The Legacy of the Olympic Games: A Review

Abstract

Much has been written about the legacies of Olympic Games but there have been little efforts to synthesize current knowledge. This has led to inconsistencies in defining, contextualising and measuring these legacies. The literature review described in this paper provides an overview over research on the legacy of the Olympic Games from 1908 to 2016 that was published in peer-reviewed journals between 1984 and 2017. The analysis reveals a significant increase of literature dealing with Olympic legacy since 2008. It turns out that considerably more studies relate to the legacy of Summer Olympic Games than of Winter Games. Regarding the six different facets of legacy of the framework that was employed, ‘urban development’ and ‘beliefs and behaviour’ have been scrutinized much more often than the other four. Regarding the methodologies used in legacy studies there is a dominance of commentary articles and a lack of adequate empirical research. This leads to a number of implications for future studies, which are discussed in the paper.

回顾：奥运遗产

关于奥运遗产已有很多人写过了, 但却很少有人将当今的相关知识整合起来。这导致这些遗产在定义﹑背景化和衡量方面存在着不一。本论文中的文献综述对1908年至2016年间的奥运会遗产的研究进行概述, 该研究发表于1984年至2017年期间的同行评审期刊上。分析显示, 自2008年以来, 有关奥运遗产的文献数量显著增加。事实证明, 相比冬奥会而言, 有更多的研究涉及夏季奥运会。关于所采用的框架中遗产的六个不同方面, “城市发展”和“信仰与行为”比其他四个方面被检验的更多。关于遗产研究中使用到的方法学, 评论性的文章占据了主导, 并缺乏充分的实证研究。这对于未来研究产生的诸多影响会在论文中进行讨论。

Keywords:

• Olympic Games
• facets of legacy
• impact
• mega-events
• literature review

关键词:

• 奥林匹克运动会
• 遗产方面
• 影响
• 特大事件
• 文献综述

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Total is greater than 100% due to some studies targeting Summer and Winter Games.

2 Total greater than 100% due to some papers dealing with multiple facets.

3 Total smaller than number of empirical papers since not every empirical publications aims at measuring legacy.

4 Example: If data collection started 12 months prior to the event and lasted 6 months, it was included as 9 months prior to the event.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anja Scheu

Anja Scheu is a Ph.D. student and a research assistant at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Her primary research interests are related to the socio economic impacts from mega sport events as well as the connection between mega sport-events and society.

Holger Preuß

Holger Preuß is a Professor of Sport Economics and Sport Sociology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. He also holds professorial appointments in Molde, Norway and Ottawa, Canada. He is a founding partner of MESGO (Master of European Sport Governance) and has worked with and for many national and international sport federations. His research expertise is focused on the governance and organization of mega sport events as well as to their economic and social impacts.

Thomas Könecke

Thomas Könecke is an assistant professor for sport management at KU Leuven, Belgium. Apart from sports and events, his research interests cover a broad range of topics from management, the social sciences, and economics.