underdog Argentinians received support from very enthusiastic compatriots draped in blue & white Argentinian flags, as well as the sympathy of the hometown Greeks. The noise and cheering during the last couple of minutes of the game was deafening, and when it was over the Americans shuffled off the court with their heads bowed. (By the way, the tight shots of the exiting team were shot by John Castellano of Salt Lake City's KUED.) At the other end of the court, half the Argentinian team took their shirts off and started dancing with each other. One looked like Fabio, and the women in the stands went nuts when he tore off his jersey. I went to the press conference shortly after the game and sat just a few rows back from Coach Brown and Iverson. They were very gracious, but obviously humbled. When asked for his advice for future Dream Team players, Allen Iverson said "You can't just show up and just cause you have USA on your chest think you're going to win." After this nightmare, maybe their nickname should be the "Dream On Team."
August 17, 2004
A brief note on two exciting developments for me. After focusing exclusively on news since we got here, it looks like I'll be working on one, perhaps two features that involve ancient Greek history. Our editor decided that I should accompany reporter Howard Berkes to ancient Olympia (the site of the original games that began in 776 BC) to watch the shot-put event on Wednesday. This is the only event taking place at the ancient stadium and access is very limited. It looks like we've secured a pair of tickets for this amazing day. The thought of seeing living, breathing athletes competing on this hallowed ground gives me shivers.
I'm also hoping to do a story with Sylvia about the antiquities that have been unearthed by all the construction for the Games. Apparently tons (literally) of statues, columns, and pottery have been taken to a big warehouse on the outskirts of Athens where archeologists are examining, cleaning and measuring them. We hope to visit this warehouse and see these objects that someday will grace the hallways of museums and galleries in Greece.
August 13, 2004 -- Late
It's 11 PM on Friday (the 13th) and this has been the weirdest day in memory. Last night, it looked like today would be a nice ramp-up to the opening ceremony: people were psyched, everything was ready, Athens looked beautiful, and the NPR team had a plan. Then this morning, the shocking news of this drug scandal shocked the country into disbelief and sadness.
This morning, I asked the woman I bought my newspaper from what she thought of Greece's pride-and-joy athletes self destructing like this. She said "I don't know what to believe, but I can tell you that we Greeks have been known to gouge out our own eyes."
But here we are after this crazy day -- which was topped off by awful technical problems (all with NPR stuff, none with the Greeks). I gathered tape for Tom Goldman's ATC piece, and Sylvia is about to do an interview. But the rush is over, and here we are watching the glorious opening ceremony. It's overwhelming, and brought tears to my eyes several times. For the moment at least, the Olympics are what they're supposed to be.
August 13, 2004
Things have exploded here with a major scandal involving Greece's top two track and field athletes, Costas Kenteris (who happens to be from the same island as my family) and Katerina Thanou. Yesterday they failed to appear for a drug test and were scheduled to face a disciplinary hearing today. Then this morning more news -- they were involved in a traffic accident and are in the hospital. All of this on the day of the opening ceremony! Greece is in shock, and people don't know what to believe. Are they OK? Are they taking illegal steroids? Will they be barred from the Games? Will they participate in opening ceremonies tonight? Many questions, but no answers.
August 10, 2004
I arrived tired, but intact yesterday, and things are coming together. Athens looks great, and people seem psyched & proud. The scale of these games is massive in comparison to the Salt Lake City games. Sylvia Poggioli, Tom Goldman and I went for a walk by the Olympic stadium with the famous roof designed by Santiago Calitrava. It seemed to defy gravity...unlike our mouths which dropped open. The opening ceremony is tomorrow night, and the plan is for me to watch it with a group of Greeks at a cafe and record their comments. The whole country has its fingers crossed that all will go well.
