26 photos that show how some Olympic venues are left abandoned after the games end

Gabbi ShawJul 29, 2024, 22:17 IST

The broken down bobsled track at Mount Trebević.Ioanna Sakellaraki / Barcroft Im / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

The 2024 Summer Olympics are underway in Paris.
Sometimes cities successfully repurpose parts of their Olympic set-ups, like in Montreal.

It can be an expensive and potentially damaging undertaking for a country to host the Olympics. This year's games in Paris are costing just $10 billion, according to CNBC. While that's nothing to scoff at, it's a mere fraction of the $55 billion Brazil reportedly spent in 2016.

A huge part of the expense is building new facilities for the sports and housing for the athletes. Then, after the closing ceremonies, some stadiums get used again — there's always going to be a market for a soccer stadium — but other venues like Olympic pools, kayaking facilities, ski jumping, and beach volleyball can fall into disrepair almost immediately.

These Olympic venues from Berlin, Sarajevo, Athens, Sochi, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing have all seen better days — take a look at what they looked like once the crowds left.

James Grebey contributed to a previous version of this article.

In Berlin, Germany, there are still remnants of the 1936 Games, almost 90 years later.

A set of Olympic rings in an abandoned former swim hall at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village.Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Some of the Olympic Village still stands, almost untouched.

The original abandoned houses for athletes marked with their housing complex names stand at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village.Maja Hitij/Getty Images

The 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, took place less than a decade before the Bosnian War.

The medal podium at the ski-jump venue.Ioanna Sakellaraki / Barcroft Im / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

The city was under siege, and though it's largely recovered in the years since it ended, many Olympic sites, like this ski jump, have been left to the elements.

The ski jump.Dado Ruvic/Reuters

The bobsled course on Mount Trebević is overgrown and covered in graffiti.

The broken down bobsled track at Mount Trebević.Ioanna Sakellaraki / Barcroft Im / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Occasionally, it gets used by brave BMX bikers.

Bikers have used the abandoned tracks to practice.Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Athens went billions over its planned budget of $1.6 billion for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

An empty scoreboard at an Athens former Olympic venue.Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

A decade later, photos showed a crumbling pool full of fetid water.

The pool has been filled with sitting water for years.Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

These huge, abandoned investments must have been especially painful in light of Greece's financial crisis.

A practice pool at the Aquatic Center in Athens was drained.Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Understandably, its money wasn't going toward renovating abandoned buildings.

A view of derelict buildings at the Helliniko Olympic complex shows the damage.Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

A decade after the crowds left, nobody was playing baseball or softball at the stadium in Athens.

The softball stadium in Athens.Reuters/Yorgos Karahalis

The beach volleyball court in Athens was consumed by weeds.

The beach volleyball center where weeds have grown through the sand.Reuters/Yorgos Karahalis

The Beijing National Stadium, built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, often has trouble finding events that can fill its 80,000 seats.

The stadium in Beijing.REUTERS/David Gray

The kayaking facility also hasn't gotten much use.

The signs are rusted over.REUTERS/David Gray

The rowing facility is largely ignored.

There are barricades on the ground and rusted ramps.REUTERS/David Gray

Many venues, like the beach volleyball court, are simply closed to the public.

The sign says that the volleyball courts are closed.Reuters/David Gray

Half of the Beijing National Aquatics Center was eventually remodeled and turned into a water park.

The pool at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.REUTERS/David Gray

Here's an abandoned Beibei, one of the Olympic mascots of Beijing, pictured in 2018.

Beibe was one of five mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

The 2014 Winter Olympics were held in Russia's largest resort city, Sochi.

A view of Sochi.Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

The Fisht Stadium was originally a dome, but it was converted to an open-air stadium for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Fisht Stadium started off as a dome, but now has no ceiling.Artur Lebedev/AP Images

But the rest of the structures have barely been touched, like these ski jumps in Estosadok.

A view of the ski jumps from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.Friedemann Kohler/picture alliance via Getty Images

The Summer Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2016. In the eight years since, venues like this aquatics stadium have become a ghost town.

The aquatics center in Rio has seen better days.Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Maracanã Stadium was renovated for the Olympics, but it has largely been abandoned.

This is Maracanã Stadium from above.Mario Lobao/AP

Vandals stole seats and TVs from the stadium.

Anything that wasn't nailed down — and some things that were — were up for grabs.AP/Mario Lobao

Parts of the Olympic complex became a health hazard after destruction, like the Rio Media Center.

The Rio Media Center is now twisted metal.Mario Tama/Getty Images

The site remained untouched for months.

It was filled with trash.Mario Tama/Getty Images

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