IOC may limit number of people at future Games

Sydney: Olympic leaders may have to cut the ever-increasing number of people involved in Summer Games in the future to stop the event becoming impossible to manage.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday it would discuss the scale of the Olympics when chiefs hold a post-mortem on the Sydney Games.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said he did not believe the Games, which open on Friday, were getting too big to handle.

But he added, "We will have a post-mortem as quickly as possible after the Sydney Games to see what is really the impact of these numbers."

"The media is 21,000 here. It was around 12,000 in Barcelona (at the 1992 Games). Everywhere there are increases and we have to watch that very closely and monitor it. The IOC will sit down and reconsider where we could possibly put some limits."

Triathlon, women's weightlifting and taekwondo will all be medal events for the first time in Sydney.

New sports boost the number of television staff involved in broadcasting the action, as well as increasing the number of reporters.

The expanding numbers have put tremendous pressure on the transport system in Sydney.

Sydney organisers (SOCOG) said on Friday about 3,500 buses with 4,500 drivers were involved in getting competitors, media and officials to and from events at the Games. Around 140,000 people have been accredited for the Olympics.

Organisers have had to take extra measures to deal with recent transport problems.

"You are looking at 500,000 people coming into Sydney Olympic Park on a daily basis," SOCOG spokeswoman Liz Smylie said."It is always a mammoth task. We have accredited 150 extra drivers who are behind the wheel of the buses today and there are plans to accredit 100 more drivers."

An Australian army spokesman said around 100 army, navy and air force personnel would be in Sydney by Monday to back up civilian Olympic drivers.

The next Summer Games in 2004 will take place in Athens where transport is likely to be a huge challenge. Carrard said Athens organisers sat in on Friday's meeting of SOCOG and the IOC where transport problems were discussed.

"They were scribbling notes frantically," he said.



(c) Reuters Limited.