Twelfth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Over a period of 125 years, the Olympic Games went from being a small fry oddity resurrected by an eccentric French baron, to a phenomenon of sport and entertainment, a publicity machine and a project of almost incomprehensible scale and complexity. As the world turns to concerns of climate change, rising inequality, poorly run public services, and recent and prospective economic shocks, justifying the extravagance of hosting a sixteen-day party with an eye-watering price tag is becoming harder and harder to realise. This has left the guardian of the Olympic movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with an ever-dwindling number of cities willing to host their event, which takes place just once every four years. In the face of this challenge, it has chosen the concept of legacy as its ultimate weapon, and is deploying this strategy with existing hosts, to shift the event towards a more sustainable model. Legacy needs embedding in both the activities and the behaviours of the organising committee, and this needs to filter through to every part of the organisation. If legacy pursuits are left to the sole efforts of the legacy division, it risks substantially diminishing the positive impact. Putting legacy at the heart of the organising committee’s mission and aligning the interests of stakeholders with this ambition is essential for any host city to have a fighting chance at success.