International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach was the latest international dignitary to arrive in Greece this month, days after the annual commemoration of the beginning of the 1821 Greek War of Independence - the bicentennial of the struggle for liberation.
"A heartfelt congratulations from me for the anniversary of the 200 years (of the start of the Greek Revolution), which was celebrated last week," Bach told Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion.
He added that the torch relay for the 2020 Olympics Games of Tokyo began on March 25, Greece's Independence Day, to underline the link between the Games and the land were the athletic competitions were first conceived during antiquity.
On Monday evening, the IOC president, a former world champion fencer, inaugurated the new lighting system at the Panathinaiko stadium in central Athens, the site where the first modern Olympics were revived in 1896.
