Four Years Later, Athens' Olympic Investment Doesn't Pay Off

Sprinklers still keep the grass at Greece's Olympic softball stadium green. But four years after the 2004 Games, it sits unused in the middle of a vast, empty parking lot, patrolled by police vehicles.

As Beijing gears up for the most expensive Olympics in history - in the neighborhood of $40 billion - Athens is looking back at the legacy of its Games. The smallest country ever to host the modern event, Greece was proud to have pulled it off despite widespread skepticism. But while the event gave a morale boost to the Olympics' birthplace, many say Athens has failed to translate that into lasting momentum for modernization.

"I think that during the Olympics there was a good feeling," says Andreas Efthimiou, the deputy mayor of the Athens suburb where the Faliro Bay Olympic Complex is located. "But after the Olympics, I see that nothing has been done, we have lost the chance to change the face of the city."

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