Olympic Legacy: At What Cost? 奧運后的希臘

National pride, budding sports stars and fantastic facilities -we hear about the 'legacy' the Olympic Games will leave behind in London -but at what cost? Athens hosted the 2004 games, but the 'legacy' has left people angry. Sky's Greg Milam reports.

Four years on this is the Olympic legacy in Athens. Millions of pounds were spent on venues like the Beach Volleyball Center. Like many now, it's empty, locked up and its future uncertain.

Graffiti covers the outside of the gymnastics arena, what should have been a huge public park looks like this. And a venue built specially for taekwondo is deserted, nothing more than a backdrop for the local fishermen. And the Greek authorities would rather you didn't see it.
"No.No.NO."
And it is not just the security guards. No one from the Greek government or from the company that now runs these sites or even from the ruling party here in Greece wanted to speak to us on camera. And maybe it's not surprising because 10 of the 20 venues from 2004 are not used at all for anything. And many of the others like the main Olympic Stadium here are only used every now and then. This is the Olympic legacy here in Athens.

Try to visit the state-of-the-art Sailing Center and a fence blocks the way. The Greek people who paid for this can't see what they got for their money.

A man down there didn't want to appear on camera, but he said that what's happening to the facility like that one there was a terrible waste. He said it was wrong that the Greek public had paid for facilities like that but weren’t allowed to use them. In fact, he said he felt ashamed to be Greek.

Staphos Calliopsis was in the Olympic Kayak Squad in 2004. He, like most Greeks, is proud of the way the country staged the Games, but they worry about the long-term cost.

The cost was huge, I mean, like a billion Euro per day and Greece is a small country, already had the financing problem with, you know, the health system, with the educational system, as all know, even I think what’s worse was all this money spent.

Officially all these cost Greece 8 billion pounds, unofficially the bill might eventually reach 15 billion. The district of Hellenico is home to what was some of these showpiece venues. The neglect here angers Hellenico’s mayor.

Money, he says, seems more important than using venues for the public good.

The cost was very big and the result was not what it should have been. The venues have not been given to the local communities with very few exceptions.

The government agency that runs these venues is confident that it will eventually find people who want them. Politicians say that highlights a failure of planning.

I don't think that the Greek people mind the bill, perhaps what they mind is that after the Olympics we did not use the Olympics as a springboard for the country. And the quarrel leads of the question "Was it worth it" is could we have done more to explore the Olympics afterwards and the answer is absolutely yes, we could have, in terms of using the facilities more, in terms of using the feeling that is great for a country.

Everywhere people will remember 2004 this man told me, nowhere did it happen as it happened in Greece. National pride and some positives, the Athens transport network is now the envy of many countries. The Olympic Village, once temporary home to thousands of athletes is now short-term accommodation for the city's under-privileged. The country that gave the world the modern Olympics didn't get it all right in 2004. There is still time for London to learn the lessons.

Greg Milam Sky News, Athens.

參考中文翻譯：

民族自豪感，涌現的體育明星，出色的設備——我們聽說了奧運會將會留給倫敦的遺產——但是成本呢？雅典舉辦了2004年奧運會，但是這些“遺產”將人們激怒了。Sky節目的Greg Milam報道。

雅典奧運會過去已經死年齡。體育競技場花費了數百萬英鎊，比如沙灘排球中心。像其他奧運體育設施一應，現在它空空如也，大門深鎖，前途未卜。

體操競技場的外面滿是涂鴉，就好象一個巨大的公園。特意為跆拳道建立的體育場被遺棄了，僅僅是當地漁民的巨大的背景。希臘當權者寧肯你沒有看到。

“不，不。”

不僅僅是保衛人員，無論是希臘政府，還是現在運營這些競技場的公司，還是希臘的統治黨都沒人想接受我們的采訪。這或許并不出奇，因為2004年以來，20個體育場中有10個沒有加以任何的利用。其他的像主要的奧運體育館也只是偶爾利用一下。這就是雅典奧運會留下的遺產。

看看最新式的帆船中心，柵欄擋住了去路。希臘人民為此付了錢，卻什么都看不到。

從那里經過的一個人不想在鏡頭中露面，但是他說那些設備簡直是可怕的浪費。他說，希臘人民為這些設施付錢卻不允許人民利用，這種做法是錯誤的。事實上，他說作為一名希臘人他感覺到恥辱。

Staphos Calliopsis 是2004年奧運會皮船隊的隊員，他說為雅典舉辦奧運會的方式感到自豪，但是也擔心長期的成本。

我的意思是，成本非常巨大，大概一天10億歐元。希臘是一個小國家，現在衛生系統，教育系統已經面臨這嚴重的財政問題。我認為更糟糕的是白白的花了這么多錢。

根據官方宣布，希臘花費了80已英鎊，但是實際上可能高達150億。這些僅供展覽的競技場坐落在Hellenico區。這引發了Hellenico市長的憤怒。

他說，錢看上去比讓公眾利用這些競技場更加重要。

成本非常高，而結果不應該是現在這樣。這些競技場毫無例外的，沒有向當地社區開放。

政府雇傭的經營這些競技場的代理機構確信最終他們會找到想要這些場所的人。政治家說這強調了計劃的失敗。

我認為希臘人民不在乎花費這么高的成本，或許他們介意的是奧運過后，希臘沒有將奧運作為跳板。問題“是不是值得”的焦點是我們是不是應該更多的開發奧運，答案毫無疑問是肯定的。我們應該做更多，應該更好地利用這些設施。

世界各地的人們都會記得2004雅典奧運會，沒有任何一個地方的奧運會像希臘這樣。民族自豪感，還有一些積極的方面，雅典的交通網絡引起許多國家羨慕。曾經是數千名運動員的居住場所的奧運村，現在成了這個城市沒有特權的人都短暫居住地。這個舉辦世界現代奧運的國家2004做的并不完美。倫敦需要吸取這些教訓。