DON'T WORRY, GREECE IS READY.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

ATHENS, Greece - Been here 24 hours already and nothing big has fallen down or blown up.

Given how low the bar was set for the 2004 Athens Olympics, that represents an excellent start for organizers and the nation of Greece.

This was to be the Summer Games that set back the Olympic movement, oh, 2,700 years.

By Closing Ceremonies on Aug. 29 - no, make that by Opening Ceremonies on Friday - we were going to wax nostalgic for the organizing skills of the ancient Greeks, who inaugurated this quadrennial event in 776 BC.

We would be puzzling over the history of a civilization that apparently peaked three millennia ago, asking, ``Where's Pericles when you really need him?''

Just a few years ago, the International Olympic Committee was in a lather over Athens' progress, and lack of same, in prepping for 2004.

Los Angeles and Seoul quietly let it be known they were ready to step in, on short notice, when the Greeks finally conceded failure. By 2001, four years after Athens was awarded the Games, the Greeks had done little more than drink ouzo and congratulate themselves.

Even a few months ago, a batch of venues remained unfinished, infrastructure was still on the drawing board, terror fears were palpable and the IOC was privately apoplectic. The only argument was over the magnitude of the train wreck Athens was hurtling toward.

The Greeks? The essence of their reply was, ``Chill; the Acropolis wasn't built in a day.''

They also suggested a Mediterranean cultural paradigm was at work; whatever absolutely had to be finished would be finished. Eventually. In time. Just not as promptly as the planet's anal-retentive peoples might wish. Folks not in sync with the it'll-get-done attitude of the globe's sunnier climes.

``I was kind of freaked out,'' conceded softball standout Leah O'Brien- Amico, a two-time gold-medalist from Chino Hills. ``I kept hearing how nothing was going to be finished, about how hot and smoggy it was going to be, about security problems.

``Then we got here, and everything has been great.''

That is the happy consensus among the American contingent, as Day 1 of the 28th Olympiad of the modern Games approaches. The first Olympics in Greece since Baron de Coubertin resurrected the event in 1896.

This or that venue might not be spit-polished. The plaster still is wet in some rooms at the media village. You could find more relaxing ways to spend a day than navigating downtown Athens in an automobile. Something less than half of all tickets have been sold.

But the subway appears to run on time, the lights are on, the phones have a dial tone.

The big-ticket buildings are up and standing. And the athletes inspect the venues, come out and say they're wonderful.

Now, sure, Athens' built-in-a-fortnight Olympic Stadium could go Wrigley Field on us and start showering concrete chunks. If it comes to that, the Greeks probably will issue hard hats and say, ``Get on with it.''

Athens, and Greece, appear to have pulled off one of the greatest upsets since the Battle of Marathon by spending oodles of money on this event. At least $7 billion. Perhaps as much as $10 billion.

A lot of that, some $1.5 billion, is going to security, and we see it on the streets. Busloads of police moving about. Young military men with automatic rifles at every subway stop. Magnatometers between you and every door. A no-fly zone over the city. NATO on patrol.

In 2000, Sydney promised outstanding Games and delivered. In 1996, Atlanta made a similar pledge, and the transportation system hiccuped, a bomb went off in a park and the sports shorthand for Atlanta is ``failure.''

Maybe the Greeks were being canny by lowering expectations so convincingly. Most of us got here and were impressed they had color TV. If they get through 17 days without bombs exploding or venues imploding, Athens goes directly to a New Golden Age.

That line warning us to beware of Greeks bearing gifts? Maybe we also should be leery of their doomsday prophecies. This oracle likes their chances of a great Olympics.

Paul Oberjuerge, [phone]

paul.oberjuerge(at)sbsun.com

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Photo:

(color) High jumper Jamie Nieto attends the flag raising ceremony for the U.S. Olympic team in Athens.

Thomas Kienzle/Associated Press