Does the Olympic Agenda 2020 Have the Power to Create a New Olympic Heritage? An Analysis for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games Bid

Martin Schnitzer,Lukas Haizinger

doi:10.3390/su11020442

Abstract

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) lacks candidates willing to host the Olympic Games (OG) and has reacted to this situation by introducing the Olympic Agenda 2020 (OA)—a reform process making the OG more attractive for potential hosts. This study analyzes whether the OA plays a crucial role for the future of the OG. We, therefore, examined the official IOC documents and feasibility studies of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games (WOG) bidders and conducted qualitative interviews with experts in the field (n = 15). The results reveal that the 2026 WOG hosts plan to reduce the budgets for the organization and the infrastructure costs in the host regions. As a consequence, the number and nature of the sites and venues as well as the distances between them will increase. This means that the future Olympic heritage (OH) may lay less in iconic buildings but rather focus on the attempt to fulfil the city’s long-term strategies. Our analyses extend the literature by: (1) analysing the OA in view of future OG, (2) comparing experiences from past OG with those of current bidders, (3) integrating expert knowledge thanks to qualitative interviews and, finally, (4) considering new heritage concepts.

Highlights

Studying impacts of mega sports events has been popular in the scientific community for a few decades
Citizens have lost trust in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in other international sports federations, which can be explained by corruption scandals, a lack of transparency, questionable decisions in regard to event site selection or cost overruns [3] in organizing this type of event
With regard to the organization of the Olympic Games (OG), the New Norm [6] focused on the six recommendations highlighted above in bold font and briefly presented in Section 2.2; these recommendations are attributed to aspects of cost effectiveness in terms of bidding for and staging the Winter Olympic Games (WOG) and to aspects ensuring the highest possible sustainability of the event

Summary

Introduction

Studying impacts of mega sports events has been popular in the scientific community for a few decades. Researchers’ attention has recently shifted and the interest in understanding the role of local residents in sports events as well as understanding the driving forces influencing the support for such events has increased. One reason for these new research fields is the fact that in recent years almost every public referendum on hosting the Olympic Games (OG) has failed [1,2]. Mega events may create “white elephants”—infrastructure that is not used after the event—and leads to mistrust in international sports federations [4]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion