The Athens 2004 Olympics will be a milestone in the Games' history, marking a return to both their ancient home and the site of their modern revival.

But they are also a milestone in the Games' future because they herald the beginning of a new era for the event as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) tries to rein in mounting costs and size.

In a series of recommendations to be implemented in the coming months and years, the IOC expects to gradually scale down the size of the Olympics and turn them into a more attractive and lucrative venture for cities across the world.

With a cost well over four billion dollars, many potential contenders are shying away from bidding for the Games. The recommended changes, the IOC believes, can save as much as $400 million.

Cities in Africa and Latin America, with severe urban and social problems as well as limited funds, cannot even contemplate such a bid, considerably reducing the Olympics' geographical scope and global appeal.

Of a total of 117 recommendations agreed last month, some 31 could be implemented by the start of the Athens Olympics next August, IOC officials say.

"The IOC wants the Games to act as an economic and social catalyst and bring something to the city and not just leave behind white elephants," an IOC official told Reuters. "The Games must leave a lasting legacy in the host city."

SPORTS LIMITED

Also Read Athens preparations back on track

The official said that the IOC had also agreed to limit the number of sports to 28.

"The number of sports will be capped at 28 and the number of athletes at 10,500. This will be the ceiling," she said.

"Imagine it is a bus with 28 seats and some sports need to get off to give their place to other sports."

None of the sports will get off before Athens but by the 2008 Beijing Olympics there will be changes in the sports.

The IOC also agreed with Athens Games organisers (ATHOC) to replace several planned expensive permanent facilities and venues which would have little or no post-Olympics use with more cost-effective temporary ones.

The plans include scrapping one hockey pitch and a baseball diamond and changes to the modern pentathlon site, the rowing centre, the badminton courts and the boxing arena.

This move is expected to save about 300 million euros for organisers rushing to complete the venues on time.

When Athens won the bid in 1997 to host the Games, it already had more than 70 percent of all the sports facilities in place, including an Olympic-standard stadium.

At the time this was Greece's biggest selling pitch, especially after Sydney had to foot the $400-million-dollar bill for a new, 110,000-seat Olympic stadium.

But since then Athenians have come up with several other carrots to lure spectators to the sun-drenched country and ensure the Olympics will have a distinct Greek flavour -- starting from the medals.

NEW MEDALS

Organisers have redesigned the three awards for the first time since the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics to depict a standing winged Nike -- the Greek goddess of victory -- instead of a seated one. A distant stadium behind the goddess has also been changed into a Hellenistic one rather than the old Roman-style coliseum.

On the sports front, in what is expected to be the most spectacular of all races in the history of the Olympics, marathon runners will cover the route which gave the event its name.

Starting from the village of Marathon, east of the capital, they will run almost the exact 42-km course covered by the Athenian messenger who, according to tradition, raced back to Athens from the battlefield to announce victory over the Persian army in 490 BC.

Phidippides, exhausted after the long run -- he had raced back from Sparta only days before the battle of Marathon -- died immediately after delivering his victorious message.

"I don't think anything can top this event and the fact that professional runners in this discipline will run the real course is just unique," ATHOC spokesman Stratos Savioleas said.

The runners will finish inside the stadium which hosted the first modern Games in 1896. The 70,000-seater Panathenian stadium will also host the archery event, which promises to be one of the Olympics' surprise crowd pullers because of the spectacular location.

The white marble horseshoe, built in ancient times for the Athenian Games, was renovated 108 years ago to stage the first modern Games. It is now getting its second major facelift ahead of next year.

Only a few hundred metres away organisers have drawn the route for the road cycling race, which they believe will be the most exciting event of its kind.

Cyclists will race around the foot of the Acropolis hill and through the capital's scattered antiquities and historic neighbourhoods which will provide an impressive backdrop for the competition and the Games as a whole.