The organisers of this summer's Olympic Games in Athens admit that it will take "a great effort" to complete the building of stadia and finalise vital transport plans in time for the arrival of athletes.
With the Games due to begin on August 13, the Athens 2004 officials have just five and a half months in which to ensure the Greek capital is ready to stage the quadrennial event.
But with several venues still unfinished and resembling more building sites than platforms on which the world's elite sportsmen and women will compete, the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Athens 2004 president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki have expressed their own fears over progress.
"It will take a great effort to get these things done," said Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. "But we haven't come this far to let challenges like these stop us now."
The challenge for every successful bidding team is to stage the ultimate Olympics, and Athens appears some way behind schedule in putting in place the very basic required facilities.
The tram and rail network is still being worked on, and even the Games' centrepiece, the elaborate Santiago Calatrava-designed steel and glass roof above the main stadium, remains unfinished.