The Olympic Games are a set of international sports competitions that occur every four years for winter and spring sports, or every two years overall. Each competition is held in a different city in a different country, with the potential possibility to repeat a location. As the world economy and tourism expanded in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, there has been some debate as to whether the Olympics is an overall good or bad experience for a host country.
The Olympic Games are an overall good for their host city
The Olympic Games stand for both international camaraderie and competition. To be a host is to step into the international spotlight in a favorable way and present the best of one’s city and country. It is a phenomenal opportunity for host countries, cities, and citizens to announce to the international community that their city is a place ripe for appreciation. The Olympics Games can stoke the local economy, increase prestige, and even benefit communities long after they are over.
The Olympics are an excellent tourism opportunity
Tourism brought by the Games creates an influx of visitors during a host year and often maintains a trickle-down effect in the years to come.
Hosting the Olympic Games is a phenomenal opportunity to announce to the international community that a country is prepared for increased participation on a global scale as well as the scrutiny that accompanies it.
The Olympics provide motivation for cities to address longstanding concerns
The strict deadline and timeline of hosting the games may motivate cities and countries to tackle longstanding concerns to improve the quality of life for citizens.
The Olympic Games are an overall bad for their host city
The Olympic Games are an antiquated form of international competition that comes with imagined prestige for the hosts. The sheer scale of construction required to host the Olympics Games can overwhelm an unprepared economy, as well as cause damage to already vulnerable citizens. While hosting the games can bring a city and country into the international eye, the intangible alleged benefits are doing so are vastly outweighed by the literal, negative, and concrete impacts on a city.
Olympics debts can plague a city for decades
Disastrous for both international reputation and individual citizens, the economic burden created by hosting the Olympic Games is simply not worth any imaginable prestige.
While they may seem incredible for the weeks that a site is used, more often, “host cities are often left with specialized sports infrastructure that has little use beyond the Games” with cities forced to bear the brunt of maintaining them.
Already vulnerable populations are pushed further aside to fund the Olympic Games
There are numerous examples of cities and countries thrusting their own citizens aside to make way for the international competitors and visitors the Olympic Games surely bring.
