Athens Olympic Games

On 12 July 2004 power failures affected Athens, halting trains, trolley buses and the underground metro. One theory for the blackout was a surge in the use of air conditioning during a recent heatwave. It lead to the Athens 2004 Organising Committee revising their risk management plans for power disruptions.

Perhaps it was just as well the International Olympic Committee (IOC) secured insurance cover of US$170 million for the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens (IOC, olympic.org). This was reported to be the first time insurance against cancellation of the games was taken.  It may not be the last. Risks apparently covered ranged from "Athens being hit by a huge earthquake to U.S. President George Bush dying during the Games pushing Olympics coverage off the world’s primetime TV schedules …"(Forbes.com).

This is on top of insurance the Athens Organising Committee is estimated to have obtained of £10 million to cover 15,000 athletes, 20,000 officials, 1.5 million spectators and 4 million Athenians involved in hosting the event (timesonline.co.uk).

Other reports of olympic related insurance cover include: -

"Some teams and sponsors offer their athletes big perks if they do well, but quietly buy insurance against the risk their stars exceed expectations, leaving them with a big bill."

"Major TV networks insuring themselves for up to [US] $350 million"

"Greek firms producing Athens 2004 memorabilia buying cover worth a million euros" (Forbes.com)

With all this insurance it gives new meaning to the price of gold!

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Author

Published with permission of Claim Solutions Pty Ltd 

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Insurance Policy

Country: - Greece

Policy Description: - Various

Insurer: - Not Known

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External Links

 

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