Hellinikon Olympic Complex

The Hellinikon Olympic Complex is a closed, partially demolished sports complex, situated at Elliniko, a suburban town in the southern part of the Athens urban agglomeration, approximately 16 kilometres from the Olympic Village. It was built on the site of the former Hellinikon International Airport for the staging of the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Paralympics. It consists of five separate venues.

Exterior view of the Hellinikon Indoor Arena

Venues
Interior of the arena during the 2004 Summer Olympics

Hellinikon Indoor Arena
Main article: Hellinikon Olympic Arena

The Indoor arena was an arena adjacent to the Fencing Hall. It hosted the Basketball preliminary matches and the Handball finals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The facility seats 15,000[1] spectators for basketball, although only 10,700 seats were made publicly available during the Olympics - and seats 13,500 fans for handball - though only 10,300 seats were made publicly available during the games. The facility was completed on May 31, 2004 and officially opened on July 30, 2004.

During the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games, the Indoor Arena was the venue for Wheelchair rugby. It has also been the home arena of the Greek basketball club Panionios, and it has also hosted several finals matches of the Greek Cup. The Greek basketball club Panellinios also played European cup home games at the arena.

It was demolished in 2022.[2]

Fencing Hall
Main article: Hellinikon Fencing Hall

Demolished along with the arena and other buildings in 2022.[2]

Olympic Baseball Centre
Main article: Hellinikon Stadium

The Olympic Baseball Centre in Athens consists of two Baseball stadiums. It was the site of the Baseball games at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The larger stadium seats 8,700 fans-though only 6,700 seats were made publicly available during the Olympics; the smaller stadium seats 4,000 spectators, though only 3,300 seats were made publicly available during the Games. The facility had to be constructed with significant foreign help in the design, as there were only a handful of dusty baseball diamonds in the whole of Greece before the 2004 Olympics were awarded to Athens in 1997. Construction on the facility was completed on February 27, 2004, and it was officially opened on August 12, 2004, a day before the Opening Ceremonies. During the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games, the Olympic Baseball Centre was the venue for Archery. Demolished in 2023.

Olympic Hockey Centre

Olympic Canoe-Kayak Slalom Centre
Main article: Hellinikon Olympic Canoe/Kayak Slalom Centre

Only venue of the complex that will not be demolished after the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park is built. The venue will be transformed to a pond.

Olympic Hockey Centre
Main article: Hellinikon Olympic Hockey Centre

Olympic Softball Stadium
Main article: Hellinikon Olympic Softball Stadium

Post-Olympics Development

The table below lists the current status and usage of the Hellinikon Olympic Complex facilities. Venues in italics have been demolished.

External 2004 Olympic Rings in November 2018
Facility Olympics Use Current/Proposed Use
Hellinikon Basketball Stadium Basketball, Handball Home court for Panellinios BC and Panionios BC (basketball).,[3] Conventions and trade shows[4] Also part of events hall with fencing hall.
Hellinikon Olympic Canoe/Kayak Slalom Centre Canoe/Kayak Turned over to a private consortium (J&P AVAX, GEP, Corfu Waterparks and BIOTER), plans to convert it to a water park[5][6]
Hellinikon Fencing Hall Fencing Part of Events hall with the basketball stadium.[7]
Hellinikon Olympic Hockey Centre Field Hockey Mini-football, will be part of new Hellinikon metropolitan park complex[8]
Hellinikon Baseball Stadium Baseball Converted to football pitch, home field of Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. (Football; Greek second division)[9][10]
Hellinikon Olympic Softball Stadium Softball Concerts[8]

The site was used to house refugee populations in the current Refugee crisis in Europe. The three camps were home to over three thousand refugees living in mostly tented accommodation.[11]

There are currently works under way to convert much of the former Hellinikon International Airport site to a metropolitan park, that requires demolishing of the complex's venues.[2]

References
  1. "Worldstadiums.com basketball [[seating capacity]]". Archived from the original on 2017-09-15. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  2. Newsroom. "Ελληνικό: Ξεκίνησε η κατεδάφιση τριών κτηρίων στη Λεωφόρο Ποσειδώνος". www.ieidiseis.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  3. "Πανιωνιοσ – Κ.α.ε." Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
  4. "E-Tipos – Official Blog".
  5. "Biography looks at Sophia Vembo, the voice of Greece | eKathimerini.com".
  6. etipos/
  7. Olympicproperties.gr profile. Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine (in English and Greek)
  8. "contents_gr.asp?id=250 www.olympicproperties.gr". Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
  9. "Εθνικός | Sport.gr". Archived from the original on 2009-06-09. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
  10. Ethnikos Piraeus
  11. "Story Map Journal". rrse-smi.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2016-06-02.
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