The International Olympic Committee has released a report detailing the use of Olympic venues after every Olympic Games for the last 125 years titled “Over 125 Years of Olympic Venues: Post-Games Use”.
The report was compiled based off of research conducted by the Olympic Studies Centre, which looked at the use of 923 Olympic venues from the Athens 1896 Games through the 2018 PyeongChang Games. It was found that over 85 percent of all permanent Olympic venues are still in use today, while more than 92 percent of the permanent venues from the 21st century are still in use. Only 35 of such venues have been closed or abandoned due to various reasons. In order for a venue to be classified as “permanent” rather than “temporary”, it must have been built with the intention of being a long-lasting structure that remains at its site after the Games have concluded.
Although the research was conducted by the Olympic Studies Centre, the project was funded by the IOC, which could have impacted its overall results.
Percentages of Summer Olympic Venues Still in Use vs Not Used:
| Year | Location | Number of Venues | Percentage of Venues Still In Use |
Percentage of Venues Not in Use
|
| 1896 | Athens, Greece | 7 | 86% | 14% |
| 1900 | Paris, France | 15 | 67% | 33% |
| 1904 | St. Louis, Missouri | 6 | 100% | 0% |
| 1908 | London, England | 14 | 62% | 38% |
| 1912 | Stockholm, Sweden | 16 | 67% | 33% |
| 1920 | Antwerp, Belgium | 19 | 59% | 18% |
| 1924 | Paris, France | 21 | 63% | 37% |
| 1928 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 12 | 50% | 50% |
| 1932 | Los Angeles, California | 13 | 90% | 10% |
| 1936 | Berlin, Germany | 20 | 70% | 30% |
| 1948 | London, England | 29 | 68% | 32% |
| 1952 | Helsinki, Finland | 19 | 89% | 11% |
| 1956 | Melbourne, Australia | 16 | 72%* | 22% |
| 1960 | Rome, Italy | 26 | 81% | 19% |
| 1964 | Tokyo, Japan | 30 | 92% | 8% |
| 1968 | Mexico City, Mexico | 23 | 92% | 8% |
| 1972 | Munich, Germany | 32 | 79% | 21% |
| 1976 | Montreal, Canada | 24 | 92% | 8% |
| 1980 | Moscow, Soviet Union | 27 | 78% | 22% |
| 1984 | Los Angeles, California | 26 | 92% | 8% |
| 1988 | Seoul, Republic of Korea | 30 | 93% | 7% |
| 1992 | Barcelona, Spain | 38 | 94% | 6% |
| 1996 | Atlanta, Georgia | 28 | 85% | 15% |
| 2000 | Sydney, Australia | 30 | 96% | 4% |
| 2004 | Athens, Greece | 33 | 75% | 25% |
| 2008 | Beijing, China | 39 | 97% | 3% |
| 2012 | London, Great Britain | 30 | 95% | 5% |
| 2016 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 34 | 93% | 7% |
Percentages of Winter Olympics Venues Still In Use vs. Not Used
| Year | Location | Number of Venues | Percentage of Venues Still In Use |
Percentage of Venues Not in Use
|
| 1924 | Chamonix, France | 3 | 100% | 0% |
| 1928 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | 5 | 33% | 67% |
| 1932 | Lake Placid, New York | 6 | 100% | 0% |
| 1936 | Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany | 6 | 100% | 0% |
| 1948 | San Moritz, Switzerland | 8 | 67% | 33% |
| 1952 | Oslo, Norway | 11 | 92% | 8% |
| 1956 | Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy | 8 | 67% | 33% |
| 1960 | Squaw Valley, California | 6 | 50% | 50% |
| 1964 | Innsbruck, Austria | 9 | 100% | 0% |
| 1968 | Grenoble, France | 9 | 80% | 20% |
| 1972 | Sapporo, Japan | 13 | 83% | 17% |
| 1976 | Innsbruck, Austria | 9 | 100% | 0% |
| 1980 | Lake Placid, New York | 7 | 100% | 0% |
| 1984 | Sarajevo, Yugoslavia | 8 | 80% | 20% |
| 1988 | Calgary, Canada | 10 | 75% | 25% |
| 1992 | Albertville, France | 10 | 100% | 0% |
| 1994 | Lillehammer, Norway | 10 | 100% | 0% |
| 1998 | Nagano, Japan | 14 | 100% | 0% |
| 2002 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 10 | 100% | 0% |
| 2006 | Torino, Italy | 13 | 87% | 0% |
| 2010 | Vancouver, Canada | 9 | 100% | 0% |
| 2014 | Sochi, Russia | 10 | 100% | 0% |
| 2018 | Pyeongchang, South Korea | 12 | 86% | 14% |
Overall, Winter Olympic venues were found to still be in use more frequently than Summer Olympic venues, with 12 out of 23 host cities still using 100% of their permanent venues. Only one Summer Olympics host still uses 100% of its venues: St. Louis, Missouri, which had 6 different permanent venues in 1904. These venues include:
- Francis Field Stadium: Archery, gymnastics, athletics, cycling (track), football, lacrosse, roque, tug of war, weightlifting, and wrestling
- Creve Coeur Lake: Rowing
- Glen Echo Country Club: Golf
- Physical Culture Gymnasium: Boxing, fencing
- Dirt Courts near Francis Field: Tennis
All of the venues used, with the exception of the Dirt Courts, were existing venues prior to the Games. Currently, Francis Field, the Physical Culture Gymnasium, and Dirt Courts are all owned and operated by Washington University in St. Louis, the Glen Echo Country Club remains in business as a golf club and function space, while Creve Coeur Lake is home to the St. Louis Rowing Club. The only Olympic venue in St. Louis that was removed was the temporary US Life Saving Lake/ Life Saving Exhibition Lake that hosted the swimming, diving, and water polo events.
The IOC’s report also reveals that despite claims of abandonment and decaying venues from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, only 7% of such venues are no longer in use, including the Olympic Aquatics Stadium that hosted the swimming and water polo events at the Games. Although the structure was originally intended to be temporary, it has not been dismantled, and photos show that it appears to be abandoned. In 2020, a judge ordered the closure of the Rio Olympic Park over safety concerns. There was only one Olympics, winter or summer, from which less than half of its venues remain in use: the 1928 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. With only 5 permanent venues, only 33% of them still remain in use, with the rest being dismantled over time.
It’s an interesting report to say the least. Looking through the actual report, the top line figures quoted above don’t distinguish between purpose built facilities and pre-existing facilities.
A pre-existing facility that is no longer used after an Olympics is not necessarily a failure of the Olympics (unless the venue went into disrepair because say, it was no longer financially viable given new competing venues built – which is not sustainable practice, or the host city/country didn’t have the funds for its upkeep following financial loss on the games). This is not the case for a number of recent host cities.
In Sydney, the Entertainment Centre, a pre-existing building from the 80s is not ‘not in-use’. It was replaced… Read more »
As an historian who has taught graduate classes on the Olympics, this reads like a very biased report. Not what I discovered a few years ago.
“In use” might be a very loose statement that’s hard to prove and disprove
Like the Aegean Sea, the swimming venue in 1896.