The 2016 Rio Olympics are underway, and this year's version of the Summer Olympics have had their fair share of struggles. Whether it be the Zika Virus, the unfinished athlete's village or just general crime and construction issues, Rio has faced problem. But the issues with the Olympics are far from limited to just Rio, although Brazil hopes the long-term results other host cities have faced will be avoided this time around. In particular, the goal is that the Olympic structures and venues won't end up abandoned.
Want to know why cites across the globe are starting to think twice about the costs associated with hosting the Olympics? For one, most cities aren't equipped to handle the two-week mad dash which includes the influx of thousands upon thousands of athletes, fans, coaches, sponsors and media members. The second reason is that spending billions of dollars to get a city Olympic-ready doesn't make fiscal sense for most major metro areas, especially when so many constructed venues go unused after the Games leave town.
Want visual proof of the unsettling desolation that sometimes befalls these Olympics-only structures? Check this out with pictures via Business Insider.
Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1984 -- one decade before civil war tore apart the country.
Some of the facilities were repurposed as military outposts during the war...
...but most were left to decay in the middle of the chaos.
This isn't limited to Sarajevo. Atlanta-Fulton stadium was used to host baseball during the 1996 Summer Olympics. It was leveled to make room for 4,000 parking spots a year later.
Speaking of baseball fields ... Beijing hosted the 1998 Summer Olympics (and will once against host the event in 2022). Their baseball complex hasn't fared much better.
The same holds true for the Olympic "green area"...
The beach volleyball courts are inaccessible to the general public.
The rowing facility is deserted too and surrounded by polluted water.
Athens? Greece's capital may be saddled with the worst of it all. Here's the beach volleyball courts...
A far cry from the packed house that saw Misty May and Kerri Walsh take Olympic gold.
Even the practice courts outside are covered in weeds and brush.
The Olympic Village? Deserted and decaying.
Plans to turn the village into housing and build a school in the area fell through, leaving thousands of families who applied to live on the site scrambling for other options.
As for the softball stadium, nobody bothers with it anymore.
Same with the baseball field.
Perhaps the most telling of all is the canoe/kayak center. Once a world class, state-of-the-art venue, it is now the equivalent of a dump with standing water around the center.
That's not to mention the field hockey center and a host of other sites now collecting dust and grime.
It's a truly chilling display of what spending $16.6 billion on the ultimate temporary event really means for a country like Greece.
