Olympics | Pros, Cons, Debate, Arguments, Sporting
Events, & Host Cities
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Olympic Games The Olympic flag and
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Olympics
Are the Olympic Games Worth the Cost to Their Host Countries and Cities?
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Last Updated: May 7, 2025 • Article History
The Olympic Games were first held in Olympia, Greece, in 776 bce as a religious festival
to honor Zeus. The first Olympic Stadium was in an area thought to have been cleared
when Zeus hurled down a lightning bolt. When not in use as a stadium for the Games the
area (which never contained an actual building) was a wheat field. [1][33][34]
The early games included sports for male athletes only such as pankration (a
combination of boxing and wrestling with only two rules: no biting and no gouging), along
with boxing, chariot racing, running, wrestling, and field events. [51]
1/10
What is the history of the Olympics? The first
Olympic Games consisted of a singular event: a footrace.
Paul Christesen, professor of ancient Greek history at Dartmouth College, explains, “It is
hard for us to exaggerate how important the Olympics were for the Greeks. The classic
example is that when the Persians invaded Greece in the summer of 480 (bce) a lot of
the Greek city states agreed that they would put together an allied army but they had a
very hard time getting one together because so many people wanted to go to the
Olympics. So, they actually had to delay putting the army together to defend the country
against the Persians.” [51]
The Games occurred every four years for 1,168 years from 776 bce to 393 ce, when they
were ended by Emperor Theodosius I. [35]
A French nobleman, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the Games after becoming interested in
physical education. The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in Apr. 1896
and included 241 athletes from 14 countries competing in 43 events. [36][52]
The Games have been held since, with five canceled due to the world wars. The first
modern Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Beginning with
the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994, Games were held every two years, alternating
between summer and winter. [33][37][38]
The 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan, were originally scheduled to begin on July 24
but were postponed due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) concerns to July 23 through Aug. 8,
2021, and were still referred to as Tokyo 2020. The Games were closed to foreign and
domestic spectators and played under a COVID-19 state of emergency. The 2020 Games
were the first time the Olympics were rescheduled in peacetime. Despite the delay, the
2020 Games debuted four new sports: karate, skateboard, sports climbing, and surfing.
Baseball and softball returned for the first time since Beijing 2008. [54][55] [56][57][58][63]
On Dec. 6, 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced a diplomatic
boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics: “The Biden administration will not send any
diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
and Paralympic games given [China’s] ongoing genocide and crimes against
humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.” Australia, Canada, Lithuania, and
the United Kingdom also announced diplomatic boycotts. [64][65]
2/10
The Beijing 2022 Winter Games debuted seven new sports: freestyle skiing: mixed team
aerials; freestyle skiing: men’s big air; freestyle skiing: women’s big air; short-track speed
skating: mixed team relay; ski jumping: mixed team event; snowboarding: mixed team
snowboard cross; and bobsled: women’s monobob. [66]
Breaking (break dancing) and kayak cross debuted at the 2024 Paris Summer Games,
which included a total of 363 medal events in 45 sports. [68]
Cricket, squash, flag football, lacrosse, and baseball-softball will debut in Los Angeles, for
the 2028 Summer Games.
The host cities for five future Games have been announced: Milan and Cortina
d’Ampezzo Winter 2026, Los Angeles Summer 2028, the French Alps Winter
2030, Brisbane Summer 2032, and Salt Lake City Winter 2034. [1][2][62][69]
Pros and Cons at a Glance
PROS CONS
Pro 1: The Olympics increase Con 1: The Olympics are a financial drain on
valuable tourism, which can boost host cities. Read More.
local economies. Read More.
Pro 2: The Olympics increase a host Con 2: The Olympics force host cities to create
country’s global trade and stature. expensive infrastructure and buildings that fall
Read More. into disuse. Read More.
Pro 3: The Olympics create a sense Con 3: The Olympics displace and burden
of national pride. Read More. residents of the host country and city. Read
More.
Pro Arguments (Go to Con Arguments)
Pro 1: The Olympics increase valuable tourism, which can boost
local economies.
The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games had a global audience of five billion with the
Games broadcast in 200 countries. More than 56% of foreign visitors to Brazil for the
2016 Games were new visitors and Brazil set tourism records with 6.6 million foreign
tourists and $6.2 billion dollars. [3][4][5]
England welcomed more than one visitor every second in June 2013 after the 2012
London Summer Olympics, a 12% increase over 2012. Those tourists also spent more:
$2.57 billion in June (a 13% increase) and $12.1 billion in the first half of 2013. [6]
3/10
The 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang reported a $55 million surplus that was used for
the benefit of sport in the host country, South Korea. The 1992 Barcelona Summer
Olympics made a profit, helping to revitalize the city and transform it from an “industrial
backwater” into the third best city in Europe, according to Travel + Leisure magazine. [7]
[8][9][59]
The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles netted the city a $215 million operating
surplus and $289 million in broadcasting fees. The Olympics brought a record 43.2 million
tourists to Los Angeles County that year, an increase of 9.3% over 1983. [10][50]
Pro 2: The Olympics increase a host country’s global trade and
stature.
Host countries tend to be invited to prestigious global economic organizations. According
to economics professors Robert A. Baade and Victor A. Matheson, “The very act of
bidding [for the Games] serves as a credible signal that a country is committing itself to
trade liberalization that will permanently increase trade flows.” [9]
China negotiated with the World Trade Organization, opening trade for the country, after
being awarded the Beijing 2008 Summer Games. Korea’s political liberalization coincided
with winning the bid for the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. The 1968 Summer Olympics
allowed Mexico to make “the leap into the ranks of industrialized nations,” according to
David Goldblatt, sociologist and sports writer. The 1964 Tokyo Summer Games led to
Japan’s entry into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the OECD. After a
successful 1955 bid for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy joined the United
Nations and began the Messina negotiations that led to the creation of the European
Economic Community (EEC), and Spain joined the EEC within a year of the 1986
Barcelona Summer Olympics. [14][15]
One economic study found that “The Olympic effect is robust; hosting the games tends to
increase a country’s openness substantively and permanently.” [14]
Pro 3: The Olympics create a sense of national pride.
According to a global poll, a majority of people in 18 of 21 countries stated their country’s
performance at the Olympics was “important to their national pride,” including 91% of
Kenyans, 86% of Filipinos, and 84% of Turks. [11]
Lee Ji-seol, who lives in Pyeongchang, said that fellow residents celebrated their
selection as the 2018 Winter Games host city: “The entire town was out dancing.” [53]
Roger Bannister, the first person to run a mile in under four minutes and a 1952 Helsinki
Olympian, says of his country’s performance at the 2012 London Summer Games: “Team
G[reat] B[ritain]’s heroic success seems to have reawoken in us our sense of national
pride…a realisation perhaps that, as a people, we have the ability, the drive and the
determination to be great.” [12]
4/10
Moorad Choudhry, treasurer of the Corporate Banking Division of the Royal Bank of
Scotland, says, “A genuine feel-good factor [of hosting the Olympics] can be very positive
for the economy, not just in terms of higher spending but also in productivity at work,
which in turn boosts output.” [13]
Con Arguments (Go to Pro Arguments)
Con 1: The Olympics are a financial drain on host cities.
No Olympic Games since 1960 has come in under budget. [16]
Bent Flyvbjerg and Allison Stewart, both at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business
School, say, “In the Games the budget is more like a fictitious minimum that is
consistently overspent.” Jadrian Wooten, a professor at Virginia Tech, said, “while
proponents usually just pitch the Olympics as an economic investment, it more closely
resembles a really expensive party,”[17][70]
The delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Games were already the most expensive Olympics in
history, running at 200% over budget on Sep. 7, 2020 though not scheduled to begin until
July 2021. Tokyo forecast $7.3 billion in their 2013 bid, but the actual cost was estimated
to be $15.84 billion in Sep. 2020, with costs continuing to rise. A Jan. 2021 study found
that losing foreign spectators because of COVID-19 restrictions could cost Japan as
much as $23 billion. [60][61]
Each host city is responsible for these cost overruns, in addition to their original budgets.
The average cost overrun for host cities from 1968 to 2010 was 252% for the Summer
Olympics and 135% for the Winter, with the 1976 Montreal Summer Games running over
the most by 796%. Montreal’s 1976 cost overrun took 30 years to pay off, and the people
of Quebec still pay $17 million a year to maintain Olympic Stadium, which is still without a
roof more than 40 years later and also needs $300 million worth of repairs. [17][18][19]
The 2014 Sochi Games ran between $39 and $58 billion over the $12 billion budget, an
amount that is more than was spent on all previous Winter Olympic Games. [20] The
2004 Athens Summer Games’ 60% overrun worsened the 2007–12 Greek financial
crisis. [17][21][22]
Con 2: The Olympics force host cities to create expensive
infrastructure and buildings that fall into disuse.
“Host cities are often left with specialized sports infrastructure that has little use beyond
the Games” and that the cities must maintain at great expense, according to economics
professors Robert A. Baade and Victor A. Matheson. [9]
5/10
Many Olympic venues worldwide sit empty, rusted, overgrown with weeds, covered with
graffiti, and filled with polluted water. The $78 million Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang
for the 2018 Winter Games was set for demolition before the 2018 Games even began. In
Rio de Janeiro, the $700 million athletes village for the 2016 Games was turned into
luxury apartments that are now “shuttered,” and the Olympic Park is “basically vacant”
after failing to attract a buyer. Beijing’s 2008 Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium costs the city
$11 million a year to maintain, and the stadium that seats 91,000 mostly sits unused.
Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Stadium was demolished in 2019 in favor of a smaller, more
useful venue. [23][24][25][26][27][28]
Sofia Sakorafa, Greece member of parliament and former Olympian, says of the 2004
Athens Games venues, “We are left with installations that are rotting away because we
don’t even have the money to maintain them. A lot of entrepreneurs and property
developers got rich very quickly.” [29]
Con 3: The Olympics displace and burden residents of the host
country and city.
Lee Do-sung, a local restaurant owner, expressed concern about the 2018 Pyeongchang
Winter Games, “What good will a nicely managed global event really do for residents
when we are struggling so much to make ends meet? What will the games even leave?
Maybe only debt.” [32]
Residents near Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Stadium, whose homes were set to be
demolished, were forcibly removed in a “bloody confrontation between police and
residents” that reportedly involved the use of rubber bullets and percussion
grenades. [31]
“To make way for Beijing’s 2008 Olympic infrastructure, an estimated 1.5m[illion] people
were forcibly evicted from their homes with minimal compensation. The neighborhoods
were destroyed and residents removed to the outskirts of the city far from friends, family
and places of work,” according to Bryan C. Clift and Andrew Manley, lecturers at the
University of Bath. [30]
Eric Sheehan, a member of a Los Angeles group called NOlympics LA, said, “We don’t
believe that any increased economic output justifies putting anyone at risk of
displacement, exploitation or criminalization.” [70]
1-minute Survey
After reading this debate, take our quick survey to see how this information affected your
opinion of this topic. We appreciate your feedback.
Discussion Questions
6/10
1. Would your city (or a nearby larger city) benefit from hosting the Olympic Games?
Why or why not?
2. What should happen with the Olympic sports facilities after the games are over?
Explain your answer(s).
3. How should international events such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic
impact the games? Explain your answer(s).
Take Action
1. Consider “7 Ways Hosting the Olympics Impacts a City,” at Encyclopædia
Britannica.
2. Explore the official Olympic Games site.
3. Learn about the history of the Olympics, partially written by Harold Maurice
Abrahams, subject of the Academy Award winning film Chariots of Fire.
4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the
pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three
ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better
understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your
position.
5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing U.S.
senators and representatives.
Sources
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Journey to Games,” olympic.org, Dec. 11, 2019
3. Christina Settimi, “The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics: By the Numbers,” forbes.com,
Aug. 5, 2016
4. Greg Oates, “Brazil Tourism President on the Aftermath of Rio’s Olympic Games,”
skift.com, Aug. 24, 2016
5. Olympic Games, “Rio Unveils Wall of Champions as Brazil Reveals Record Tourist
Boost from 2016 Games,” olympic.org, Jan. 11, 2017
6. Nathalie Thomas, “UK Tourism Hits Record 12 Months after Olympics,”
telegraph.co.uk, Aug. 15, 2013
7. Adam Taylor, “How the Olympic Games Changed Barcelona Forever,”
businessinsider.com, July 26, 2017
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the Olympics,” aaeweb.org, Spring 2016
10. James McBride, “The Economics of Hosting the Olympic Games,” cfr.org, July 20,
2016
7/10
11. Jane Mower, “London 2012: Olympic Success Is Key to National Pride,” bbc.com,
Jan. 1, 2012
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as if the Golden Age of My Youth Had Never Gone Away,” dailymail.co.uk, Aug. 13,
2012
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2012
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8/10
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sunshinecoastdaily.com, Dec. 23, 2017
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21, 2017
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9/10
57. Motoko Rich, Andrew Keh, and Matthew Futterman, “Tokyo Olympics Playbook:
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nytimes.com, August 12, 2024
10/10
