He slowly walked off the field, his team beaten but his Olympic spirit intact.
Ellene Tratras-Contis remembers vividly the Pakistani field hockey player who, although dejected by his team's loss, stopped at the edge of the field, opened his duffel bag and handed out his country's Olympic pins and key chains to anyone in the vicinity.
"It's that kind of feeling you don't get on TV," said Tratras-Contis, assistant vice president for academic administrative services who recently returned from a whirlwind 16 days as an Olympics volunteer in Athens, Greece. "There's a feeling of people trying very hard and being good at what they do."
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IN THE FAST LANE: Ellene Tratras-Contis (far
right), assistant vice president for academic
administrative services, poses with her
husband, George (center), and members of the
United States' 4 x 400-meter relay team, which
won the gold medal. Tratras-Contis and her
husband served as volunteers at the recent
Olympics in Athens, Greece. |
That moment and many others, like when a cab driver found a Lithuanian
athlete's gold medal in his vehicle and promptly returned the hardware, are vivid in Tratras-Contis' mind.
For anyone, attending such an event would be memorable. But, for Tratras-Contis, the experience was doubly thrilling because it gave her another opportunity to get in touch with her Greek roots. Her father was born on Icaria, one of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Her grandparents on her mother's side were born in Chios (grandfather) and Limnos (grandmother), also islands in the Aegean.
""I chose to apply as a volunteer because, for me, it is a way of giving back to Hellas (Greece) who, through my parents and family, instilled in me the rich heritage and traditions that are part of my value system," Tratras-Contis said. "I am proud to have worked at the Athens Olympics, especially for this reason. But I am also proud that I am representing the United States there. To me, it is a perfect way to share my heritage and to foster goodwill from my country, the United States."
To become volunteers, Tratras-Contis and her husband, George, applied more than two years ago to the Athens Olympic Committee. Approximately 160,000 applications were submitted, one of the largest numbers ever, she said.
After making it past the first screening, Contis said she and her husband were invited to interview with the Olympics Committee. After the second screening, they were chosen as two of approximately 50,000 volunteers. Their preferences were considered and assignments made as needed. Tratras-Contis worked with spectator services and spent the bulk of her time at the field hockey venue, where the fields were referred to as "pitches."
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SYMBOLS OF THE GAMES: Medals and
olive wreaths were bestowed upon
athletes who finished first, second or third
at the Olympics in Greece. Tratras-Contis
was privy to a close look of how each
awards tray was displayed before they
were carried out to the awards podium. |
"I was placed wherever I was needed," she said. "I checked credentials of athletes and their family members, VIPS, other dignitaries and the media at the broadcast compound. My translation abilities, mostly Greek and English, were put to use. Also, I used some bad French and German."
She also helped marshal spectators to their seats, "which was interesting," she said with a laugh, explaining the crowd turned many events into parties in the stands.
When she wasn't volunteering, Tratras-Contis was an avid spectator, taking in water polo, diving, baseball, field hockey, and the track and field competition (including the men's marathon). She was especially impressed with the athletes' abilities to focus under extreme pressure.
"Here, you have all these people making this tremendous noise and they're (athletes) able to do what they do," she said, marveling at how the athletes could finish their events and then immediately accommodate the media with on-the-spot interviews.
During her stay, she even rubbed elbows with some of the athletes. She had photos taken with former Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, who owns world records in the 200 and 400 meters. She also posed with the United States' men's and women's 400-meter relay teams, which both won gold medals, and the Russian women's 4 x 100-meter relay team which won the gold medal.
Like many fans, she also was on a quest to accumulate those valued Olympic pins.
"I got maybe two dozen. I didn't do very well," she said. "My husband got a couple hundred."
If the Olympic pins didn't come so easily, pride in her Greek heritage did. Before the track and field competition began, two Greek sprinters -- both medal winners at Sydney in 2000 -- were banned from the Games after failing to show for a drug test and then being involved in what the media reported as a "suspicious" motorcycle accident and a questionable hospital stay. Rather than make excuses for the athletes, Greek officials promptly barred them from competing.
"That shows how strong they felt about the values of the Olympics," Tratras-Contis said of the country where the ancient games originated and were revived in 1896. "This event was a serious thing to them. It wasn't just a light and laser show. All along, the Greeks wanted to bring back the values they considered important to the Olympics."
She also took great pride in the fact that Greece was the smallest country to ever host the Summer Olympics and had the additional obstacle of having to finance heightened security because of potential terrorist threats. From the venues to the transportation system to the Olympic Village, Tratras-Contis gave the nation a thumbs-up for its efforts.
"It really made me feel more positive about the world," Tratras-Contis said. "It was so great to be with and talk with people of different cultures, and to be involved in a big event. I'm almost speechless. It was just an awesome experience. It's very difficult to put in words."
