ATHENS, 9 August 2003 — Winds which blew rowers out of the water during an Athens Olympic test event this week also have the potential to disrupt many other competitions and may even throw a shadow over world record hopes in the glamour athletics.
Gusts, locally known as meltemia and traditional in August, helped wreak havoc at the world junior championships at the Skinias Olympic rowing complex northeast of Athens. They triggered a debate over the suitability of the rowing site as well as the broader question of how athletes would cope with the weather at the same time next year. “We have world records in Athens next year that may not count because of the wind speed,” a Greek Athletics Federation official told Reuters yesterday. “It would seriously, very seriously affect the Games, not on the organizational level but on the performance and legacy level.”
If wind speeds exceed two meters per second during a record-breaking performance then the record is invalid. That would most certainly have been the case if the Games had been held this week.
Although care has been taken to situate venues so there are mainly crosswinds, the breezes can suddenly change direction for a few minutes, opening the possibility of a favored runner or jumper competing into a headwind while a less fancied athlete picks up the advantage of a tailwind.
“There are going to be a lot of competitors licking their fingers and holding them up to see what the wind is like,” said one veteran Greek athlete. The northeastern winds blowing in the Aegean sea in August cool down the country after two scorchingly hot months where temperatures regularly soar above 40 degrees Celsius.
Temperature-wise, August is the best summer month for the Games, but the breezes, as this week’s event has shown, will largely determine the quality of competition.
Not only will they affect surfers and sailors competing on the water along the Athens southern coastline, but they could be a decisive factor for sprinters, high jumpers and long jumpers in the main Olympic stadium.
“We hope that the winds will not affect performances because the stadium has the two tiers of grandstands that will provide some protection, but then again I don’t know how much athletes would be protected if we have winds like the ones this week,” the federation official said. During the past week wind gusts at time have been up to 40 mph (64 kph). The official said a massive steel dome to be placed above the stadium may act as another windbreak.
The 1997 world athletics championships in Athens were held in early August and were not affected by the winds which traditionally pick up towards the middle of the month.
But the 2004 Games will start two weeks later than the ‘97 championships and according to organizers’ data there is only a 12 percent chance of having a wind-free August. The chances for medium to strong winds are around 25 percent. That means of the 18 days of the Games about four or five days could be wind-swept.
