ATHENS, Greece (AP) The modern Olympics pay ample homage to their ancient roots in Greece. Paul Thimou wants to hear the traditional tributes and ceremonies at the 2004 Athens Games in Greek.

The Greek-American artist is spearheading a campaign to designate modern Greek as another official language of the games.

Thimou's nonprofit organization - Hellenic Action Inc. - has collected 5,000 signatures and plans to present his request to the International Olympic Committee.

The official languages of the IOC are French and English.

"The games will take place in Greece in 2004. ... This is a golden opportunity for the Greek language to be united with the Olympics," said Thimou, originally from the Aegean Sea island of Lesvos and now a resident of Fort Lee, N.J.

The 61-year-old Thimou also wants to have Greek become one of the languages translated during IOC sessions, which are now also provided in German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

The success of Thimou's effort might depend more on sentimentality than necessity.

The IOC is based in French-speaking Lausanne, Switzerland, and French was the native tongue of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who helped revive the modern Games in Athens in 1896. English, meanwhile, is the undisputed mode of global communication.

Modern Greek is spoken by about 11 million people in Greece, about 600,000 Greek Cypriots and several million Greeks around the world. Contemporary Greek would be virtually unintelligible to the ancient Greek speakers of the original Olympics.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davis promised any proposals would be considered but added that the IOC and the Olympic movement are founded on a dual language of French and English.

The native languages of all Olympic host nations are widely used at the games, but announcements, ceremonies and other official events are conducted in either French or English, or both.

Thimou said he first got the idea when Athens was bidding for the centennial Games in 1996, which were awarded to Atlanta.

"I would like to see the Hellenic language traveling with the Olympics," he said. "It should be connected with the Olympic Games or part of it."

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