The XXVIII Summer Olympic Games will be held in Athens from 13-29 August 2004. The Games are returning to their birthplace with the first recorded Olympics staged in Greece in 776 BC.

There will be 28 sports represented in 38 venues with 301 medal ceremonies. More than 10,500 athletes and 3,000 team officials from over 200 countries will participate. Countries recently welcomed back into the Olympic family include Afghanistan and Iraq.

Around 21,500 members of the world's media are expected to cover the Games.

2K Plus will have an international team of up to 15 radio journalists and reporters providing news, comment, reports and interviews. We expect to serve about 500 radio stations worldwide.

We plan to offer services in the following languages: Creole (Indian Ocean), English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili.

Oladipoh Alphonce, Swahili producer: Oladipoh works for Baraka FM, Mombasa, Kenya. This will be his first 2K Plus assignment. He will be reporting for Baraka FM and other Swahili stations in Kenya and Tanzania.

Alvaro Andrade, Portuguese producer: Alvaro is News Director with Voz Cristã in Miami, Florida which broadcasts to audiences in South America, especially Brazil. He will be producing reports and features for Portuguese stations in South America and Africa, including Mozambique and Angola. This will be his first 2K Plus assignment.

Pedro Arias, Spanish producer: Pedro works with HCJB World Radio and has been on our teams at previous Olympics in Barcelona and Sydney. He will be reporting for HCJB and Voz Cristiana to audiences in Central and South America in AM, FM, shortwave and satellite. Voz Cristiana has a network of 127 affiliate stations in the region which will receive Pedro's reports.

Solomon Ashoms, English producer: Solomon is a media trainer and producer currently based in Johannesburg. He has worked with CCFm in Cape Town and is a veteran of previous 2K Plus assignments at the Commonwealth Games, Manchester, 2002 and All Africa Games, Nigeria, 2003. He will be reporting primarily for English-speaking stations in Africa.

Norman Brierley, English producer: Norman is based in Addis Ababa where he works for 2K Plus partner, Feba Radio. Another 2K Plus veteran he has reported for us from two previous All Africa Games (Harare 1995, Abuja 2003) and Commonwealth Games (Manchester, 2002).

Rich Cline, News producer: Rich is a freelance journalist based in London producing, among other things, film reviews for BBC Radio Five Live. He is the most experienced member of the 2K Plus team having reported from Summer and Winter Olympics, All Africa Games, European Swimming Championships and IAAF Track and Field Grand Prix. Rich will be producing twice-daily written news reports in English to be sent by email to radio stations worldwide.

Vivian Dinan, French and Creole (Indian Ocean) producer: Vivian is based in Mauritius and has a background in sports reporting on the island. His first assignment with the 2K Plus team was at the All Africa Games in Harare, 1995. In October 2003 he reported from the All Africa Games in Abuja for radio stations and newspapers in Mauritius and Seychelles. In Athens Vivian will be providing reports for media in Francophone Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean.

Louise Heinrich, English producer: Australian Louise was our "fixer" at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, arranging everything from transport to contacts for interviews. She joins us in Athens as a reporter for stations in Australia and New Zealand, following the similar highly successful role she provided at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, 2002.

Danny Rice, English producer: Danny formerly worked for 2K Plus partners Feba Radio and joins the team with a wealth of sports reporting experience from the All Africa Games (Johannesburg, 1999), Olympic Games (Sydney, 2000) and Commonwealth Games (Manchester, 2002). Danny will be producing reports and features for English-speaking stations worldwide.

Rachel Zhang, Mandarin producer: Rachel works for Trans World Radio based in Forth Worth, Texas and joins us as an experienced news reporter and interviewer. She will be reporting for TWR, Voice of Friendship (FEBC) and Voice International broadcasting to China and North East Asia. This is her first 2K Plus assignment.

The English language service will include:

• Twice-daily written reports by email;
• Twice-daily audio reports via internet FTP site, telephone and ISDN;
• Daily perspective on moral, ethical or spiritual issue-based news event;
• Daily features on the outreach projects in Athens during the Games;
• Reports on specific events, eg swimming, cycling;
• Interviews with athletes, officials, sports fans;
• Testimonies of present and former athletes and officials;
• Reports and features on the Olympic Arts Festival;

Material will be offered to radio stations different formats according to requirements:

• Variety of duration, eg 10-20 second soundbites, 1 minute, 3 minutes etc;
• Variety of distribution methods, eg FTP, ISDN, telephone, MP3 by email;

Services for other languages will be agreed in consultation with user radio stations. These services may include some or all of the services for English language users.

Due to copyright issues we cannot use the word "Olympics" in our programme title. 2K Plus has permission to use the name "More Than Gold" which has been registered as a wordmark by the Major Sports Events Partnership. The name comes from a verse in the Bible:

"So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1: 7, NASB)

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Last Updated: May 21 2004 08:13:48.