Olympics: Trans-Tasman rivalry to start before games open

1.00pm

Olympic teams from New Zealand and Australia are set for a high noon clash in Athens days before the Games open next month.

A large television screen is being set up in the athletes' village so the fierce trans-Tasman rivals can watch the Tri-Nations rugby test between the All Blacks and Wallabies on August 7.

"Our Australian colleagues have done that," New Zealand chef de mission Dave Currie told NZPA from Athens.

"We have been invited down to watch...we may have to take them up on that."

If it can be picked up live, the game will screen just after midday in Athens.

Currie had no fears of the All Blacks exposing his team to Australian ribbing.

"I think we'll be fine," he said.

Currie arrived in Athens three days ago to prepare the village for the athletes, who start to arrive on Friday.

The Games open on August 13 and run for 16 days. Athletes are expected to compete in temperatures above 40C.

"The heat is not quite so debilitating as we feared," Currie said.

"It is really hot and may get a little hotter over the next couple of weeks, but there is a bit of a breeze and it's not as stifling as I had set myself for.

"One of the things about the Games is you know four years out the date, time, place and conditions, so you get ready.

"The heat won't be an excuse. We know what we are coming into, so certainly it won't be an excuse or a factor.

"Competing is going to be tough, but competition's often in the morning or early evening."

New Zealand athletes will draw daily inspiration from the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings films, with their lounge in the Olympic Village having been named Middle Earth.

Currie said it had been decked out with reminders of home.

"We're creating a pretty magical environment, so that when athletes arrive it'll be a touch of inspiration for them."

Mementos donated by great New Zealand Olympians from previous Games adorn Middle Earth, the room that will be the social centre for the 2004 team.

"The spirit we are trying to engender is one of an absolute sense of pride in being a New Zealander, and a sense of pride of wearing the silver fern," Currie said.

Six-metre long banners of stylised silver ferns and Maori carvings mark out the New Zealand village buildings as a part of Aotearoa on foreign soil.

Currie was stunned by the size of the village, which will be home to about 10,500 athletes and 5500 officials. It has 10,000 staff.

It took him 35 minutes to run around the perimeter, a journey of probably 7km.

There is one dining room inside giant air-conditioned marquees, where 5000 can eat at a time.

New Zealand has a central site near the dining halls and transport, alongside the Greek team.

"The village is coming together well," Currie said.

"Like any large organisation, there's the inevitable teething problems, but nothing that we don't believe will be overcome."

A 2292-apartment complex, in the northwest of Athens, is the biggest single construction project of the Games.

Officially it will open to national teams on July 30.

It will have places of worship for Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Hindus.

It will be the best guarded venue of the Games with police officers, snipers and secret service personnel protecting it.

Access roads are cut off to anyone without special permits.

Currie said security was no more obtrusive than it had been at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

- NZPA