OLYMPIC GAMES/IOC REPORT: At least one high-profile Olympic venue in Athens was, beyond question, ready yesterday for the start of this summer's games in August. That it was the stadium used for the first modern games in 1896 says much for the state in which the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) co-ordination committee found the Greek capital on its final tour of inspection this week.

The past has never been a problem for Athens, and the magnificent marble horseshoe stadium will make a fitting finishing point for the marathon races that will track the original course of that ill-fated ancient messenger.

The present and the very near future are another matter, however. And, despite the measured all-clear the IOC gave the city's progress yesterday, Athens faces a stiff challenge if it is to deliver a games that matches the city's ambition.

Yesterday the IOC gave its most upbeat assessment yet of preparations for the games. Denis Oswald, chairman of the co-ordination committee, was unequivocal that construction work on all the Olympic venues will be completed in time for the games.

"In the past we had doubts but all these have now disappeared," he said, brandishing a clipboard streaked with green marks against venue names in place of the red and yellow marks that covered it six months ago. "No single project is at risk and we know that everything will be delivered in time."

He might have added "just".

While building work on the Olympic village and 15 of the venues has been completed, and responsibility for a further 10 has been handed over to the IOC, 12 of the venues are only 85 per cent complete and the schedule to finish them is tight.

At the most symbolic site, the main stadium complex, it takes a leap of faith to believe assurances that it will be ready by mid-July, despite the movement this week of the first of the roof arches. In addition to completing the roof and installing the track, there is a huge amount of landscaping to be done, as well as the final fitting out of the facilities.

Elsewhere in the city the infrastructure is being improved with similar brinkmanship. The new tram system is due to open in July, but yesterday, at an unfinished stop, a homeless person dozed amid piles of paving stones and sand, undisturbed by the presence of workmen. Athens will be ready come August 13th, but the opening events of the games are likely to take place with the smell of drying paint.

If the IOC is worried, it is putting on the bravest of faces. It has long been accepted that Athens will not be another Sydney, which one official described this week as "possibly over-prepared", and crucially there is faith in Greek assurances that the city will be ready.

Oswald offered only the mildest indication that the pressure of a 93-day deadline is beginning to bite: "I will be fully relaxed only at the end of the games when all the athletes and officials are at home safely."

He was also happy to lend his support to the Athens Organising Committee's (Athoc) drive to improve the image of their Games. "It is important that the message is positive, because we want to encourage people to come," he said.

Privately, the message to Athoc has been more forceful and Athens has been left in little doubt that it has much to do to satisfy the IOC. Discussions over the last three days have focused almost entirely on the operational stage of the preparations. Having the venues is one thing, being able to use them quite another.

Transport is at the top of the IOC's list, with some justification. Athens' streets were choked before the city became a construction site and, if the traffic jams that turned a 10km journey into a 90-minute crawl yesterday are representative, crossing the capital could become one of the great challenges of the games.

The metro, suburban railway and tram lines have been extended and improved and, once open, should relieve a great deal of the burden. More fundamental to the free movement of athletes and officials are the planned "Olympic only" lanes on the roads, and the IOC awaits confirmation that these can be properly enforced.

"Our experts have seen the transport plan and say it is the best they have ever seen but, for the time being, it is on paper. They have to make sure it works," Oswald said.

Amid the scores of Athoc and government officials deployed to spread the positive message this week there is no doubt that the city will be ready. The optimism they display is matched only by their enthusiasm for the games and is so unfailing that even Athens' mistakes - starting construction work three years late, for example - have been portrayed as successes.

Guardian Service