The Olympic legacy: Will Beijing succeed where others failed? (original) (raw)

Legacy Creation Strategy in Olympic Cities: The path towardssustainable development?

Mega-event strategies and their impact on the development of host cities have drawn increasing interest as they have become part of wider city development strategies. However, many city leaders are challenged by a gigantic and complex task after the events: how to deal with the post-use of large event venues and facilities? How to use the events as a catalyst to facilitate urban development? Mega-event strategies may provide a stimulus for wider urban investments and change. They help to provide host cities an engine for economic growth, facilitating city revitalisation and even urban physical restructuring, enhancing city image, and transforming a city into a globally competitive city. Whereas every host city expects to experience some form of short- and long term impact, the so-called ‘legacy’, it is however difficult for most host city organisers to think beyond the Games in any systematic fashion due to the pressing nature and planning complexities involved. Therefore, although the post-Games period is by far the longest period that stretches for decades after the Games to affect a host city, it is “clearly the least-planned period”. Due to time pressure, poor consideration of the long-term impact may make Olympic venues ‘white elephants’ after the Games have taken place, isolated in their city landscapes. These possible negative impacts raise the following questions: 1) what strategies can help a host city improve post-event usage of event-related facilities? 2) What strategies should a host city follow to facilitate post-event development in a more sustainable way? Based on the examination of legacy creation strategy of a number of Olympic host cities, with Beijing and London in particular, the research aims to identify what urban strategies lead to the improvement of the post-event usage of event-related facilities and long-term benefits for the city development of host city.

Sport Participation Legacy and the Olympic Games: The Case of Sydney 2000, London 2012, and Rio 2016

Event Management

Sport participation as a legacy of the Olympic Games (OG) has frequently featured as a component of the "legacy package" that government bodies and organizing committees promote to the local communities to gain support for the hosting of these mega-events. However, only recently increased sport participation has been explicitly included as part of a legacy plan in OG candidature files. This article examines the changes and development of sport legacy planning and implementation from Sydney 2000, London 2012, and Rio 2016. The three case studies confirm that sport participation legacies are only achieved if host governments engage the community, develop long-term strategies, and coordinate efforts between different government portfolios and with a range of relevant stakeholders. So far, there is limited evidence available to demonstrate that relevant government bodies have attempted to strategically leverage the Games with the purpose of developing a sport participation leg...

Olympics legacy: The London Olympics 2012 by Gülşen Güler and Robert Holden

ITU (Istanbul Technical University) Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 2010

"The reasons for proposing a London 2012 bid are outlined in the light of London city planning over the past sixty years. The processes influencing the bid for the London 2012 Olympics are investigated in respect of the lessons from Barcelona and Sydney. The role of environmental and landscape improvement is examined and the importance of legacy is described and analysed. The cost of Olympiads since Sydney 2000 are described and compared. Then progress of the London 2012 Olympics development is described relative to regeneration of East London. Finally the effects of current proposals to cut back the costs of the 2012 Olympics are considered. Olympic Games play significant roles in host city’s economy as well as other outcomes such as tourism, culture, unemployment, infrastructure. However the economy can never describe the whole picture of Olympic Games’ gainnings, it is one of the most significant sign before, during and after the event. All of the expenditures have different values at different legacy levels. Although post election budget cut-backs in the United Kingdom have placed a question mark on the costs; the proposed urban legacy is to make the city beautiful and London East End livable."

THE 2012 LONDON GAMES: CAN OLYMPIC LEGACIES BE SUSTAINABLE

Mega-events, from the Olympics to the World Cups, are often regarded as catalysts for the overall redevelopment of a city. Mega-events have driven the urban transformation of cities like Barcelona or Beijing, but while the prospect of economic growth is the leading force for hosting them, the legacies that follow their staging, especially regarding sustainable development, are difficult to design and quantify. The research draws an investigation into the impact of mega sports events on the built environment, focusing on the analysis of the 2012 London Olympic Games. The aim of this study is to assess of the real legacies of the 2012 Olympics in London in terms of sustainable urbanism, with particular regard to the public open spaces created (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Olympic Village). The case of London was selected, among other Olympic cities, because the British capital was the first Olympic city with a comprehensive legacy plan and a sustainability strategy already in execution before the hosting of the Games. Moreover, the case of London offers a wide variety of legacies that can be analysed. Future research will focus on the development of a comprehensive framework for appraising legacies of mega sports events, focusing on their long-term self-sustained impacts, which means an analysis of the economic, social, environmental, but cultural and governance-related legacies.