Olympic Sites Research Articles

Implementing an Organizational Trauma-Informed Approach to Olympic Sites: An Urgent Priority to Protect Elite Athlete Well-being During Olympic Games Participation

Abuse has been acknowledged as an adverse event which leads to trauma and long-term health effects in sport. Given the high rates of abuse occurring in elite sport contexts, many Olympic athletes will not only be subjected to abuse while residing and competing at the Olympic Games but may also experience trauma and its effects. In this article, we build on the calls for a trauma-informed approach in elite sport to outline a rationale for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to implement an organizational trauma-informed approach to Olympic sites. Such an approach is essential because trauma researchers outside, and inside sport contexts, have outlined that when organizations are not trauma aware, and practices are not trauma-informed, unintended “unsafe” responses may result. To contextualize our rationale for an organizational trauma-informed approach, we provide examples of Olympic athletes’ stories to demonstrate the abuse and trauma they experienced while competing at the Olympic Games. To build on the human right that all athletes participating in the Olympic Games have the right to do so safely and free from harm, we further outline what an organizational trauma-informed approach involves and why it is important to limit re-traumatization risk. We further reflect on how being trauma-informed extends a duty of care to better protect athletes, which should be a responsibility of the IOC.

Olympic rule 50

In the Tokyo Olympics, Raven Saunders, Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi were questioned by the IOC and got warnings due to their “performance of political demonstration” at the Olympic podium. We saw something similar during the 2012 London Olympic Summer Games when an indigenous boxer of Australia, Damien Hooper, was nearly disqualified from the Olympic competition for entering the ring wearing the Aboriginal flag shirt of Australia. The Olympics has had a history of maintaining a hypocritical form of political neutrality over the years. The Olympic Charter talks about sport being an essential medium in advancing the human rights of various individuals from different countries. However, it also chooses to stay neutral and gives preference to host nations. “Freedom of opinion and expression”, is a fundamental right enshrined in core international and regional human rights treaties and national laws. But it is also to be taken note that this freedom is restricted due to the “legitimate aims” of these treaties and laws. The Olympic Charter has followed suit and enacted a certain rule that prevents athletes from making demonstrations at the Olympic sites under the threat of disciplinary sanctions.

Adaptation options assessment for the Australian uranium supply chain focused on the Olympic Dam and Ranger Mines

This study identifies adaptation needs and proposes adaptation options to manage the impact of future climate change in the Australian uranium industry. The study is focussed on two mines - the Ranger and Olympic Dam sites, which represent in excess of 73% of the Australian uranium production. The study employed part of a previous vulnerability assessment from each of the mines' supply chain participants, through which they self-assessed their site-specific risk management plans and their abilities to manage the risk of climate change. Adaptation options were identified and ranked (in three scenarios of decision making) through a multi-criteria analysis process that considered cost-efficiency, effectiveness, speed of implementation, human capital, and additional benefits of adaptation. For each of the sites, the results revealed that an improvement in both internal and external communications with supply chain participants would be the most effective way to increase the capacity for adaptation to climate change in the future. Furthermore, the study reveals that improving the employees’ knowledge about the identification of the climate extremes (climate events and extreme weather events) in their risk management plans (RMPs) and increasing the frequency by which they update their RMPs would improve their adaptive capacity.

Planning for Legacy in the Post-War Era of the Olympic Winter Games

Hosting an Olympic Games has the ability to considerably change a city and community, its image and infrastructure, with long-lasting effects in host cities and regions. However, securing long term function of Olympic sites and venues has proven a difficult task, as the increasingly specialist nature and scale of venues pose a major challenge for post-Olympic use. Appropriate planning is sited as central to achieving positive legacies as a result of the games Legacy planning and policy development expanded considerably in the context of the post-war Olympic Winter Games held in Europe between 1948 and 2014. The development of legacy policy and legacy planning have affected the design, construction and legacy of venues throughout the history of the Olympic Winter Games. Through a rigorous horizontal comparative analysis of all post 1948 Olympic Winter Games candidatures and official reports from within Europe, alongside a review of Olympic legacy policy, it is clear that richer understanding of the impact of past Olympic Winter Games policy and planning developments on the built environment benefits both present and future planning.

Tourism Mobility at the Summer Olympic Games Rio 2016

Sports tourism as a segment is growing exponentially in Brazil. The sports mega-events that occurred in the period from 2007 to 2016 helped strengthen this sector significantly. This article examined tourism mobility during the Summer Olympic Games Rio 2016, hosted by the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This study expands the understanding of the relationship between tourism and city infrastructure, therefore being relevant to academics, professionals of the area, and to the whole society due to its multidisciplinary field. The existence of a relationship between means of transportation and the Olympic regions as well as tourist attractions for a possible legacy was observed. Data were collected from official sources, field research, and through participant observation and semistructured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed. The results indicate that the city was overall successful in its execution of sufficient mobility. New means of transportation were added and others updated. Bus rapid transits (BRTs) were the main use of mass transport to Olympic sites. However, a lack of public transport access was observed for the touristic sites.

Environmental Sustainability at the Olympic Games: Comparing Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games

The modern Olympic Games have evolved from events fostering international peace and goodwill to showcases of athleticism and commercialism. More recently sustainability became a pillar of the Game site selection process. This paper focuses on two Olympic Games: Rio 2016 (completed) and Tokyo 2020 (upcoming). The goals of Sustainability Plans and pre-game reports for the two Olympic sites are analyzed using weighted summation method of Multi-attribute Value theory and the framework of environmental, economic and social-cultural sustainability, with emphasis on environmental sustainability. Post-game analysis and legacy stories are reviewed for Rio 2016. Application of legacy stories to future Olympics sites is examined. Last, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, in terms of actual and anticipated success in sustainability initiatives, are compared for the impact these two Games may have on future Olympic Game sites.Keywords: Sustainability, environmental sustainability, Olympic Games, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020

Using the Sochi 2014 XXII Olympic and the XI Paralympic Winter Games objects in the postolympian period based on their transformation into a tourist product

This article focuses on the use of the heritage sites of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and the XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014 in the city of Sochi in the post-Olympic period on the basis of its transformation into a tourist product. The paper presents the results of dividing tourists into age groups using the UNWTO classification, the results of the initial survey conducted among the clients of the BEST-Tour tourist company, the calculation of the Fisher angular transformation to determine the dependence of a destination choice on the desire to visit Olympic sites, the typologies of respondents using content analysis and their classification by the method of G. Ghana, on the basis of which tours were developed for two age groups of three and five days, involving a visit to Heritage sites of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014. The article reflects the results of the secondary survey of tourists who took part in the pilot tours, presents a table with the results of segmentation of the target audience using the “5W” methodology and the most convenient channels for the transmission of advertising information. which prove a regular increase in the sales trend of tours, dependent on previously studied and listed factors, which ultimately leads to an increase in the number of guaranteed visits Olympic heritage sites by tourists in the post-Olympic period.

Elite Athlete Training in The United States of America

Objectives:The training of elite athletes is a very long and complicated process. The aim of the present study is to examine the training system of elite athletes in the U.S. Methods:Three different paths were followed to collect the information.  First, the web sites of organizations such as U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), National Council of Youth Sports, National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Eligibility Center and Oklahoma State University (OSU) which brings in leading role for sports in their respective fields were accessed and related publications comprehensive database search was conducted in EBSCO HOST Sport Discus, PubMed and Medline. Second, the sports facilities, fields and tools at Oklahoma State University and Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center (CSOTC) were examined. Finally, coaches of the OSU Athletic teams were interviewed. Results:The American college system differs from other countries because college sports in the U.S. are a big business sector; coaches usually have a scholarship budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Scholarships for athletes may range from a minimum of contributions to full scholarship covering tuition fees, housing, meals, and books. USOC maintains and operates three national Olympic Training Centers. The USOC has established 17 Olympic Training Sites in 15 states across the United States. Millions of dollars have been invested in these complexes to ensure that athletes receive the best training in the U.S. Conclusions: In the U.S., there is a systematic structure related to sports, which includes the whole education process from elementary school to the end of a college education. Education and sports are parallel. Schools are the hub of mass sports and elite athletic training. Universities offer the most ideal opportunities for athletes. Universities target and achieve not only the athletic development of the student-athlete but also the well-rounded development of their education.

Atmospheric distribution of organic compounds from urban areas near Olympic games sites in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The hydrocarbon composition of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from urban areas of Rio de Janeiro City were studied to assess different pollution levels. PM samples were acquired using a standard high-volume air sampler (Hi-Vol), extracts were prepared and fractionated into aliphatic and aromatic compounds, and VOC compounds were collected in adsorbent tubes. High-resolution gas chromatography and GC coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to analyze the organic compounds from the PM and VOCs. The results showed that all samples contained n-alkanes, but the distribution was different for each sample, which reflects both biogenic (vascular plant wax input) and fossil fuel contamination sources (vehicular exhaust). Fossil fuel biomarkers, such as hopanes, were observed in all samples, but steranes were not detected in Marina da Gloria. The presence of benzo[a]pyrene was observed, and all measured concentrations were below the upper permissible limit. Benzene was also observed, and the upper limit value (5μg/m3) was exceeded in Jacarepagua (JP) and Maracanã (MC) according to the Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe limit value (EC, 2008). Regarding the Ambient Air Quality Criteria (AAQCs), all analyzed samples had concentration values above the limit of 2.30μg/m3. A decrease in pollution level was observed in the following order: Maracanã (MC), Guadalupe (GP), Jacarepagua (JP), Barra da Tijuca (BT), Vila Militar (VM) and Marina da Gloria (MG).

Seismic risk assessment for the Greater Sochi area

Earthquakes, among other natural phenomena, often cause loss of life and significant economic damage. According to the statistical data of the International Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (www.cred.be), earthquakes are among the leaders in all aspects: the number of fatalities, the number of injured, and the caused economic loss. The widely accepted strategy for reducing the damage and social losses implies preventive measures in high-risk zones identified by mapping with different details. About 5% of RF territory is referred to the areas characterized by a high level of seismic hazard, where earthquakes with intensities I = 8–9 and 9–10 by the MMSK-86 scale may occur. The Caucasus is among the most hazardous and densely populated regions in the country. During the preparation to the 2014 Olympic Games, the individual seismic risk was assessed for the Greater Sochi territory including the Olympic sites. The paper analyzes the results of seismic risk monitoring, obtained in 2007 and 2013.

Public participation, action, and failure: A case study of the 2016 Olympic bid

Hosting mega-events offers cities within the United States an opportunity to gain benefits that are tangible and intangible. The primary objective of this two-year case study was to examine the impact of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid on the surrounding communities of the proposed Olympic sites. The research design of this community-based case study was comprised of interviews, review of reports, document analysis, and field observations of community-based meetings, city council forums, and community-led political actions. The results revealed inconsistencies in the incorporation of participants from the communities most affected by the bid and planning. The primary findings developed a picture of the complexities of issues and abuses of power that prompted gentrification, displacement, and discrimination. The study calls for future research that focuses on issues connected to socio-economic conflict as it relates to the distribution of wealth, power, and access that leisure-related opportunities seemingly create.

The prohibition of political statements by athletes and its consistency with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights: speech is silver, silence is gold?

For years and years, the Olympic Charter, as the “constitution” of the Olympic movement, encompasses a provision that prevents athletes from making political statements and propaganda at the Olympic sites under the threat of disciplinary sanctions. A broad range of acts and statements have as such been banned and/or sanctioned, the scope and nature of political statement being undefined. Although the policy is upheld by the International Olympic Committee as guardian of the Charter, it can seriously be questioned whether this rule is in conformity with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights laying down the right to freedom of expression. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights shows, amongst others, that preventing persons from making critical remarks or from wearing vestimentary symbols in public via excessive sanctions might interfere with their freedom of (political) expression and therefore with Article 10 of the Convention. Whereas it is true that the rights and freedoms of the Convention do not have horizontal direct effect, in the sense that they are directly applicable in private relationships, States are under a positive obligation to safeguard the rights laid down therein, even in relationships between private parties.

Interpreting Tourism at Olympic Sites: A Cross‐cultural Analysis of the Beijing Olympic Green

AbstractAn examination is made of tourism at Olympic sites by reflective analyses of experiences gained at the Beijing Olympic Green. An account of experiences at the site, accompanied by photographs, was analysed through different cultural lenses to reveal distinctive characteristics of the setting and divergent interpretations of tourist behaviour. The findings enhance understanding of the role of Olympic sites as tourist attractions and the importance of photography as part of the tourist experience and as a research tool. The study demonstrates the utility of post‐experience interpretations when informed by relevant theoretical frameworks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

THU0566 The Olympic Legacy - Did the 2012 Olympic Games Inspire a Generation of Rheumatology Patients to Exercise?

BackgroundExercise is of paramount importance for rheumatology patients, but in practice few patients exercise effectively. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games were seen as a catalyst to increase mass...

Scattered sand: the story of China's rural migrants

Each year, 200 million workers from China's vast rural interior travel between cities and provinces in search of employment: the largest human migration in history. This indispensable army of labor accounts for half of China's GDP, but is an unorganized workforce - scattered sand, in Chinese parlance - and the most marginalized and impoverished group of workers in the country. For two years, the award-winning journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai traveled across China visiting laborers on Olympic construction sites, in the coal mines and brick kilns of the Yellow River region, and at the factories of the Pearl River Delta. She witnessed the outcome of the 2009 riots in the Muslim province of xinjiang; saw towns in rubble more than a year after the colossal earthquake in Sichuan; and was reunited with long- lost relatives, estranged since her mother's family fled for Taiwan during the Civil War. Scattered Sand is the result of her travels: a finely wrought portrait of those left behind by China's dramatic social and economic advances.

Non-events and their legacies: Parisian heritage and the Olympics that never were

This paper examines three failed bids by the French Olympic Committee and the City of Paris to host the summer Olympic Games of 1992, 2008 and 2012 in an attempt better to understand the role of heritage designations in the context of urban change. Introducing the various sites earmarked for the Games, the paper explores the relationship between planning as a political tool and its impact on the built environment within the context of a complex web of local, national and international demands, needs and aspirations. Based on archival research, the paper explores the dialectical relationship between the demonstrated ability of city councils to declare designated ‘Olympic’ spaces as functionally ‘ready’ to absorb massive new infrastructures and questions posed by whatever physical infrastructure remains after a bid has failed. Since the timeframe chosen for the paper (1986–2006) coincides with a move by the International Olympic Committee to prioritise ‘sustainable urbanism’ as a key legacy of ‘successful’ Olympic Games, this relationship between presences and absences is mediated not just with the help of possible futures in the form of Olympic sites but has had to validate and justify the choice of terrain as well. The paper concludes with a brief meditation on the relationship between present urban heritage and possible futures in the context of mega-events like the Olympic Games.

The religion in Olympic tourism

Olympic tourism has been likened to pilgrimage [Weed, M. (2008). Olympic tourism. Oxford: Elsevier], and Olympic sites called ‘shrines’ for the ‘pious sport tourist’ [Gammon, 2004]. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, promoted the ‘cult of the human being’ [Ruprecht, L.A. (2008). Greek exercises: The modern Olympics as Hellenic appropriation and reinvention. Thesis eleven, 93, pp. 72–87], which had distinctly religious overtones. Sport may be a functional equivalent of religion in the modern world [Cusack, C.M. (2010). Sport. In R.D. Hecht & V.F. Biondo (Eds.), Religion in everyday life and culture (pp. 915–943). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger], and as a global spectacle, the Olympics perform the ideal of de Coubertin's ‘harmony of nationalisms’ [Moltmann, J. (1989). Olympia between politics and religion. Concilium, 101–109]. This acting out and collective affirmation of humanist principles is civil religion; quasi-religious beliefs and practices connected with citizenship and political community, which here affirm the pre-eminence of the human individual. Olympic tourists celebrate human achievement, and participate in a mediatised mass spectacle of consumerism. Olympic tourism has similar religious significance to other mass-mobility events (the Hajj and the Kumbh Mela), which take on significance for visitors beyond the immediately theological. Yet, the religio-spiritual elements of Olympic tourism have received less attention than other secular pilgrimages (battlefields and the World Cup). We argue Olympic tourism is a quasi-religious pilgrimage that moves participants closer to, and through, a spectacle event upholding certain socio-cultural ideals of the wider project of the affluent, Western culture and identity, embodied in the Olympics.

Chapter 7 - Strategic security planning and the resilient design of Olympic sites

Chapter 7 - Strategic security planning and the resilient design of Olympic sites

The Redevelopment of Olympic Sites: Examining the Legacy of Sydney Olympic Park

This paper examines the redevelopment of the site of Sydney’s 2000 summer Olympics, locating it within debates over the legacy of these events. The paper describes some of the key stakeholders involved in the redevelopment and planning of the site. It provides an overview of the regulatory context and governance bodies that have structured the space since the staging of the Olympics, then identifies two key areas of private-sector involvement, in event space and in business development, where tensions emerged over how the site should best be governed.

THE APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING TO THE PLANNING AND DISPLAYING OF BEIJING OLYMPIC SITES

This paper puts forward some ideas on how to apply the remote sensing to the planning and displaying of Beijing Olympic Sites. A few examples are given: DOM can be used to help the designer and decision maker to plan and select correctly the layout and position of Beijing Olympic sites, the thermal infrared map and land cover map can be utilized to provide the ancillary information for planning the green land, and the technician of 3d Vr can be employed to display the structure of the planned Beijing Olympic sites. The working chart for doing the above jobs is also explained in the paper. The result shows that the application of remote sensing to the planning and displaying of Beijing Olympic Sites has a bright future. 