Shots of abandoned Olympic sites–decaying sports arenas and decrepit swimming pools.

For a few days at the end of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, the internet was flooded with galleries of abandoned Olympic sites, images of sports complexes and arenas and swimming pools and other sports venues, all disused and grown over and falling apart—in Beijing, Athens, Sarajevo, Munich, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Berlin and other cities. 

The images of collapsing purpose-built structures that circulated online this past February offered a glimpse of what might lie ahead for Sochi, a seaside resort town of about 350,000 inhabitants known for its subtropical climate and for sandy beaches, and now for hosting the most expensive Olympics ever.

The photograph above shows Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground in Beijing, built for the 2012 Olympic Games, now abandoned.

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