COVID-19, sustainability and Olympic Games: which lessons can we learn from Tokyo 2020?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to understand how the sustainability theme has been incorporated into the new Olympic planning guidelines based on analysing the case of Tokyo (2020), which was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachFor this, field research using the case study method was carried out that involved 21 in-depth interviews with experts from different entities affected by the event.FindingsAs a result, it was possible to identify that some characteristics already presented in the Tokyo project came to break away from the gigantism observed in the past Olympic editions in an attempt to demonstrate alignment with the new principles brought by the IOC (2020) and 2020 + 5 Agenda that had as one of its main objectives to simplify the Olympics, making the event more sustainable and accessible for future host societies.Originality/valueAt the end, some trends for the future of the Olympic Games are also presented in order to guide future studies in the area, as well as help the future host cities and their companies in planning their investments.

Necessity and challenges for the post-pandemic Hangzhou Asian Games: An interdisciplinary data science assessment

“…In recent years, the rise of big data has led to the emergence of a new trend in Olympic data science research: multi-source and interdisciplinary. The joint analyses of Olympic data and social-economic data (Bernard and Busse, 2004 ; Forrest et al, 2010 ; Scelles et al, 2020 ), socio-demographic data (Smith et al, 2015 ; Guo et al, 2022 ), and even Google Trends data (Bauman et al, 2021 ) have provided quantitative bases for policy-making around elite sport, public economics, and public health throughout the Olympic bidding, preparing, and legacy managing (World Health Organization, 2010 ; Lee and Kim, 2013 ; Preuss, 2022 ; Russo et al, 2022 ), and have eventually deepened the integration between sport science and other disciplines such as econometrics, psychology, and medicine.…”