Chinadaily Homepage
      | Home | Destination Beijing | Sports | Olympics | Photo |  
      2008Olympics > In Depth
     
    Athens mired in venues
    (Reuters)
    Updated: 2006-08-14 09:26

    ATHENS, Aug 14 - Barbed wire, padlocked doors and scattered garbage are what Athenians see these days at their multi-billion euro sports venues built two years ago for the 2004 Olympics.

    Nikaia
    Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall in Athens. [Sohu]

    In what critics say is a checklist of how not to do things for future Olympic cities, especially London in 2012, Athens is still struggling to find use for the state-of-the-art venues it paid more than 3.5 billion euros ($4.50 billion) to build.

    Promising to showcase modern Greece, the Games went off without a hitch despite years of construction delays, but left a legacy of over-spending and venues in a state of abandon.

    The wild water canoe and kayak facility was hailed as the world's best, as were the rowing centre and the weightlifting arena.

    But two years after the Games that cost a record 12 billion euros, most venues remain fully or partly shut as the government desperately seeks private investors, the only viable option to recoup some of the funds pumped in to build and maintain them.

    "We cannot keep them as Soviet-style sports venues alone. What would Greece do with the world's best canoe and kayak facility?" said Christos Hadjiemmanouil, the head of the company managing most Olympic venues.

    Critics says that after wasting three years in preparations, organisers rushed to complete the projects ahead of the Olympics and spent no time planning their post-Games use.

    FEDERATIONS ANGRY

    As a result most venues will now go into private hands to start a cash-flow back to the state, angering sports federations who will never use them again and ordinary Greeks who say their tax money has been wasted.

    "Why can't federations use the facilities?" a Greek Athletics Federation official told Reuters. "It is absurd to have high-quality venues and turn them into cafes and conference centres."

    The kayak race course will be turned into a commercial water fun park and the rowing centre will have limited use due to environmental restrictions.

    The shooting centre, several soccer stadiums and the vast multi-sports Hellenikon site including the softball and baseball diamonds face much bigger problems of survival and some of them could even be demolished in a few years.

    12  
    亚洲日韩欧洲无码av夜夜摸| 久久中文精品无码中文字幕| 免费AV一区二区三区无码| 亚洲日本中文字幕天堂网| 一级电影在线播放无码| 国产在线精品无码二区| 久久久久精品国产亚洲AV无码| 波多野结衣中文字幕在线| 69ZXX少妇内射无码| 亚洲中文字幕不卡无码| 日本中文字幕在线电影| 中文字幕无码第1页| 国产亚洲精品无码拍拍拍色欲| 亚洲Av无码精品色午夜| 日本无码WWW在线视频观看| 成人精品一区二区三区中文字幕| 亚洲区日韩区无码区| 无码人妻丰满熟妇啪啪| 国产精品无码免费专区午夜| 无码精品A∨在线观看| 亚洲国产AV无码专区亚洲AV | 中文字幕无码久久久| 国产色无码专区在线观看| 中文字幕日本在线观看| 波多野结衣中文字幕在线| 无码人妻精品中文字幕免费| 日韩精品久久无码人妻中文字幕 | 日本精品中文字幕| 无码专区中文字幕无码| 中文国产成人精品久久不卡| 无码精品日韩中文字幕| 日本中文字幕网站| 亚洲日韩中文在线精品第一| 亚洲中文字幕无码一去台湾| 中文字幕亚洲无线码| 自拍偷在线精品自拍偷无码专区| 一本一道av中文字幕无码| 亚洲av无码一区二区三区四区| 无码乱人伦一区二区亚洲 | 无码视频在线播放一二三区| 久久久久久亚洲精品无码|