Greece’s national Olympic committee issued a statement on Wednesday criticising reported plans to use sporting venues to temporarily shelter thousands of refugees. The committee said that all sporting venues are “absolutely necessary” to help Greek athletes prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The committee responded to reports that the velodrome would be used by stating that such a move would cause competitive cycling in Greece to “completely wither.”

On its part, the Greek government has not confirmed media reports on the use of the velodrome by refugees. There are however several disused former Olympic venues in Athens being used to temporarily shelter refugees as hundreds of thousands have arrived into the country in 2015 alone, stretching national resources.