THE world watched on in awe back in 2008 when Beijing hosted the Olympics.
At the time, China earned praise from across the globe for staging an incredible show with a combination of architectural feats and excellent organisation.
But the state of the Olympic stadia and venues now years on paint a different picture.
China splashed a whopping £32BILLION on the games – with a disastrous legacy in some places.
The water-sport parks is completely dried-up, including the once glittering white-water rafting run.
More concrete eyesores are seen at beach volleyball arena that are now reduced to rust and rotting wood.
The once show-stopping BMX track now looks more like a jungle with a rusty frame poking its ugly head through the greenery.
Sprawled across Beijing are more haunting reminders of the Games.
Mascots including Nini, Yingjing and Beibei are lying in tatters across the grounds.
Once sparkling signage is now covered in grime.
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But the impressive Bird’s Nest Stadium is still in use to this day and it would appear to be one of the only bits of infrastructure still going strong.
Beijing is not the only host city to fall foul of the post-Olympics hangover.
Rio de Janeiro is suffering a similar fate after the 2016 Games and the same goes for Athens after they hosted the Olympics in 2004.
In Brazil, a number of venues are in utter disrepair with their £9billion Games legacy in tatters.
The same goes for Greece where their Olympic Stadium, which holds a larger capacity than all English grounds except Old Trafford and Wembley, had to shut down recently due to poor maintenance.
Now we wait and see how Paris deal with its venues after the 2024 Olympics.
Nearly 15,000 residents – around 10,500 of which are athletes – will be cramming into the Olympic village between July 26 and August 11.
To ensure the athletes feel at home, a number of provisions have been made by organisers.
One of these is the stocking of some 300,000 condoms, in theory enough for around two every day during the run of the Games.
A number of Olympic athletes have opened the door on their steamy lives behind-the-scenes when in camp, including huge sex orgies and parties.
London 2012 had claimed the title of “the raunchiest Games ever”, but the 150,000 condoms ordered paled in comparison to the 450,000 ordered for the Rio Games four years later.
Condoms have been laid on by organisers at every game since Seoul 1988, when it they were used to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Even with an intimacy ban at Tokyo 2020 due to Covid-19, some 150,000 johnnies were handed out.
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