Athens 2004 sporting venues…How they look like 10 years after the games.

Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games would be marking its tenth anniversary this month. I remembered that its opening ceremony was the first opening ceremony I have ever watched that eventually leads to me having interest to watch opening or closing ceremonies of any major sporting events onward. Of course, it has been ten years already. I was only 13 that time. Hence, it’s normal for not remembering anything much from that games when the Olympics is brought back to its home as the host. But what happened to the Athens 2004 sporting venues in the present, 10 years after the games? Well, check out the images below and you would be shocked.

 

 

(Original source for the images above: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/olympics/28693970)

More images here: http://www.businessinsider.com/2004-athens-olympics-venues-abandoned-today-photos-2012-8?IR=T&op=1.

That’s how the sporting venues of the successful Athens 2004 games look like now. Abandoned, not maintained well, and left in emptiness and disuse. Act of vandalism, rubbish everywhere, pool dries up, overgrown with plants, etc. Hmm…definitely not a pleasing sight. These venues or stadiums were once in glorious state where many thousand of spectators entered to watch amazing sporting activities during the run of the world’s largest international multi-sport event, the Summer Olympic Games for its 28th edition in Athens, Greece. These venues were once the spotlights of the games. A symbol of how successful the games is. An icon of how well the city has prepared to host the games.

Now, almost all the venues have turned into ‘white elephants’. An eye-sore. Now, they are a symbol of how poor the Olympics legacy has turned out to be for Athens. After the games, the city does not need huge and various sporting venues anymore. It may turned out that the authority doesn’t even find it necessary to maintain these places anymore as it will costs a lot too by just doing that. These venues have also reminded future games’ organizers to really study the feasibility of the games’ effect on the city. Athens 2004’s venues served as a serious reminder to that.

I guess only very few other venues are still in good condition, and that includes the main Olympic Stadium that once hosted the athletic events and also the opening and closing ceremonies of Athens 2004.

 

(Original source of image above: http://images.nationalgeographic.com/)

Fortunately by now, many have adopted the ideas of reducing stadium’s size, having certain venues just as temporary structures which would be removed after the games, etc. That will make the games cost-effective, sustainable and not burdening to the city in post-games era. London 2012 sets a benchmark for this kind of achievement. I strongly agreed to these solutions. Besides that, the cost of organizing huge-scaled games like this is escalating year by year. More cities nowadays aren’t that interested to host major games anymore as they really costs a lot and will be a huge burden to the country’s finance despite some benefits it will bring like fame to the country and also job opportunities. It’s time to tone it down, but still the organizer has to find effort or innovative ways to make the games memorable.

Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (the two coming hosts for the Summer Olympic Games particularly) have to take this as a lesson to make their games truly effective, efficient and successful.

 

New Delhi not ready for Commonwealth Games on eleventh hour!

I just got this news from many articles around the world, and it did shocked me, because in these few decades, those cities that are selected to host international games like Olympic, Commonwealth or Asian Games will definitely succeed on preparation before the games opening. Those lucky cities which undergone hard process of bidding, had finally emerged as winning host cities, and have the right to bring the global games to own country. However, in this case, India does not appreciate this golden opportunity.

                        

It is not easy to win the right to host 2010 Commonwealth Games. New Delhi, representing India won it few years back, and they definitely had more than enough time for preparation. Furthermore, they are not building many new stadiums, their main jobs are to only upgrade and repair existing stadiums and facilities including the main stadium used for opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competitions. However, they failed to do that, to accomplish that, until now.

There are only around two months left before the opening ceremony. Yes, two months left, and many of the venues for the games have not been completed and passed the sports requirements yet! Terrible, isn’t it? I got this article from this website: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007643,00.html/, entitled ‘Will India be ready to host the Commonwealth Games?’

The rains that hit New Delhi recently were bad news for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the biggest sporting spectacle ever to come to India. The event’s two shooting ranges, one of them inaugurated just 60 days ago, were extensively damaged in the downpour. A week earlier, the temporary roof of the table-tennis court in the Yamuna Sports Complex collapsed under another deluge, and the new Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Complex, hyped as the best aquatic arena in the country, is now a mess of debris, electric cables and leaking eaves.

 

(Construction material lies scattered outside the newly inaugurated Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, one of the venues renovated for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, on July 27, 2010)

But it’s not just bad weather that’s plaguing India’s efforts to get ready in time for its gold-medal moment in October. Inside the new showcase Nehru Stadium, construction of the weight-lifting arena was neglected until the end of July. A young swimmer this week tripped on a loose grill and hurt herself during the National Federation Cup, a test event held at the recently finished Talkatora Stadium. According to a six-month investigation and report by India’s top anticorruption agency, the Commonwealth Games’ infrastructure is in all-around bad shape, chiefly because of “large-scale corruption, usage of substandard material and repeated delays.”

TIME obtained a copy of the Central Vigilance Commission’s report, first made public on CNN-IBN on Wednesday, July 28. The report warns that the games, expected to draw at least 150,000 spectators, might turn into a hazard for athletes and spectators alike. Among the findings: “electrical installations not tested in 14 out of the 17 venues“; “quality-test records are fabricated to show compliance“; “quality of anticorrosive treatment on reinforcement steel was found poor“; “concrete core samples taken from the already laid concrete also failed to meet the requirement of strength during testing in an independent outside laboratory.” The list goes on. “There is no guarantee of quality of the work done for the games,” the report warns. “Electrical mishaps cannot be ruled out.”

The Commonwealth Games, first held in 1930, draw athletes from countries of the former British Commonwealth and are billed as a prestige event. For a country that had been hoping to showcase its best to international tourists and media, India now seems to just hope to avoid disaster, with only two months remaining until the Oct. 3 opening ceremony. Whispers of corruption and shoddy construction have been making the rounds of the capital for months. On a recent visit to two of the 17 venues, the problems described in the Vigilance Commission’s report were obvious. There were loose tiles, loose grilles, unfinished staircases and seating arrangements, protruding iron rods, leaking roofs and walls, and debris inside and out.

(Delhi’s Connaught Place is still in chaos, alongside with many other sporting venues)

The report also found pervasive overcharging by the private contractors building the new venues. The Delhi government, the Sport Authority of India, and the central government, which bears most of the games’ cost, oversee construction for the games, but all have so far refused to comment on the problems found in the Vigilance Commission report. In an interview this week, Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organizing committee for the games, absolved himself of responsibility for the construction problems: “It’s not our business to oversee the making of the stadiums. My job is to run the games, not construct stadiums.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday, July 29, minimized the problems. “I have reviewed the situation with the Cabinet Secretary on Wednesday, and I am satisfied that all necessary preparations are in place and will be in place,” he said. “We look forward to a very successful games.”

But the projected cost of the event has already exploded from an initial estimate of $75 million (3.45 billion rupees) to nearly $7.6 billion (350 billion rupees). And if the games go awry, there will be a political cost as well. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s main opposition party, says the games are turning into a major embarrassment for the country and warns that it will hold the ruling Congress Party accountable. “There is no way out now,” says senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde. “And if, God forbid, the games flop, they have to answer to the nation and the world.”

This view is not limited to the opposition. A.K. Walia, a Congress Party politician from Delhi and member of the Commonwealth Coordination Committee, is not sure if all the venues will be ready by the Aug. 15 deadline, when they are supposed to be handed over to the organizing committee. After an inspection of some of the incomplete venues this week, Walia criticized the way the work was being handled. “The way the work is going on, I have doubts over some of the games venues, but I hope that they will be ready in time,” he said.

To make matters worse, many top athletes have already decided to give the games a pass, from Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser to British cycling champion Victoria Pendleton and Australian tennis star Samantha Stosur. And for the first time in 44 years, Queen Elizabeth II will not attend, sending Prince Charles in her place. The Queen cited a busy social calendar as her reason for missing the games. Given the new concerns over safety, Delhi’s other invited guests may soon be sending regrets as well.

—Not only safety concern, they are many bad issues that India has not solved it yet for the games, like hygiene problem especially in rural or even at town areas, dusty and noisy environment, over population at dense town areas, etc. Athletes and important guests would be afraid of all these, more will be confirming on their absence to the games, then this will be disastrous to India, which is expecting a grand games for all, now from what we can see and read here, it will be the worst Commonwealth Games in history if nothing is being done on it quickly!

Another interesting articles about it…this one quite humorous though, but of course, very seriously written to show that it is very hard for India to be on track now for 2010 Commonwealth Games! http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/montymunford1/100049043/is-delhi-ready-for-indias-commonwealth-games-not-even-close/

But of course, there is something nice to see, especially inside of the newly-refurbished main stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that has seating capacity of 60 000.The labourers or workers are not doing nothing, they are just in a very slow pace now, maybe because of many other internal problems there too….

Upcoming 2010 games architecture

Whenever there is a sporting games being held in a specific city, that city would be transformed in large scale. Many infrastructures like stadiums, public transportation system, hotels, amenities will be built in conjunction with the upcoming games as a full preparation to it. A more systematic urban planning would be done too, especially on the site of stadiums’ complex.

There are three upcoming international sporting games in 2010, all to be held at last quarter of the year.

First of all, is the upcoming first Youth Olympic Games to be held at Singapore from 14th to 26th August 2010. As usual, many new venues were built like the site for opening and closing ceremonies, The Float (floating stage at Marina Bay, seating capacity of over 30 000), Youth Olympic Village (at Nanyang Technological University), Main Media Centre (at Marina Bay Sands), University Town (at National University of Singapore), etc.

The second upcoming games is the Commonwealth Games to be held at New Delhi, India from 3rd to 14th October 2010. As the third largest sporting games (after Summer Olympic and Asian Games), India promises to upgrade as many things as possible in preparation to the games. The main stadium used for athletics and opening and closing ceremonies is Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which will have seating capacity of 75 000 after renovation (new roof, new support structure, new seatings), Indira Ghandi Arena (second largest indoor sports arena in Asia). 26 new stadiums are utilized for the games.

The last, which is the world second largest sporting games, and expected to be the largest Asian Games in history, Guangzhou 2010 to be held from 12th to 27th November 2010. The city undergoes really big transformation. There is always an axis for Chinese cities, and the axis in Guangzhou is now further enhanced with completion of new Central Business District, and with new notable buildings along the axis like Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou International Finance Center (tallest building in the city), Haixinsha Island (island in middle of Pearl River used for opening and closing ceremonies), and Guangzhou Sightseeing and Broadcasting Tower (tallest TV tower in the world) to join with existing CITIC Plaza and Tianhe Sports Center. There are 53 competition venues and 17 training centers, that includes Asian Games Town, consists of Athletes Village, Technical Officials Village, Media Village, Main Media Center and International Broadcast Center.

I love to see the opening and closing ceremonies of these games because on the broadcast, they will show the whole site of the sports complex, and sometimes the whole city at night, beautiful with those street lights, laser and spotlights. I love those aerial views, overlooking the whole complex, especially with addition of fireworks…and I’m looking forward to these upcoming games…hope Malaysia can win something from these three games too!