The Olympics Aren’t Working: How Can We Fix Them?

Opinion by Brian Huynh. This piece is part of Behind the Game, a series by Alexander Stoney on the intersection of sports and public policy.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be taking place starting July 23, 2021. With over 86 per cent of people in Japan fearing an increase in COVID-19 cases due to the games, many have questioned whether this decision is wise and whether the Olympics should be cancelled, but Japan cannot feasibly cancel the Olympic games by itself.

The contract signed by the City of Tokyo, the Japanese Olympic Committee, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2013 only allows the IOC to terminate the contract, thereby cancelling the Olympics [1]. This right is not given to the Japanese government and the cancellation of the Games would open the government to legal and financial liabilities stemming from the Games’ cancellation.

The only realistic solutions are either the games proceed or “Japan pulling the plug jointly with the IOC, staying within the framework of their contract” [2]. The IOC has maintained their position that the Olympics are happening, no matter the COVID situation in Japan or around the world (CBC). Japan isn’t any more eager to cancel the games.

While cancelling the games due to health risks posed by the pandemic is possible and Japan has insurance that would cover event expenses, insurance would not cover the billions of dollars that Japan has already invested in infrastructure upgrades and construction. The one-year delay alone has added an additional $2.8 billion US to the games’ ballooning $15.4 billion US budget [3].

The IOC has already stated that there will be no more delays [4]. If the Olympics don’t proceed as planned on July 23, the 2020 Olympics will be cancelled. It seems in an effort to recoup some of their investment, Japan will allow the games to proceed despite the risks.

There’s little left to discuss about the 2020 Olympics; the Japanese government’s decisions are set in stone. The games will happen, the athletes are arriving as of the writing of this article, the athletes will compete, there will likely be COVID spread and potentially the development of an “Olympic-variant” of COVID, as Ueyama Naoto, head of the Japanese Doctors Union, warned [5].

Economists at the Bank of Japan had once theorized in 2016 that the games could “be expected to have positive effects on the Japanese economy,” [6]. It is now clear that even if the games are successful, Japan will not recoup their investment in the games. But even prior to the pandemic, these Olympics were the most expensive Summer Olympics in the modern era. How did Japan end up in this situation?

The difficult situation Japan finds itself in should give us pause and it provides us with the perfect opportunity to rethink the Olympic games.

The ballooning costs of the Olympics aren’t surprising, in fact, they’re quite predictable. Bent Flyvbjerg, Alexander Budzier, and Daniel Lunn of Oxford University identified this phenomenon. “Every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, at an average of 172 percent in real terms, the highest overrun on record for any type of megaproject” [7].

They identify some of the reasons. One of the reasons they identify is Eternal Beginner Syndrome. Since the Olympics moves from nation-to-nation, each nation must pick up the torch without any prior experience in delivering a project of this kind. This leads to more mistakes, poor planning, and inexperienced leaders and managers. Ultimately, this results in cost overruns and delays [8].

Another reason is the long planning horizon of the Olympics which is usually equivalent to one average business cycle. Cities “typically bid for the Games when the economy is thriving, with the consequence that more often than not the business cycle has reversed to lower growth when the opening date arrives seven to eleven years later,” [9].

Not all of the negative consequences are economic in nature.

The Olympics often highlight and exacerbate the powerlessness of the poor and racialized. Seth Gustafson, now a professor at University College London, has shown that “in the six years immediately preceding the 1996 Olympic Games, the city of Atlanta displaced many Atlantans from neighborhoods and public housing, while illegally arresting thousands more, thus moving many of the homeless to the city jail” [10]. During the 2016 Rio Olympics, investments that were intended to remake the city instead went towards wealthy corporations while favelas, slums, were hidden from the view of athletes and dignitaries travelling on major highways by tall barrier walls [11].

The games also wreak environmental havoc. Every Olympic games in the past 30 years has been exposed to environmental criticisms for deforestation, illegal dumping, or mass construction projects [12].

There are very clear problems with the current Olympic system. But the Olympics can be a societal positive. The Olympics can act as a policy window for large-scale infrastructure and developmental projects that would otherwise be ignored.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics converted an abandoned industrial area into the Olympic Village. After the games, the Village was converted into 1100 living units [13].

The 2012 London Olympics saw similar development with the creation of the Olympic Village on industrial wastelands that were converted to form East Village following the Olympic games [14].

The symbolic nature of the Olympics isn’t to be scoffed at either.

The vision of an international competition of the world’s greatest athletes where each is measured by their mental and physical ability alone with no consideration for nationality, class, race, or creed is an encapsulation of the liberal, metropolitan worldview that has shaped the current world order.

The symbolic value of national success at the world’s premiere competition is also of real value. National pride through athletic success is important for governments. To a degree, it is a facet of soft power. If it were of little value, nations like Canada, China, and the United States would not invest hundreds of millions into high-performance athletics programs, like Canada’s Own the Podium, with the explicit desire to win more medals [15].

So, what other options should be considered?

Some have argued that the Summer Olympics should be returned to their ancient birthplace and should permanently be held in Greece [16]. This would end the shady process by which Olympics are awarded by the IOC, allow permanent Olympic-dedicated infrastructure to be constructed, and provide an economic backbone to the Greek economy.

Some have argued that the burden of the games can be alleviated by shifting the boundaries of the games beyond one city.

China’s 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is following this model with events clustered in Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou. Zhangjiakou is a three-hour drive from Beijing [17].

Germany’s proposal is similar. Its 2032 Summer Olympics bid is set in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region which encompasses 13 cities over an area that’s more than 150 km from end-to-end [18]. Most events will be occurring where infrastructure already exists. This substantially lowers costs and provides greater flexibility for contingencies.

Additionally, some have argued for Olympic contracts with longer terms. Instead of awarding each city one Olympics, each city could be awarded several Olympics in a row. This would encourage bidders to sustainably develop their bids as the games would be reoccurring.

The solutions are myriad, and the options listed don’t begin to cover the ways in which the IOC and National Olympic Committees could be reformed to increase effectiveness and financial transparency, but the current Olympics system is untenable and there must be a solution if the games are to continue.

1. Illmer, A. (2021, May 15). “Tokyo Olympics: Why doesn’t Japan cancel the Games?” BBC News.

2. Ibid.

3. Wade, S. (2020, Dec 22). “Official costs of Tokyo Olympics up by 22% to $15.4 billion,” AP.

4. Illmer, A. (2021, May 15). “Tokyo Olympics: Why doesn’t Japan cancel the Games?” BBC News.

5. Sripala, T. (2021, June 3). “Will the Tokyo Olympics Go Ahead?” The Diplomat.

6. Osada, M., Ojima, M., Kurachi, Y., Miura, K. & Kawamoto, T. (2016). "Economic Impact of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” Bank of Japan Reports & Research Papers.

7. Flyvbjerg, B., Budzier, A. & Lunn, D. (2020). "Regression to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up,” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Gustafson, S. (2013). “Displacement and the Racial State in Olympic Atlanta: 1990-1996),” Southeastern Geographer, 53(2).

11. Cuadros, A. (2016). “The Broken Promise of the Rio Olympics,” The Atlantic.

12. DW. (2018). “The environmental impact of the Olympics.” DW.

13. Chan, K. (2020, Feb 11). “Then and now: Lasting physical legacies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics,” Daily Hive.

14. Minor, L. T. (2011, Oct 20). “London 2012: The Infrastructure of Olympic Park,” Buildipedia.

15. Mirtle, J. (2012, Aug 2). “How Own the Podium changed everything for Canda’s Olympic athletes,” The Globe and Mail.

16. Vanstone, A. (2016, Aug 12). “We should give the Olympics back to Greece, permanently,” The Sydney Morning Herald.

17. Xie, S. (2021, Jul 6). “2022 Winter Olympics Locations and Venues,” China Highlights.

18. Australian Associated Press. (2021, Feb 26). “German officials bemoan ‘non-transparency’ of 2032 Olympics bid selection,” The Guardian.