On the Scene in Atlanta - Angelopoulos Shares "My Greek Drama"

(ATR) Nearly nine years after the Olympic flame burned in Athens, Gianna Angelopoulos is sharing her story to illuminate the Greece she knows and shed light on a path to a better future in her troubled country.

"My Greek Drama," which will be on The New York Times Best Sellers list Sunday, "is an exciting story," she tells Around the Rings during the Atlanta stop on her 14-city book tour. "There is a lot of politics, romance, love, betrayal, twists and challenges – a lot of drama.

"It’s not just my story and my journey; it’s about Greece’s journey."

Angelopoulos, the only female leader to head an Olympic organizing committee, believes the lessons learned during the 2004 Games have fallen by the wayside and must be put back into action. That’s why she decided the time was right for her memoir, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in Austin, Texas, and released May 8.

"The Olympics created a new Greece, people with a can-do attitude who demonstrated team work," says Angelopoulos, who also led the winning bid campaign. "They showed that they were not afraid to face any challenges."

She adds that at the 2004 Closing Ceremony she "urged them to keep showing this new face of Greece," but "we passed the baton to the politicians and they dropped it. They went back to business as usual. And that’s why we have faced this crisis."

Angelopoulos says Greece’s crushing deficit and debt problems are "just symptoms, lack of leadership is the disease."

In her 20-minute talk and book signing at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, Angelopoulos told a crowd composed of many members of the Atlanta Greek Community that to blame the country’s financial problems on the Olympics is absurd.

"The debt is 365 billion Euros," she says. "We spent 6 billion Euros, and at least 2 billion was returned to Greek state from TV rights, ticket revenue, marketing revenue, tourism revenue and tax receipts.

"So please, my dear friends, I will let you do the math."

Advice for a 2024 U.S. Bid

Despite no longer having a formal role in the Olympic Movement, Angelopoulos says, "My soul, my mind is always with the Olympics. I believe Olympics can transform cities, can transform nations, and can transform people. There is no such event so powerful as the Olympics to make people go over their limits."

When the IOC threatened to move the 2004 Games because of a lack of progress, Angelopoulos was brought on board in 2000 to save the day. Inspired by her dynamism and resolve – and by their own national passion for the Olympics – 165,000 people applied to be volunteers "in a country with no tradition of volunteerism," she says. "And I wanted to share this story with the world, especially with Americans, to show a different Greece, not a Greece that they know throughout the crisis, but the Greece I know."

As Angelopoulos has traveled the U.S., with stops also including Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Tampa, she says she has been asked "if it’s worth it to bid for the Olympics for 2024."

Angelopoulos replies that the No. 1 factor is for people to be enthusiastic for the bid and for the Games. And, to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, "offering themselves to work for their country and not asking their country to pay them back. This is the most decisive factor, and of course, a business plan."

She also says it is imperative that the bid city have a vision beyond the Olympics. Because staging the Olympics is so expensive, providing a legacy for the future will be "money well spent," she says. "Tell me how many white elephants we see around the world, starting with Sydney, Beijing or even London."

Angelopoulos added that perhaps the IOC would have to step in to guarantee a post-Olympic plan in which the new infrastructure and facilities will be integrated into the communities. "This way, the Olympics will not be just a memory for people," she says. "It will be a generator for the future."

A New Role Supporting Youth

Angelopoulos, who has chosen to live in Greece with her husband, says that although they live a comfortable life, "this doesn’t mean that I don’t feel the despair and the hopelessness of the people."

But while she says Greece could be in a different place if the lessons learned during the Games are implemented, she has no desire to seek public office.

"Whenever I was called to serve my country, I’ve done that," says Angelopoulos, who was a member of the Athens city council and was elected twice to Parliament. "But I don’t need the label of the politician."

Now she invests in youth by sponsoring students in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative. Projects include food aid, public health and innovative agriculture programs.

Some of the proceeds from the sale of "My Greek Drama" will go to support youth and education initiatives in Greece and abroad.

Angelopoulos, 57, who is an ambassador-at-large for Greece, says she "needed to break a lot of glass ceilings" to get where she is today.

From modest beginnings growing up on the island of Crete, Angelopoulos became a lawyer, then ran for office despite not coming from a political family and having no money or sponsors. She won her post on the city council by mailing packets of basil seeds, symbolizing hope and new beginnings, to her constituents.

After a stint as Vice Chairman of the Dean’s Council of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, she wrote a book called "The Greek Paradox: Promise vs. Performance" to try to find out why Greeks in Greece don’t go far, while their countrymen abroad succeed.

Throughout her career, Angelopoulos has had to balance family, raising three children, with the stress of work commitments. She became extremely ill after the 2004 Olympics and spent several months recovering.

"Every sacrifice has a price," she says. "And in leadership, you have to lead by example, to be ready to sacrifice, to be a workhorse, not a show horse."

Angelopoulos is proud of her ability to be bold and persistent in accomplishing her goals. In her book, she tells of a "small scene that I created" when the prime minister wouldn’t answer her telephone calls soon after he appointed her to take over the presidency of the Athens organizing committee.

She told his secretary that she would call on him in person, along with journalists and cameramen who would see her standing outside the closed door. The prime minister called 10 minutes later to arrange an appointment.

"As a person, I don’t take no for an answer," Angelopoulos says. "That was very useful during the time I was organizing the committee, having to deal with the Greek government and with the IOC. At the end of the day, I don’t think there is a thing like Mission Impossible. So, I want to share these stories and these tips with Greeks and people outside of Greece."

But as Angelopoulos told the audience during her talk in Atlanta, "You want more? You have to buy the book."

Reported in Atlanta by Karen Rosen

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