Cheers around globe for Athens spectacle

ATHENS, Aug 14 (Reuters) -- Cheers echoed around the world on Saturday for the breathtaking opening ceremony that launched the Athens Olympics after years of trial and tribulation.

Olympic host cities -- past and hopefully future -- doffed their caps to Greece for seizing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show the world what it was all about. All the carping about the chaos was forgotten.

It was not just 10 million Greek hearts that swelled with pride back home. Seven million Greeks around the globe were cheering as loud as they did after Greece won last month's Euro 2004 soccer tournament as 80-1 outsiders.

In Melbourne, the largest Greek-speaking community outside Greece crowded round big screen televisions to watch Athens take centre stage.

"When I saw the Greek team walk out, I had a lump in my throat. After all the troubles they have had getting ready for the Games..." said cafe worker Eliza Klonaris.

Melbourne's Herald Sun tabloid, reflecting on years of criticism over construction chaos and security concerns, said: "What had shaped as an ancient Greek tragedy last night wondrously emerged as a modern Greek miracle."

Praise indeed from Australia where the 2000 Sydney Olympics were widely regarded as one of the greatest ever staged.

Beijing, set to host the great sporting extravaganza in 2008, may have to look to its olive laurels.

Chinese news agency Xinhua said: "The opening ceremony of cutting edge technology brought the 72,000 spectators and billions in the global audience through a symbolic and emotional journey reviewing Greek history and presenting a modern one in three and a half hours."

And cities competing for the honour of staging the Games in 2012 realised they could have a tough act to follow.

Britain's Daily Telegraph concluded: "Crisis? What crisis? After all, the Greeks have made something of a habit of making it work at the last minute."

Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from cheering on Britain's team in the opening ceremony, called it "fantastic, absolutely fantastic."

The French sports daily L'Equipe was equally fulsome about the cradle of western civilisation parading its past with such style, calling it "A night of Greek beauty, The Games of the 28th Olympiad opened on a magic night."

The New York Times said some of the opening ceremony's grandeur was inevitably lost as cameras shrank down the sheer size of the epic production for billions of television viewers worldwide.

And it highlighted how Athens was rich in old-and-new ironies "with a spectacle drawing heavily on the pure forms of Ancient Greek mythology and the voluminous security precautions for the modern age of terrorism."

But it was predictably back home in Greece that Olympic pride reached fever pitch.

The Olympic homecoming ceremony banished the nightmare of a drugs probe involving Greece's top two athletes - both former Olympic medal winners.

"I was watching this performance and my hair stood on end. I can't really explain it, but I was crying as I watched it on the television," said plumber Yiannis Kalaitzakis.

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