‘Sex and the City’ star
takes on Athens

Davis hitting all big events
-- and parties -- at Games

Jennifer Graylock / AP file	"Sex in the City" star Kristin Davis is supporting New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

updated 8:14 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - While Kristin Davis has her sights set on bringing the Olympics to New York in 2012, she’s busying herself these days attending as many events as she can in Athens.

The “Sex and the City” star and her mom, Dorothy, have been running all over the city, watching some of the biggest competitions — American Carly Patterson winning the all-around gold medal in gymnastics, the United States beating Greece at a sold-out men’s basketball game — and trading pins like the rest of the spectators.

“She’s a huge Olympics fan so she’s happy with anything we do,” Davis told The Associated Press about her mother Thursday night at one of several parties Sports Illustrated has planned during the games.

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“But we’ve been very torn between gymnastics, swimming and basketball, and sometimes they happen at the same time. We’ve also gone to women’s softball, beach volleyball, and we’ll do track and field tomorrow,” she said.

The actress described her first Olympics experience as “kind of overwhelming and exciting,” but it’s all part of her involvement with the committee that’s trying to make New York City the home of the summer games eight years from now.

“It seems like such a smart plan and I feel like we already have a wonderful international element happening in New York. We have such a supportive community,” Davis said. “You can find every different nationality supporting every different sport — some you might have never even heard of — in all five boroughs. I think it’s such a no-brainer. You already have a ticket-buying crowd.”

Davis was among the hundreds of beautiful people (and sportswriters) who attended the party at a beachfront lounge on the Athens coast. They feasted outdoors on sushi and giant shrimp, sipped champagne and sank into deep, plush couches as a cover band played disco classics including “I Love the Nightlife” and “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

Also in the crowd was Dan O’Brien, who won the decathlon gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He and his wife, Leilani, already had watched American gymnast Paul Hamm take the all-around gold medal and seen the U.S. women’s gymnastics team win the silver — and, naturally, they had plenty of track and field events on their schedule.

Having visited Athens in 1997 for the world championships, O’Brien said he was amazed at the city’s transformation.

“I thought there is no way this place could have an Olympic Games. It’s not a big enough city,” he said. “Traffic was so bad in ’97. The places weren’t even built yet.”

Now, not only is Athens hosting the games, but O’Brien is back as an analyst for NBC’s high-definition coverage. (NBC is a partner in the joint venture that runs NBCSports.com.)