Four years on this is the Olympic legacy in Athens. Millions of pounds were spent on venues like the Beach Volleyball Center. Like many now, it's empty, locked up and its future uncertain.
Graffiti covers the outside of the gymnastics arena, what should have been a huge public park looks like this. And a venue built specially for taekwondo is deserted, nothing more than a backdrop for the local fishermen. And the Greek authorities would rather you didn't see it.
"No.No.NO."
And it is not just the security guards. No one from the Greek government or from the company that now runs these sites or even from the ruling party here in Greece wanted to speak to us on camera. And maybe it's not surprising because 10 of the 20 venues from 2004 are not used at all for anything. And many of the others like the main Olympic Stadium here are only used every now and then. This is the Olympic legacy here in Athens.
Try to visit the state-of-the-art Sailing Center and a fence blocks the way. The Greek people who paid for this can't see what they got for their money.
A man down there didn't want to appear on camera, but he said that what's happening to the facility like that one there was a terrible waste. He said it was wrong that the Greek public had paid for facilities like that but weren’t allowed to use them. In fact, he said he felt ashamed to be Greek.
Staphos Calliopsis was in the Olympic Kayak Squad in 2004. He, like most Greeks, is proud of the way the country staged the Games, but they worry about the long-term cost.
The cost was huge, I mean, like a billion Euro per day and Greece is a small country, already had the financing problem with, you know, the health system, with the educational system, as all know, even I think what’s worse was all this money spent.
Officially all these cost Greece 8 billion pounds, unofficially the bill might eventually reach 15 billion. The district of Hellenico is home to what was some of these showpiece venues. The neglect here angers Hellenico’s mayor.
Money, he says, seems more important than using venues for the public good.
The cost was very big and the result was not what it should have been. The venues have not been given to the local communities with very few exceptions.
The government agency that runs these venues is confident that it will eventually find people who want them. Politicians say that highlights a failure of planning.
I don't think that the Greek people mind the bill, perhaps what they mind is that after the Olympics we did not use the Olympics as a springboard for the country. And the quarrel leads of the question "Was it worth it" is could we have done more to explore the Olympics afterwards and the answer is absolutely yes, we could have, in terms of using the facilities more, in terms of using the feeling that is great for a country.
Everywhere people will remember 2004 this man told me, nowhere did it happen as it happened in Greece. National pride and some positives, the Athens transport network is now the envy of many countries. The Olympic Village, once temporary home to thousands of athletes is now short-term accommodation for the city's under-privileged. The country that gave the world the modern Olympics didn't get it all right in 2004. There is still time for London to learn the lessons. |