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Hoofdstukken:
- Great Witnesses
- History of the Olympic Games
- Building and Olympic Greece
- The Paralympics Games
- Economic Impacts
- Sponsors

Voorwoord:
One hundred and eight years after the first Modern Olympic Games were staged in Athens in 1896, the capital of Greece is called upon to organise again the first Olympic Games of the New Millennium under the shade of the Acropolis. Our ambition is that the Athens Games will be the Games of human measure. In Ancient Greece an athlete was called upon to compete, not for material gain, but for the honour of victory. Thus, after the Olympic Games were established in antiquity, the pursuit of victory was combined with the mobilisation of the noble sentiments of human nature and everything was done in a continuous effort to attain a balance of body and spirit. This was the majesty of the competitive spirit of the Greeks. This fighting spirit, namely the prevalence of competition as noble antagonism rather than rivalry, we wish to see dominating the Athens Olympic Games of 2004. In Antiquity the Olympic Games were also associated with the world of Art and Culture. In the course of the Games active was the presence of Poets, Philosophers, Sophists, Orators, Sculptors and other artists. The «Cultural Olympiad 2002-2004» established and promoted by the Greek Ministry of Culture, has this ultimate goal, that is, to directly link the athletic events of the Olympic Games with Culture. Against the views about a Clash of Civilisations, the Cultural Olympiad brings out the need to create a «Civilisation of Civilisations» based on the principle of Cultural equality, dialogue among Civilisations and respect for the cultural identity of the «other». It is our hope that the Athens Games should be held in a climate of international peace and cessation - albeit a temporary one - of hostilities. We are trying to promote the idea of an «Olympic Truce», the «ekeheiria» of the ancient Greeks. As in Antiquity, we would like to revive the principle of the cessation of hostilities between States and the silencing of weapons, so that the athletes might participate unswayed and dedicated to their sport. A Utopia as this may seem, our goal is to send a powerful symbolic message of peace and reconciliation of peoples. Finally we aspire to make the Athens Olympic Games highlight the contemporary face of Greece as a modern country which does not rest on the laurels of her historic past but builds her future in a creative way on the basis of respect for the values of international legality, a country that cooperates with its neighbours, its partners in the European Union and the International Community, within the framework of mutual respect, solidarity and faith in the principles of democracy and freedom.