The new ruins of Athens: Rusting and decaying 10 years on, how Greece's Olympics turned into a £7 BILLION white elephant

• Greek government built state-of-art sports venues as part of £7billion project in Olympics' spiritual home of Athens
• They played host to millions of spectators, athletes and officials from across world during 2004 Summer Olympics
• But now, ten years on, buildings lie empty, completely unused and decaying, while swimming pools have dried up
• Greece was unable to invest in the upkeep of the Games venues after it was hit hard by the global financial crisis
  

By Sophie Jane Evans for MailOnline

Published: 09:59 EDT, 13 August 2014 | Updated: 16:43 EDT, 13 August 2014

Built as part of a £7billion project, they played host to millions of spectators, athletes and officials during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.

But now, ten years on, the state-of-the-art sports venues in the Olympics' spiritual home of Athens lie empty, completely unused and decaying.

The Games, which cost almost twice their projected budget and used permanent instead of collapsible venues, were deemed a success at the time.

However, Greece was shortly hit by the global financial crisis and, with no real post-games plan, the prestigious venues were abandoned.

Scroll down for video

Abandoned: On the tenth anniversary of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the state-of-the-art sports venues lie empty, completely unused and decaying. Above, the canoeing and aquatics centre at the former Helliniko Olympic complex in southern Athens is now completely dried up and abandoned

Deserted: Built at a cost of £7billion, the venues played host to millions of spectators, athletes and officials. Above, the beach volleyball Olympic venue in Neo Faliro

Dirty: Heaps of rubbish, including pieces of plastic and broken chairs, are pictured strewn across the murky water of an abandoned training pool in northern Athens

Spiritual home of the Games: Tourists visit Panathenaic stadium in Athens, which is now open to ticket-paying visitors who can also see an Olympic museum on the site

Today, the canoeing and aquatics centre are completely dried up, while a crumbling miniature theatre inscribed with the words 'glory, wealth, wisdom, victory, triumph, hero, labour' sits abandoned in the corner of a park.

The theatre, which was where visiting Olympic officials planted an olive sapling that would bear their names for posterity, is just one of many venues that Greece's government was unable to further invest in following the economic crisis.

Once a symbol of pomp, the venue is now an emblem of pointless waste in a venture that left a mixed legacy: a brand-new subway, airport and other vital infrastructure that significantly improved everyday life in a city of four million, set against scores of decrepit sports venues built in a mad rush to meet deadlines — with little thought for post-Olympic use.

As Greece groans under a cruel economic depression, questions linger of whether the Athens Games, which began on August 13, 2004, were too ambitious an undertaking for such a weak economy. 

Empty: The Games cost almost twice their projected budget and used permanent instead of collapsible venues, including this softball venue at the Helliniko complex

Ruined: This training pool in northern Athens, which was one used by hundreds of Olympic athletes, lies abandoned filled with rubbish and waste ten years later

Unsightly: Although the Games were deemed a success at the time, Greece was shortly hit hard by the global financial crisis and the prestigious venues were abandoned

Contrast: Athens' open-air pool during the 2004 Summer Olympics, when it saw Michael Phelps win six gold medals and break two World Records

Broken: The Games left a mixed legacy: a brand-new subway, airport and other vital infrastructure that significantly improved everyday life in a city of four million, set against scores of decrepit sports venues built in a mad rush to meet deadlines. Above, the abandoned beach volleyball Olympic venue is seen behind a broken window

While economists agree it would be unfair to blame the meltdown on the 17-day Games, the post-Olympic era is seen as a decade of lost opportunities — including failure to significantly boost the country's sporting culture.

It is a lesson to which Brazil may pay heed, as it races to complete projects ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

'We didn't take advantage of this dynamic that we got in 2004,' said former Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas, a Greek sporting hero turned Socialist member of Parliament.

'We simply made the biggest mistake in our history: We switched off, locked up the stadiums, let them fall to pieces, and everything finished there.'

Questions: As Greece groans under a cruel economic depression, questions linger of whether the Athens Games, which commenced on August 13, 2004, were too ambitious an undertaking for a weak economy. Above, the abandoned baseball venue is seen at the former Helliniko Olympic complex in southern Athens

Worn: Economists agree it would be unfair to blame the meltdown on the 17-day Games. Above, worn press seats are seen at the Outdoor Olympic Swimming Pool

Defaced: However, the post-Olympic era is seen as a decade of lost opportunities - including failure to significantly boost the country's sporting culture. Above, a graffiti-defaced marble block dedicated to Greek Olympic medal winners at the Olympic village in northern Athens

Lesson: It is a lesson to which Brazil may pay heed, as it races to complete projects ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Above, a marble block with the Olympic Rings

Mr Dimas, who won his last Olympic medal in an Athens arena now reinvented as a lecture and conference venue, added: 'We spent a lot of money for some projects (that) are shut and rotting.

'There were projects that should have cost 2 and 3 million (euros) and suddenly became so big that they cost 13 and 14 million. There was no control.'

The latest government estimate sets the final cost of the Games at 8.5billion euros (£6.8billion). This may be double the original budget, but it is a drop in the ocean of the country's subsequent 320 billion-euro debt, which spun out of control after 2008.

Former organizing committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos has commissioned the first independent survey of the Olympics' overall economic effect.

Olympics: 'We didn't take advantage of this dynamic that we got in 2004,' said former Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas, a former Greek sporting hero

Airport: 'We simply made the biggest mistake in our history: We switched off, locked up the stadiums, let them fall to pieces, and everything finished there', he said. Above, the western terminal of the old airport stadium at the former Helliniko Olympic Complex in southern Athens

Closed: This photo shows the closed Olympic Weightlifting venue in Nikaia, which is one of many venues that Greece's government could not invest in the upkeep of

Former champion: Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas, a Greek sporting hero turned Socialist member of Parliament, is pictured making his daily jogging at an auxiliary stadium in front of the Olympic stadium in northern Athens

It will aim to weigh Olympic overspend and waste against a possible boost to the crucial tourism industry - arrivals have almost doubled since 2004, from 11.7 to 20.1 million - foreign investment and employment.

'The Olympics were very important in increasing the brand awareness ... of Greece,' said economist Theodore Krintas, managing director of Attica Wealth Management. 'But we did, very, very limited things on a follow-up basis.'

Andrew Zimbalist, a U.S. economist who studies the financial impact of major sporting events, said past experience shows that hosting the Olympics does not generally promote economic development.

'At the end of the day, the main benefit to be had seems to be a feel-good experience that the people in the host city or the host country have,' said Mr Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College. 'But that's a fleeting experience, not something that endures.

Hockey venue: Former organizing committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos has commissioned the first independent survey of the Olympics' overall economic effect. Above, the hockey venue at the former Helliniko Olympic complex

Left alone: Mr Dimas, who won his last Olympic medal in an Athens arena now reinvented as a lecture and conference venue, said: 'We spent a lot of money for some projects (that) are shut and rotting.' Above, the abandoned beach volleyball Olympic venue in Neo Faliro,

As it was: The Olympic beach volleyball stadium, complete with extra temporary stands, as it stood during the 2004 games

Unused: The Outdoor Olympic Swimming Pool and Olympic Velodrome of the Olympic Complex are pictured in a deserted, unused state in northern Athens, Greece

'Why couldn't Athens have simply invested ... in development and transportation and communications and infrastructure, and not hosted the Olympics?'

The cost of hosting the Olympics and ensuring a city is not left with white elephants is a key issue facing the International Olympic Committee and new president Thomas Bach.

Scared off by the record $51 billion price tag associated with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, several Western European cities declined to bid or dropped out of the race for the 2022 Winter Games.

In Greece, few of the sporting venues — mostly purpose-built permanent structures — have seen regular post-Olympic use.

Building work: A worker is pictured fixing a light at Agora in the Olympic complex as the Olympic Velodrome is seen in the background in northern Athens

Tribute: This photo shows the International Olympic Committee Members' Park, where visiting IOC officials were led to plant an olive sapling that would bear their name

Reminder: The park, featuring a crumbling military memorial, provides perhaps the oddest reminder that, exactly 10 years ago, Athens hosted the Summer Olympics

The badminton venue is a successful concert hall, but the empty table-tennis and gymnastics stadium is up for sale, and the beach volleyball centre has been rarely used and was recently looted. Most venues are padlocked.

The seaside site of Athens' old airport hosted half a dozen venues. Politicians have dithered for a decade over how to use the sprawling plot — meaning facilities have simply been left to rot. Lengths of large tubing lie near abandoned runways.

Decommissioned jumbo jets sit near where planners once dreamed of building a water amusement park. This year, private investors won a tender to develop the entire area into a residential, commercial, hotel and leisure center, in a 7billion-euro investment.

Greek Olympic Committee head Spyros Capralos, a senior member of the 2004 organizing committee, said the state of the sporting venues 'puts our country to shame'. The former swimming champion and two-time Olympic water polo competitor blamed bureaucracy and lack of foresight.

Survey: The independent survey of the Olympics' overall economic effect will aim to weigh the Games' overspend and waste against a possible boost to the crucial tourism industry, foreign investment and employment. Above, an employee waters the grass of an auxiliary stadium as a woman runs in front of an Olympic stadium

Practice: With the closed Olympic Weightlifting venue in the background, an amateur soccer player is pictured practicing his skills in Nikaia, western Athens

Tourist attraction: Andrew Zimbalist, a U.S. economist who studies the financial impact of major sporting events, said past experience shows that hosting the Olympics does not generally promote economic development. Above, tourists visit Panathenaic stadium in Athens

'Nobody was thinking what would happen the next day,' he said. 'Many of the sports facilities were constructed just to be constructed ... and nobody thought that they required a lot of money for maintenance after the Olympic Games.'

In their haste to meet implacable construction deadlines, government officials did not secure proper planning permits for several venues, including the elegant crown on the main Olympic Stadium — a steel canopy by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Greece's sports ministry says it has finally rectified the permits oversight, which until now hindered necessary repairs and maintenance, and funding has been found to conserve the roof.

Overall, Mr Capralos insisted, the Games were a boost for Greece, mainly due to non-sports infrastructure pegged to the Games that otherwise might never have materialized.

A positive: The Games resulted in a brand-new subway, airport and other vital infrastructure that has significantly improved everyday life in a city of four million people

Useful product: Commuters are pictured using the Syntagma Metro station in central Athens on Thursday, August 7 - nearly ten years after the 2004 Summer Olympics

'It saddens me that public opinion has come to believe the Athens Olympic Games were not successful,' he said.

'They were very much so, both from the sports aspect and through projects that gave life to Athens — tourism has increased, there is a modern airport, roads, the metro, phones work properly and when it's very hot the power system doesn't collapse.'

Mr Capralos believes the legacy of the stadiums can still be salvaged.

'Simply, someone must do whatever is needed for the venues to be taken over by the private sector — because I don't think the state can be a very good entrepreneur or venue manage,' he said.