What else do you think Olympic organizers could do to make the event more sustainable?

Avoiding the Curse Of the White Elephant* Once, hosting the Olympics was considered the crown prize and a tremendous source of national pride. Seven cities competed to host the 1932 Winter Olympics. For the 2022 Winter Oympics only Beijing and Almaty (Kazakhstan) submitted bids. Oslo (Norway), the favorite, withdrew application due to a lack of public support Likewise, Boston withdrew application for the 2024 Summer Olympics in the face of public outcry. Why the outcry? Because of the legacy of exorbitant cost overruns end draining maintenance costs. The Olympics has 'ong history of expensive white elephants. For example, the Beijing Natione Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest, built at a cost of $480 million for the 2008 Olympic games, requires over $10 million each year to maintain and has no regular tenant Some have attributed the Greek economic meltdown to exorbitant debt accrued from hosting the 2004 summer games Flyvbjerg, 2014). "It felt good at the time because we were the center of the world, and we got to snow off our country," says gymnast Christos Libanovnos of the Hellenic Gymnastics Federation. "But whet did it cost? So much moneybillions of euros. And now we are bankrupt, and everything just gets worse and worse every day. It's herd not tosee a connectiom It's nard not to think that maybe it wasn't worth Perhaps the most infamous example of an Olympic white elephant the 1376 Montreal Otympic Stadium. Originally nicknamed the Byg O, due to its unique doughnut design, the stadium soon became known across Canada as the Byg Owe Estimated to cost $134 million, it took Canadien taxpayers 30 years to pay offtne final SII billion debt To make matters worse, the stadium wes not completely finished by the time the Olympics opened. The stadium has not had a main tenant since 2004, when the successful Montreal Expos moved to Washington, O.C The London 2012 Otympics organizers were committed to reducing the Olympic financial hangover. In particular, they were well aware of hidden post-Olympic maintenance costs of buildings that were no longer in demand One advantage they had over less developed countries is that the infrastructure end many of the arenas were already in place and the Olympics provided necessary upgrade They built temporery arenes for less popular sports For example, after the games the weter polo arena wes deconstructed end materials recycled The 12,000-seat basketball arene wes designed to be portable so it could be used in future Otympics Scalability was another key consideratiom For example, during the Otympics over 17,000 people watched swimming events in the newly constructed aquatic center The aquatic center was downsized to 2,500-person capacity after the Otympics and is now open to the public. sop'. In recognition of its achievements, London 2012 Olympics won Gold in the Environmental and Sustainability category of the 6th International Sports Events awards "We set out with huge promise to the world, to deliver the most sustainable Olympic Games of modern times," says David Stubbs, London 2012's Heed of Sustainability. "Seven years, nine million visitors, end 2,484 medals later, that's exactly whet we achieved."