Post-Olympic Abandonment

What abandoned Olympic venues look like today

Bringing the Olympics to your country, whether in summer or winter, is a costly business. Just ask the recent hosts. The games set back Sochi $51 billion, London $11.6 billion and Beijing at least $40 billion. Not insignificant sums.

We wondered: What happens to Olympic venues and infrastructure after the closing ceremony, once the athletes and media have packed up and returned home? Are the Olympics an opportunity for long-term infrastructure resilience for the host cities?

More than any other two-week period, the Olympic Games result in choices, plans, and projects that can affect a city for generations — for the better and, more often, for the worse.

The answer isn’t a simple yes or no. Since the post-Olympics experience is unique for each host city, let’s look at how three recent host cities have made use of their venues.

It’s hard to believe that Rio de Janeiro hosted the Summer Olympics just six months ago. Today, the Olympic Village has turned into a ghost town, and many of the venues have fallen into disrepair.