Once again the eyes of the world were focused on Greece yesterday. But this time it was for a good reason as the Olympic flame was handed over to the London Olympic Committee at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. The grey skies over the stadium resembled the gloomy atmosphere in the country but in the end the rainbow came out. With the elections looming the Greek people needed something to be proud of again.
And sport has always united Greeks: from the 1987 European Basketball Championship to Olympic wins in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens to the Euro 2004 win.
Despite the crisis and the political uncertainty the people of Athens went to the stadium to say farewell to the flame, the symbol of the Olympic Games, that travelled to London on a special British Airways flight in a gold-painted plane.
And there to receive the flame were London mayor Boris Johnson (thank God he didn’t drop the flame or stumble), Lord Sebastian Coe, David Beckham (after meeting up with Barack Obama in the US this week) and Princess Anne.
The flame has now reached the British shores and it will continue its journey for 70 days around the country until it reaches its final destination the Olympic Stadium in Stratford where the games will begin on July 27.