Olympic host cities spend big money on infrastructure, stadiums, athlete housing and event courses that in some cases get unused years after medals are awarded and cheering spectators have moved on to the next Olympic Games.
The below 15 photos show frozen-in-time moments at abandoned Olympic venues months and years after their use.
General view of the former Olympic Village in Athens, Greece on July 31, 2014. Ten years earlier the XXVIII Olympiad was held in Athens from the 13th – 29th August with the motto “Welcome Home.” The cost of hosting the games was estimated to be approximately 9 billion euros with the majority of sporting venues built specifically for the games. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
General view of the Olympic Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece on July 31, 2014. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
General view of the Olympic Canoe/Kayak Slalom Center at the Helliniko Olympic complex in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
A picture taken on Feb. 5, 2014, shows Sarajevo’s abandoned bob sleigh track. Built and used as an Olympic venue during Sarajevo’s 1984 Winter Olympic Games, the track was heavily damaged during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images
A view from the mostly abandoned Olympic Aquatics stadium at the Olympic Park on May 20, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the nine months after the Olympic games, very few events were organized in the Olympic Park venues. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Abandoned Igman Olympic jumps in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 14, 2015. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A drawing of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin can be seen on the wall of the main amphitheater in the abandoned Hindenburghaus facility where functions and cultural shows were staged at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village on May 17, 2021, in Elstal, Germany. A German real estate developer called Terraplan is constructing and renovating buildings on a large portion of the former Olympic Village site in what local authorities are hoping is the first phase of investor commitment to developing the entire site. Built for the 1936 Berlin Olympics the village later served as an infantry school for the Nazi-era Wehrmacht and a military hospital during World War II. After the war the Soviet Army took it over as a military base and also as a training facility for its own Olympic athletes. A number of the original buildings still stand at the site, including housing for athletes, a swim hall, a gym, other training facilities and a theatre. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
A swimming pool lies abandoned in the former swim hall at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village on May 17, 2021, in Elstal, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
A swimming pool lies abandoned in the former swim hall at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village on May 17, 2021, in Elstal, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
A gymnasium hall lies abandoned at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village on May 17, 2021, in Elstal, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Deserted houses for athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin). (Photo by Martin Sachse/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Deserted houses for the athletes in the former Olympic Village (Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin). A bathroom at the Jesse Owens House. (Photo by Montag/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Abandoned Igman Olympic Jumps in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 14, 2015. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
General view of the former Olympic Village in Athens, Greece on July 31, 2014. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
Inside view of the abandoned Hindenburghaus facility where functions and cultural shows were staged at the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village in Elstal, Germany. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
