Before the Olympics, we often hear a fair amount about the preparations for the games — how much is being spent, the facilities being built, whether the city will have everything ready in time. But once the Olympics end, we hear very little about what happens to the infrastructure that millions or billions of dollars were spent on.
John Pack and Gary Hustwit’s The Olympic City project documents the life of Olympic infrastructure once all the spectators pack up and go home. As they explain,
Some former Olympic sites are retrofitted and used in ways that belie their grand beginnings; turned into prisons, housing, malls, gyms, churches. Others sit unused for decades and become tragic time capsules, examples of misguided planning and broken promises of the benefits that the Games would bring.
Flavorwire published some of their photos, mostly of sites that have been left to decay, leaving a long-term mark on the landscape of the locations that host the games.
This post originally appeared in 2011.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 31
Waugh — August 15, 2012
My tears flow like rain.
myblackfriendsays — August 15, 2012
Surprising to see so many things left to decay. I'm wondering if some of the older ones were used for their intended purposes for some period of time after the Games, and then the govt's ran out of money? Or maybe they just went unused from the get go.
I just heard a story about how in Rio they're tearing down favelas and replacing them with shiny new housing projects. It will be really interesting to see what happens with those in the years to come.
Christina L Williamson — August 15, 2012
As a counter example, look at both the Biodome in Montreal and the ski jumps etc for the Calgary 1988 Olympics. Its all about if the city can/ is willing to sustain the buildings.
Ursula Edgington — August 15, 2012
In contrast to these pictures, many other sites (like Athens and Barcelona) seem like Disneyland-like museum ghost-towns. Not sure what is worse! God help London.
Guest — August 17, 2012
I think it'd be interesting to look at how these sites have been used by others, if at all. Many abandoned and closed train stations in Germany became underground nightclubs — is anything like that happening in any of the areas?
moionfire — August 19, 2012
I always believed that the Olympics should be permanently placed in Greece. That way new infrastructure doesn't have to be built. Different cities/countries could "host" it in the sense of being a sponsor, but the physical place would be the same.
someone — August 25, 2012
i think it is a bit problematic to include Sarajevo in this list of abandoned buildings. There are other reasons for that than the relative uselessness of ski jumping facilities after all.
Nat Lockwood — February 23, 2014
Well at least Olympia park in Muinch is still very well used, if not the rail station. Was there a few years ago as press and a fan for the BMW Sauber F1 team fan club event and got lost, everything stadium wise is used, the park itself is open with boating lakes and all sorts for the community, it's really lovely and I have as many great photos of the park as I did the event I was there for.
iulian — February 25, 2014
Just a small fact about the O.G. from Sarajevo. After some years in Bosnia and Herzegovina the war started and ended after 4-5 years, so it was impossible for them to take advantage of the infrastructured created.