After hosting the Olympics, many sports venues are never used again, and fall into disrepair.
The main swimming pool in Athens, 2004 Summer Olympics
You always hear about how excited cities are when they are chosen to host the Olympics, and most places consider it not only a great honor, but a helpful boost to tourism dollars. The Rio Olympics this year are shrouded with scandals (achem, Lochtegate) so nobody is really talking about the fact that the games cost an estimated $12 billion. As if that weren’t staggering enough, Beijing reportedly spent more than $40 billion on the games in 2008. If you remember the fireworks show, it was spectacular, but I don’t think it was worth 40 B’s.
READ MORE: Whippin’ It to the Olympics
Since a picture is worth 1,000 words though, I should probably let the photos speak for themselves. These 10 photos illustrate what became of the Olympic venues after the games were over; they basically all became excellent examples of post-apocalyptic Detroit.
The ski jump tower, Italy, 1956 Winter Olympics
The bobsled track, Sarajevo, 1984 Winter Olympics
A swimming pool, Berlin, 1936 Summer Olympics
Ski jumping tower, France, 1968 Winter Olympics
Beach Volleyball Venue, Beijing, 2007 Summer Olympics
Special train station for the games, Munich, 1972 Summer Olympics
Athlete’s Village, Turin, 2006 Winter Olympics
Tennis Center, Atlanta, 1996 Summer Olympics
A pool, Helsinski, 1952 Summer Olympics
