Citius, Altius, Fortius - Olympics in Need of Reform
“Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”) has been the Olympic motto since the first modern Olympic games. The motto was updated in 2021 and now reads "Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter" ("Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together"). Though it seems the notion of the word “together” has been forgotten over the years and the focus has shifted solely towards the idea of “bigger, better, and faster.” As a viewer at home, it's difficult to envision the toll that hosting the Olympic games can take on a city’s residents and economy. These include white elephant venues, increased public surveillance and security, expulsion of residents, and ultimately, unsustainability.
Before the ability to broadcast the events on television, host cities weren't expecting to turn a real profit with the games so they were publicly-funded, and only already wealthy countries would host. Economist Andrew Zimbalist explains how the 1970s marked a turning point, as the Olympics began to grow substantially in size. By the early twentieth century, the number of participants had more than doubled, and during the 1960s, the amount of events increased by a third. This, in addition to being able to broadcast to millions across the world, introduced an entirely new dimension to hosting the games: being able to turn a significant profit. However, how accurate was this assumption, one might ask? According to an Oxford study from 2024, the average cost of hosting has been triple the bid price. So what happens when the focus remains on monetization?
So-called white elephant venues have proven time and again to impose costs long after the games have moved on. These are venues and facilities that, due to their size and peculiar nature, have limited to no use after their Olympic cycle. The Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for example cost $38 million to build, until shortly after the games, where it fell into dilapidation and ruin instead of being reused, as was previously intended. “Birds Nest” Stadium in Beijing cost $428 million to build, costs $9 million in maintenance yearly, and remained mostly unused after the 2008 games, until it was used again for the 2022 winter games.
While employment opportunities are often a leading argument for hosting the games, studies carried out after hosting show that purported benefits, such as significant economic growth through new jobs, increased tourism, and overall boosted economic output, have proven dubious. The jobs created through the olympic construction contracts are mostly temporary and usually go to workers who are already employed, disproving the suggested impact on a broader economy. Only in cases where the host city is already suffering from high unemployment do the Olympics create significant employment benefits.
Furthermore, in an effort to create an attractive city image, while preparing for the Olympics cities often engage in social cleansing, forcefully removing individuals and groups which are considered undesirable and displacing them. These acts often get swept under the rug. At the last summer Olympics in Paris in 2024, construction for the games occurred in Seine-Saint-Denis, communes which are known to be disadvantaged economically, known as the banlieue nine-three (neuf-trois). In this banlieue, construction for the Olympics systematically displaced many locals. Additionally, Le Monde reports a particular instance in which about 450 migrants, making up the biggest squat in all of France, were removed, with no provided housing by the government.
In recent Olympic cycles however, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has introduced a set of reforms in an attempt to address issues. For one, to address the issue of white elephant venues, the IOC has encouraged the use of pre-existing or at least temporary infrastructure. In the Paris 2024 Olympics, approximately 95% of the venues were pre-existing or temporary, and Los Angeles 2028 plans to implement no new (permanent) infrastructure. Additionally, in hopes of spreading the financial burden of hosting the Olympics, the IOC now allows the events to be spread across multiple cities and regions. In terms of finances, the bidding process has been reformed to be more cost-effective and targeted, by replacing the traditional, multi-year bidding competition with the more targeted “Future Host Commissions”. By abandoning the expensive bidding phase costing cities between $50 and $150 million purely on a bid, the committee hopes to substantially reduce the overall cost and burden of the phase.
While the reforms are sure to introduce a new dimension of transparency and possibly minimize overall costs of hosting, the reforms still shy away from addressing societal issues and the ways in which the general public suffers as a result of hosting the games. Furthermore, governments brush off issues such as the ones mentioned above, and refuse to acknowledge the direct correlation which the Olympics have on minorities. In 2024, Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor in charge of the Olympic Games, and Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, reported their frustrations over criticism of the city regarding homelessness and destitution, while denying that the Olympics had made an already difficult situation detrimentally worse for marginalized Parisians.
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