Seven years later, Atlanta`s Olympic legacy has faded

Atlanta, Aug 08: A couple of tattered flags hang limply from the poles where the world once gathered. The silence is broken occasionally by a jet cutting across the hazy blue sky, on its way to or from nearby Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.
"Wolf Creek shooting complex," a marker reads. "Venue for the sport of shooting in the 1996 centennial Olympic games."
The place is all locked up. The memories are fading. A few bronze plaques are about the only reminders of that summer seven years ago.
Wolf Creek is symbolic of the decaying legacy from the Atlanta Olympics. Some venues closed. Others struggled to find their place once the torch was extinguished.
Billy Payne, the man who ran the games, had not even heard that Fulton County was shutting down the world-class shooting range because of its drain on the budget.

"We only built permanent structures where we thought there was a permanent use," Payne said. "We don't get it right all the time. In that case, we didn't."

The two most prominent symbols from the Atlanta games were the main stadium and centennial Olympic park. In the aftermath of 1996, both took on roles that had little to do with fostering the development of Olympic sports.

The 85,000-seat stadium, where Muhammad Ali lit the torch, Carl Lewis leaped to his final medal and Michael Johnson ran into the record books on golden shoes was converted into a 50,000-seat baseball park as soon as the Olympians left town.
Bureau Report