The pools around the Olympic Stadium are without water and shrubs are growing on the beach volleyball venue in Faliron 10 years after the Athens 2004 Games.
Many facilities are now decayed or not used, there are no buyers or money for maintenance as Greece has other concerns and sustainability of the Olympic infrastructure not a high priority.
Anyone who wants to visit the Olympic facilities in Athens these days has no luck.
Almost everywhere partly rusted fences deny entry. The Hellinikon area, 2004 the site for fencing, basketball and canoe slalom, is barren. Run-down buildings, stray dogs and a hospital for the needy dominate the scene.
The August 13-29, 2004, Games cost around five billion euros (6.7 billion dollars), with security alone coming at a one billion euros pricetag. The actual overall expenditure was never published.
Massive construction delays led to fears of an organizational disaster, and in order to finish on time, contracts for stadiums and facilities were awarded directly without a tender.
Direct order meant “take the money and deliver quickly,” according to an architect who worked for the Games and is now an employee of one of the largest construction companies in the country.
“Many have earned money in two- and possible even three-digit millions figures,” said the man, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Even my current employer.”
The government’s financial experts worked in a similar way: all problems were solved via new debts. A policy that led to rusting sports facilities – and the nation into the abyss.
Even the landmark roof of the Olympic Stadium was built without proper planning permission, stadium boss Petros Galaktopoulos acknowledged recently on Greek television. As a result, proper maintenance is not possible, he said.
The state secretary for sport, Giannis Andrianos, apologised a day later but insisted that the government at the time had inherited these problems from the previous government and simply tried to make best out of the situation.
Despite the numerous challenges, the games themselves went relatively smoothly and were declared “unforgettable dream Games” by the Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge at the closing ceremony.
The Greeks were happy, they had fulfilled their task, or, as the Kathimerini Sunday paper recently put it, “We believed in the dream at the time.”
But the dream turned into a nightmare a few years later as Greece went through a major financial crisis and was only bailed out at the last instance after agreeing to a strict austerity programme.
Now the Olympic organizing committee (ATHOC) chief, shipowner and politician Gianna Angelopoulos, has asked the Athens Institute for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) to provide a detailed study on the Games, expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Whatever the outcome, Greeks are accustomed to problems and rather also refer to the numerous positive examples of the Olympic legacy.
Athens got a well-working underground system, a suburban railway links the city centre with the international airport, and a tram brings people to the sea.
The Olympic broadcast centre has become a shopping mall while the Ministry of Education moved into the press centre.
AEK Athens play football in the Olympic Stadium, the basketball arena is used by multiple European champions Panathinaikos, and the former weightlifting arena by a university.
The facilities at the old airport of Hellinikon are also to be re-utilized within the next few years, with plans of setting up one of the biggest leisure centers of the eastern Mediterranean.
It remains unclear whether this is another empty promise, but the latest attraction is to lure an additional one million tourists per year to Athens.
GNA
PDC
