Golden medalist Konstantinos Filippidis demands €530,000 in damages over injury he suffered from at the national stadium in Athens.

In 2014 he won the gold medal indoors, in March of this year Konstantinos Filipiddis was second in another European Indoor Championship. But on June 19 he suffered from an accident at the national stadium in Athens, in which his knee was damaged.

The injury, as his lawyer claims, was caused by a hole in the running track, which wasn't removed despite the athlete reporting it before. This caused Filippidis to miss three large events in crucial time for his career.

Now the 30-year-old demands compensation of €530,000 from the Greek state, who owns the national stadium and its training facilities.

While a single incident, this is symptomatic of the dire state Greek Olympic facilities of 2004 are in. Severely underinvested in the decade after Athens had held the global event, facilities are gradually deteriorating.

Photo: Tilemahos Efthimiadis (cc: by-sa)