Modern Ruins of Euro-Socialism's Rot: 8 Years Later, Athens Olympic Venues in Decay

AP ^ | August 3, 2012 | ELENA BECATOROS

[DogByte6RER]

8 Years Later, Athens Olympic Venues in Decay

There's still one group that loves the training pool for athletes at the former Olympic village in Athens' northern fringe.

Frogs.

They appear to delight in sitting on debris that floats on the half-filled pool's murky waters.

The athletes village itself has fared somewhat better, turned into housing for workers.

Eight years after the 2004 Athens Games, many of the Olympic venues Greece built at great expense remain abandoned or rarely used. They are the focus of great public anger as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and nearly three years of a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment.

At the southern Athens venue for softball — a sport unknown in Greece and already out of the Summer Olympics — the occasional weed is all that remains on the dried-out field.

With no shortage of real beaches in Greece, the purpose-built beach volleyball stadium has seen minimal use in the past eight years, mostly just concerts.

Other Athens venues have fared better. The badminton hall has been converted into a popular theater venue, the former international Olympic broadcast center is a shopping mall and what was the main press center now houses ministry offices.

The old baseball venue has been used for the past two years by a fourth-division local soccer club — although some of the stands could do with a lick of paint.

[dfwgator]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/07/beijings-olympic-ruins/2499/#

[DogByte6RER]

Here’s another one of Beijing’s 2008 structures with slideshow ...

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTR30UOB#a=1