00:00August 13, 2004.
00:14The Athens Olympic Games Opening Ceremony takes place inside a brand new stadium.
00:19The imposing roof is designed by award-winning Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
00:26Millions tune in to watch the return of the Games to their birthplace.
00:31A grandiose event, a country brimming with pride.
00:36The world saluted the smallest country to ever have hosted the Summer Olympic Games
00:40for its majestic organisation in these impressive sporting facilities.
00:50Twenty years on, what remains of these Games?
00:57The Olympic Stadium is currently closed, indefinitely.
01:01The roof steel structure has been deemed unsafe.
01:04Dozens of scheduled shows, including British rock band Coldplay's summer concerts, have
01:09been cancelled for now.
01:13All these years, the state should have maintained this.
01:19Everything is falling apart, it's all rusty, full of ghosts.
01:26Sure we had the financial crisis and cuts, but the truth is no one cares, not even the
01:30state.
01:31Citizens can't do much.
01:34The emblematic beach volley stadium, where the sand hasn't changed since 2004, has the
01:39same fate.
01:40The stands are degraded, graffitis and garbage have become permanent fixtures.
01:46And yet Greece paid more than 500 million for these stadiums.
01:52The establishment is citing the financial crisis that hit the country in 2010 for ten
01:56years to justify the lack of maintenance and operation of these constructions.
02:01But silence reigns when it comes to gauging the intangible, such as introducing new sports
02:06or organising Paralympic competitions.
02:09A comprehensive sense of failure.
02:12That's a problem.
02:13In Greece there was no development plan for after the 2004 Olympics, that's a fact.
02:21Yana Gelopoulou was the first woman to preside over the organisation committee of the Games.
02:28She fought for this heritage, for the tangible as much as the intangible, like equal gender
02:34participation at the Olympic Games, but also access with reduced mobility.
02:40Today she wants to believe that all is not lost.
02:43In 2004, we revived the ancient Olympic spirit by making everything at a human scale, with
02:51thousands of volunteers and new infrastructure.
02:56As you know, in 1896, a Frenchman and a Greek brought the Olympic Games back to life.
03:03We're linked and we here in Athens know from our own experience that Paris will leave a
03:08unique Olympic legacy.
03:13On its side, the government pledged 57 million euros to renovate the Olympic Stadium and
03:18is relying on private funds to salvage these facilities, just like the Olymikon project.
03:24The old canoe, kayak, baseball and softball complexes will soon turn into one of the largest
03:29urban parks of Europe.
03:31This green lung will include hotels, residences, beaches, marinas and aims to resolve the housing
03:37problem in the south of the Greek capital.
03:40We're creating a world-leading mixed-use development, combining state-of-the-art residential, commercial,
03:46sports, tourism, leisure and entertainment offerings.
03:50In the centre, the largest coastal park in Europe doubles the amount of green space in
03:54the Athens metropolitan area.
03:57Greece has come a long way since the 2004 Olympics and the Olymikon is both a major
04:02driver of and an inspiring symbol for all that we have achieved and all that is yet to come.
04:09The works at the Olymikon are expected to be completed by 2025.
04:14At last, there is some hope that other white elephants will also be transformed.
Comments