Pictures: Past Olympic Venues—Rotting, Renovated, Repurposed

London Olympic Stadium
Photograph from Yomiuri Shimbun/AP
When the torch is lit Friday and the 2012 Olympics in London get underway, seven years and some $20 billion worth of preparations will end.
But what will happen to the city's Olympic venues once the games are over? A look at former host cities suggests the facilities could face an uncertain future.
London plans for its Olympic venues to be repurposed. The publicly owned, 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium (pictured), for example, has a temporary upper tier that can be dismantled after the Games to create a 25,000-seat venue better suited to everyday events.
And the Olympic Park, situated in a formerly run-down East London industrial zone, is slated to become an urban ecological oasis and a hub for the new East London Tech City development. Athlete villages will be turned into affordable housing, and other sporting facilities will be made available to clubs, universities, and the public. (See pictures of East London in National Geographic magazine.)
But repurposing schemes have been touted at past Olympics, with varying degrees of success.
"It's unclear if [London is] going to be successful," said Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist, author of the International Handbook on the Economics of Mega Sporting Events.
"If you really want to develop a part of a city like East London, it probably makes sense not to use 250 acres [100 hectares] and hundreds of millions of dollars on an Olympic park and stadium. There are probably better uses for that money," Zimbalist said.
—Brian Handwerk
Published July 26, 2012
Then: Beijing Water Cube
Photograph by Ding Xu, Xinhua/Corbis
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps amassed eight gold medals in the Water Cube (pictured).
The aquatic facility cost more than a hundred million U.S. dollars and won a host of architectural and engineering awards. It was also one of the world's largest competitive swimming centers, with seating for 17,000 people.
(See "China's Olympic Pollution Efforts Paid Off, Expert Says.")
Published July 26, 2012
Now: Beijing Water Cube
Photograph by Fu Tian, Color China Photo/AP
Today the Water Cube—known for its innovative design and "bubble wrap" skin—is home to the largest indoor water park in Asia, featuring slides, wave pools, a lazy river, and other amusements.
It's not clear that such uses could ever make the balance sheets even out, Zimbalist said, but in China's case that might not have been the organizers' primary concern.
"They spent [U.S.] $40 billion on facilities and infrastructure at a point in time when the economy was growing at a pace of 10 percent or more per year," he said.
"I think that China was kind of hell-bent on presenting itself to the world, and their government had the ability to build everything they needed to build."
(See "China Diverting Major River to 'Water' Beijing Olympics.")
Published July 26, 2012
Beijing Olympic BMX Track
Photograph by David Gray, Reuters
Once witness to flattops, bunny hops, hucks, and other off-road stunts, Beijing's BMX cycling course—site of the sport's Olympic debut—sits deserted and overgrown four years after the 2008 games.
BMX will return to the Olympics in 2012, but the Beijing track—like the city's baseball arena and rowing and kayaking center—seems unlikely to see sporting action anytime soon.
China went to great lengths to showcase itself with the Games, even seeding clouds to provide sunny skies. But research shows that most Olympics don't provide much of a lasting tourism benefit for their host cities, Zimbalist said.
"The only really positive case that I see is Barcelona," he explained. "It took them a while, but they really did develop the city as a successful tourist destination. It may have happened anyway-we'll never know."
(See pictures of the Beijing opening ceremony.)
Published July 26, 2012
Athens Olympic Pavilion
Photograph by John Kolesidis, Reuters
Athens's Faliro Sports Pavilion, which hosted handball and tae kwon do competitions during the 2004 Summer Games, is today occasionally used for concerts, political rallies, or ice shows.
The stadium sits amid the greater Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex, which, like many other Greek Olympic venues, is sliding into disrepair—or worse.
For instance, Galatsi Hall, once home to Olympic table tennis and rhythmic gymnastics, is fenced and abandoned, despite plans to convert the building into a shopping mall.
The Greek government aims to sell some of these assets to ease the nation's debt crisis, but the process hasn't gotten far off the ground, experts say.
(See "Will 2004 Olympics Destroy Ancient Greek Battleground?")
Published July 26, 2012
Athens Olympic Aquatic Center
Photograph by Matt Cardy, Getty Images
A diving pool sits drained and empty at the Athens Olympic Aquatic Center, one of the venues built for the 2004 Summer Games that have slid into disuse and disrepair.
Zimbalist said it's difficult to pinpoint how much of Greece's post-Olympic woes are due to mismanagement and planning of the games or to the country's larger economic crisis.
"They spent about $16 billion in Athens," he said, "and a lot of that was borrowed.
"It wasn't a root cause of their debt problems, but it probably exacerbated them. I haven't seen any serious analysis that suggests the Olympics were good for Athens."
(See "Athens Struggles to Prepare for 2004 Games.")
Published July 26, 2012
Moscow Olympic Stadium
Photograph by Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP
Tens of thousands rally in February 2012 for Russia's then prime minister, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow's Luzhniki Olympic Stadium—an example of a venue that has thrived since its Olympic days.
Previously named for Lenin, the stadium was built in the 1950s as a showplace of Soviet-era athletic prowess.
When the U.S.S.R. hosted the 1980 Olympic Games, the stadium was the centerpiece, though the games were marred by a U.S.-led boycott joined by dozens of countries.
The Luzhniki stadium is still used regularly by Russian professional soccer teams and has hosted major international soccer tournaments. Its likely to get a facelift before its next one, the 2018 World Cup final.
(Take a Moscow quiz.)
Published July 26, 2012
Helsinki Tennis Palace
Photograph by Peter Forsberg, Alamy
The outbreak of World War II prevented Helsinki, Finland's Tennis Palace, or Tennispalatsi (seen in an undated photo), from seeing Olympic tennis action, but today it enjoys a second life as a cultural center.
Originally built in the 1930s as an automotive dealership, the facility was converted in preparation for the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were eventually cancelled.
Tennispalatsi did have a day in the Olympic sun in 1952, as a basketball venue for that year's Summer Games.
In subsequent decades the building deteriorated and was nearly torn down. Now refurbished, it houses the Helsinki City Art Museum, the Museum of Cultures, and a movie theater.
(See National Geographic Traveler's Helsinki travel guide.)
Published July 26, 2012
Los Angeles: Memorial Coliseum
Photograph by Alix Drawec, Corbis
Home to the University of Southern California's Trojans since 1923, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (pictured during a 2010 football game) has hosted two Super Bowls and a World Series as well as the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
The coliseum's long, multipurpose history is an example of how Los Angeles beat the odds to make money on the 1984 games, Zimbalist noted.
"Los Angeles didn't really do much building for the Olympics," he said.
"The [1976] Olympics in Montreal left a terrible debt burden that they didn't pay off until 2006. Nobody wanted to host until the [International Olympic Committee] said it would guarantee losses."
But 1984 Los Angeles Olympics organizer Peter Ueberroth raised millions from corporate sponsors, TV rights, and ticket sales to renovate existing L.A. sports facilities and build only a few new ones to keep costs down.
"Generally speaking, the games were positive financially for Los Angeles, though in a small way. It showed people a strategy for at least possibly getting some economic return," Zimbalist said.
(Read about L.A.'s past in National Geographic Traveler magazine.)
Published July 26, 2012
Then: Athens Olympic Stadium
Photograph by Tim Hawkins, Eye Ubiquitous/Corbis
Perhaps no Olympic venue has a richer or longer history than Athens's Panathinaiko, pictured in 1896 during the opening ceremony of the first modern Olympic Games.
Originally built in 330 B.C., the stadium—whose track has classic hairpin turns—featured many ancient athletic competitions.
Evangelis Zappas, who spearheaded the first Olympic revival of ancient Greek athletic contests, excavated the site in the late 1800s.
Wealthy businessperson Georgios Averoff paid for the Panathinaiko's restoration in white marble just in time to host the 1896 Olympics.
(See "Ancient Olympics Mixed Naked Sports, Pagan Partying.")
Published July 26, 2012
Now: Athens Olympic Stadium
Photograph by Mike King, NewSport/Corbis
The Olympic rings cast a shadow toward archery competitors in 2004, when Athens's Panathinaiko Stadium once again welcomed the world.
Despite Greece's financial problems, this ancient Olympic venue may be built to last.
(Learn more about the 2012 Olympics.)
Published July 26, 2012
Pictures: London Leaps Hurdles in Green Olympic Games Bid
Photograph by Edmund Sumner, View/Corbis
Published July 26, 2012