The governance of the Olympic Games in Canada

Abstract

The governance of the Olympic Games is a complex, multi-level and multijurisdictional endeavour. Taking as a starting point the key partners’ governance network in place for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Winter Games, this paper explores the development of the structures and processes, as well as the institutional and procedural dimensions that have shaped the resulting governance network in place of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Findings highlight five key parts of the Canadian approach to governing the Olympic Games – and other major sports events – namely, Canada-wide planned and coordinated stakeholder engagement, appropriate leadership, organizing committee structure flexibility, knowledge seeking and dissemination and a willingness to innovate. The paper also explores lessons learned and best practices, which have become contributions of the event to the Canadian major sport event landscape as well as the broader Olympic Movement.

Acknowledgements

The author would also like to thank Christian Rouillard, Benoit Séguin, Jean-Loup Chappelet and François Rocher, as well as the many graduate students for their assistance during this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.