When American James Connolly won the triple-jump event in Athens on April 6, 1896, he became the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years. Apart from the honour, he and the other winners in those 1896 Olympics were awarded a silver medal and a crown made of olive branches.

The 1896 Games – the first in modern times – attracted 241 athletes (all men) from 14 nations. They competed in nine sports and 43 events. The Athenians supported the Games with great enthusiasm, which was well rewarded when Greek shepherd Spiridon Louis won the most popular event, the marathon.

Now, after 108 years of travelling the world, the Olympics returns to Athens for its 25th incarnation. And the event, which gets under way August 13, promises to be bigger than ever. In 2004 the Olympics will attract some 10,500 athletes from 201 nations. They will compete in 37 sports and sport disciplines, guarded by 45,000 security personnel and watched by hundreds of millions of TV viewers around the globe. And during their stay in the Olympic Village they and their various entourages will consume 50,000 meals a day – 100 tonnes of food – and create 55 tonnes of waste.

Nothing of all this would be possible without the help of volunteers, and Athens has attracted these in droves. As of March 2004 more than 150,000 candidates had applied for the 45,000 positions needed to get the Games rolling. That is twice the number of people that volunteered for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

This massive gathering of athletes, volunteers and spectators will put extra demands on Athenian transportation. To help meet these demands, a large number of trolley buses have been put into operation. This means that SKF also is making a contribution to the Games: The buses with Škoda motors are equipped with SKF traction motor bearing units (TMBU). James Connolly, who himself travelled to Athens by cargo ship and by train, would have recognised TMBU as a winner in the tough world of locomotion.