Today, Friday, August 5, marks the start of the Summer Olympics in Brazil, but it could also mark the start of a huge health crisis for athletes, visitors, and locals.
This is the 31st modern Olympics counting from the 1896 relaunch of international sporting competitions in the spirit of the ancient Greek games of Olympia played more than 8,000 years ago. Every four years, with only three exceptions in times of war, the modern games have jumped around from city to city around the world, allowing different cities to play host to thousands of athletes from over 200 hundred countries. Its sister Winter Olympic Games, held every four years since 1932, occur on even years between the summer games.
The Rio 2016 Games, as they are called, seem to have been plagued with problems from the moment the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced its decision in 2009 to grant the event to Rio. Rumors of corruption in the awarding of contracts to build Olympic venues, the struggling finances of Brazil, high crime rates, the Zika virus, and unchecked pollution in the waters where athletes will compete have all caused serious concerns for event organizers, visitors, and athletes, too.
The process to select the host cities has been criticized in the past for corruption that took place in the selection of several host cities; Nagano, Japan for the 1998 Winter Olympics; Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics; and Tokyo’s selection for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Proof of gifts, trips, cash, and sometimes even prostitutes given to voting members of the IOC brought major changes to the host city selection process that seem to have eliminated the corruption.
But the overall concept of alternating locations may be what is causing most of the headaches for the IOC and host cities. After the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, the venue was changed to Paris to satisfy the organizer of the modern Olympics, Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin. The change set the precedent of alternating venues every four years, and that tradition has continued to this day.
As the games have grown, though, the costs and burden to host the games have grown exponentially, costing host cities billions of dollars, with the highest so far having been the $22 billion spent by Russia to host the 2012 Sochi Winter Games.
Construction of sports venues, housing, transportation systems, and other infrastructure takes years of planning and building before the games, and a legacy of under-utilized or even unused venues remaining years after the games.
The fight among cities to host the Olympics may seem like an investment or even a gamble to promote a city to a worldwide audience, but studies have shown that realizing a return on investment may be harder than winning a gold medal.
A review of past host cities has shown that the investments made to deliver the games have rarely resulted in enough increased revenues to offset the expenditures. Canada has just recently broken even on the $1.6 billion it spent to host the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The estimated $15 billion that Rio has spent to host this year’s games may never be recovered.
And even worse than the financial impact, the human toll may be even greater. It is estimated that over the past 20 summer games, more than 20 million people have been displaced or dislocated to make room for the games. In the lead up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, more than 30,000 residents – mostly African-Americans – were displaced to make room for new sports venues. In Beijing, more than 1.3 million people were displaced for the 2008 games.
Maybe it is time to improve the overall impact of the Olympics by eliminating the selection process, reducing wasteful spending on redundant infrastructure, and improving the overall experience for athletes and spectators by holding the games in the same location each time.
The ancient games were held in Athens for nearly 800 years, which eliminated all of the problems that burden the modern games. The Olympics have become a boon for construction companies and TV advertisers, but not so much for host cities.
And eliminating the competition among cities for hosting will refocus the emphasis on the competition that should really matter; the goodwill created through international sports competition among the countries of the world.
Whether its Athens, Geneva, London, New York, Shanghai, Dubai, or another city, a set location for the Olympics may prove to be the smartest investment of the modern era of sports.
For now, enjoy the Games. Good luck to all the athletes. Fingers crossed for Rio. Tchau!