Olympic Legacy: Status of Research

Abstract

Abstract There is no doubt that the topic of legacy of sport events is becoming one of the critical issues in professional sports worldwide. Taxpayers’ money is used to support the staging of events and therefore citizens want a benefit in return. Many legacies though are intangible and therefore not easy to measure. As economic profits are difficult to obtain, ecological footprints are given due to needed travelling and social benefits are not easy to measure. Overall, the Olympic Games do not visibly and obviously change the host city towards sustainability and long-lasting positive developments. The articles reveal the breadth of topics that are located within the scope of legacy. The research areas touch on legacies that are under researched and for which there is scant legacy information in the literature, i.e., the legacy of Olympic Winter Games, Youth Olympic Winter Games, unsuccessful Olympic bid cities and non-host Olympic cities.