The story
These wide grounds were built for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre covers about ninety-four hectares of the plain. Its first test came in August 2003, with an Olympic test event in eventing. A year later, from the fourteenth to the twenty-seventh of August 2004, more than two hundred riders competed here for six sets of Olympic medals, in dressage, jumping and eventing.
The jumping arena is laid with grass, the dressage arena with sand. The cross-country course runs for more than five and a half kilometres, with about thirty-five obstacles. In September 2004 the Paralympic dressage competition was held here as well. Since then the Hellenic Equestrian Federation has staged its major national and international competitions at the centre, and its offices are here. This is a working sports venue, not a museum. The best time to come is on a competition day, when horses and riders bring the arenas back to life.
Sources (4)
Every fact in this text comes from these sources.
