Despite Rio organizers touting newly constructed venues used at the 2016 Olympic Games as facilities to be passed on to Brazilians ongoing post-Games, the abandoned and deteriorating structures apparent through the Olympic Park appear to say otherwise.
In February of this year, we reported how the original plan for the 15,000-seat capacity Olympic Aquatics stadium was for the pool to be dismantled and repurposed to serve the community after the Olympics wrapped up. However, as the world has witnessed with past Games, the aquatics center now rests empty, decaying and in a state of utter disrepair.
One venue that hasn’t fallen to this fate, however, is the Deodoro Olympic Whitewater Stadium. Inside the Games is reporting the site of last summer’s Olympic canoe slalom has become the first Rio 2016 venue to be re-opened according to the original bid’s legacy plans for the local citizens.
Jose Perurena, President of the International Canoe Federation (ICF), told Inside the Games this week that the venue opened its gates to the public last weekend to offer free swimming, reportedly with an enormous public response.
“Last week the slalom venue in Rio opened for legacy purposes,” said Perurena. “The lake is now open to the local population, and more than 4000 people visited last weekend to swim, including 1000 older people.
“For 3-4 hours in the morning the site is used for canoe slalom training, and later in the day people can swim there.
It is the first venue in Rio to provide this activity,” Perurena said. “This is a great example of Olympic legacy.”
The ICF President said that the Deodoro Olympic Whitewater Stadium will also host next year’s ICF World Championships.
