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These Eerie Photos Show The Ghosts Of Olympics Past

When the medals have all been won and the people leave, aging Olympics villages become otherworldly.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JEROME RASETTI View of the swimming pool in the 1936 Olympic village in Elstal, west of Berlin on May 5, 2008. The village, which housed over 4.000 athletes for the notorious 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, then under Nazi rule, was used as barracks for the German army shortly afterwards, and from 1945 as barracks for Russian officers, until the Russian army's final withdrawal in 1992. AFP PHOTO JOHN MACDOUGALL (Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JEROME RASETTI View of the swimming pool in the 1936 Olympic village in Elstal, west of Berlin on May 5, 2008. The village, which housed over 4.000 athletes for the notorious 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, then under Nazi rule, was used as barracks for the German army shortly afterwards, and from 1945 as barracks for Russian officers, until the Russian army's final withdrawal in 1992. AFP PHOTO JOHN MACDOUGALL (Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)
ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP/Getty Images

Every few years, the world tunes in to watch the Olympic Games.

From Salt Lake City to London to Beijing, cities across the globe have played host to the illustrious games with hundreds of athletes anxiously vying for their spot in history. But with hosting comes great responsibility, and often new construction that takes years to complete.

The construction, as we’ve seen, can involve destruction. It can also lead to athletic facilities becoming abandoned once the games are over. With many cities having no use for the elaborate luging slides or massive stadiums after the Olympics end, they become quiet and desolate monoliths.

Let’s take a walk through these lands of the long-gone glory days.

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