This study analyzes whether the Olympic Agenda plays a crucial role for the future of the Olympic Games. The authors, 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. 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 may lay less in iconic buildings but rather focus on the attempt to fulfil the city's long-term strategies. The analyses extend the literature by: (1) analysing the Olympic Agenda in view of future Olympic Games, (2) comparing experiences from past Olympic Games with those of current bidders, (3) integrating expert knowledge thanks to qualitative interviews and, finally, (4) considering new heritage concepts.

2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the winter sports week festival celebrated in Chamonix in 1924, which is now recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games. As a globally watched quadrennial mega-event, the Winter Olympics is unique from both summer sport festivals and other winter festivals, such as the Winter X Games. This book explores the impacts, issues, and legacies of the past century of the Olympic Winter Games. Grounded in sport history, the chapters in this volume draw on the disciplines of cultural history, diplomatic history, global history, environmental history, and media history to analyze the continued allure of the Winter Olympics, a century after its origin, and in light of the sustained and significant problems facing the Olympic movement. Host cities’ efforts to create positive and lasting legacies are analyzed to highlight the challenges and complexities that have plagued the Olympic movement throughout the last century. The Olympic Winter Games at 100 is essential reading for any researcher, advanced student or scholar with an interest in Olympic Studies, sports development, sport policy and history. The chapters in this book were published as two special issues in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This handbook offers an important and timely contribution to the interdisciplinary field of Olympic studies. It brings together for the first time in a single volume a complete analysis of current and future economic, commercial, socio-political, cultural and governance challenges facing both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, their athletes and institutions. The book presents new research and broad surveys exploring pressing debates, challenges and possible solutions surrounding the modern Olympic and Paralympic Games, across diverse socioeconomic and political contexts. Featuring chapters written by leading scholars, athletes and administrators from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, the handbook is divided into four main areas: athletes, business, governance and socio-cultural issues within the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Examining key themes, theories and new emerging issues within the field, the book offers expert insights into every major topic related to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, including doping, integrity, athletes’ rights, culture, nationality, sponsorship, branding, governance, sports policy and law, marketing, social media, technology, e-sports, politics, ethics, international relations, legacy and impact. The only up-to-date handbook to reflect the true breadth and depth of this international field of research, the Routledge Handbook of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a landmark publication for all students and scholars of sport studies, as well as those working in sport business, media, event management and administration, economics, marketing, management, politics, Olympic studies and cultural studies. It is also an important resource for sport management practitioners and sports officials.

Sport is both a global business and a vehicle for social inclusion and community development. This book examines key performance areas in sport management that cut across cultural, economic and geographical borders, from both commercial and social justice perspectives. Written by leading sport management and sport development scholars from around the world, the book highlights international management challenges, suggests appropriate management practices, and raises questions to stimulate further debate. From a commercial sport management perspective it explores key topics including the management of sport communication in an age of digital media, crowd funding in sport, managing government and commercial alliances, and managing power and politics in sport. From a social justice perspective, it examines issues including sport volunteer management, the management of sport for inclusion, and academic partnerships in international sport management. Offering an authoritative survey of contemporary international sport management, as well as signposts for future research and practice, this is fascinating reading for all students, researchers and practitioners working in sport management or sport development.

In March 2021, the Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved a new strategic roadmap, Olympic Agenda 2020+5, consisting of 15 recommendations. The title, Olympic Agenda 2020+5, has been chosen to reflect the fact that this new roadmap is the successor to Olympic Agenda 2020 and will guide the work of the IOC until 2025. Olympic Agenda 2020+5 builds on the results of Olympic Agenda 2020, which, in the six years since it was adopted in December 2014, has had a profound impact. It has strengthened the IOC by introducing changes intended to make the Olympic Games fit for the future, safeguard the Olympic values, and strengthen the role of sports in society. The paper aims at analysing how principles contained in the Agenda 2020+5 can redesign a more inclusive model of the Olympic Games, with respect to all the stakeholders.

Hosting the Olympic Games: Uncertainty, Debates and Controversy provides a broad and comprehensive analysis of past Olympic and Paralympic events, shedding critical light on the future of the Games with a specific look at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. It draws attention to the debates and paradox that hosting the Games presents for the contemporary city. Employing a range of interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches, individual chapters highlight the various controversies of the Games throughout the bidding process, the event itself and its aftermath. Social Science-based chapters place strong emphasis on the vital importance of sustainable strategy for contemporary host cities. Along with environmental concerns whether atmospheric, microbiological or otherwise, many other requirements, costs and risks involving security and public expenditure among others are explored throughout the book. Including a variety of international and comparative case studies from a range of contributing academics, this will be essential reading for students and researchers in the field of Event studies as well as various disciplines including Tourism, Heritage studies and Urban and Environmental studies.

This article examines the Olympic Agenda 2020 forty recommendations through the lens of critical policy analysis. Specifically, the authors use Strittmatter et al.'s framework of legitimation strategies in policy formulation and implementation to investigate the ways in which the use of sustainability and legacy terminology is employed in the process of legitimating the IOC today. Findings demonstrate two general legitimation strategies. One is the familiar framing of the Olympic Games in terms of sustainability and legacy with a new emphasis on the Games as an opportunity to integrate cities' long-term planning needs into bidding and hosting the event. The second focus asserts the Olympic Movement's global leadership role in sport in the context of sport itself being depicted as a leading social institution in making meaningful social change. In this paper, the authors detail these legitimation strategies and offer commentary related to the need for the IOC to use this policy reform process to move beyond rhetoric alone to embed meaningful and measurable accountability standards in the hosting process.