Global sports fans are enjoying their second pandemic Olympics in little more than six months. In the excitement of watching individual and team competitions among the world’s best athletes, one can almost forget that one or both Olympics might easily have been canceled. We urgently need to consider how to future proof the Games.
With the Summer Olympics, Japanese public opposition, driven by the pandemic and mounting expenses, almost forced the Japanese government to cancel. It is hard to imagine most other democratic governments, including future Summer Games hosts Paris (2024), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032), being able to persevere in the face of such public opposition. For the Winter Olympics, China’s human rights record prompted strong calls in some countries to boycott. In the end, many found ways to allow their athletes to participate, but the controversy has not made it easy for athletes or sponsors.
The most obvious future-proofing strategy is to spread the Games in any one year to multiple venues, much as a company enhances resilience by diversifying markets or supply chains. This would also increase inclusiveness and stakeholders. To augment local audiences and enthusiasm, hosting might be associated with regional sports prowess. Why not experiment, for example, with track and field events in Africa, swimming in Oceania, team events like baseball and soccer in Latin America, and weightlifting, judo, and wrestling in Asia?
For world viewers on television or the internet, it makes no difference. Nor would it affect the spirit of the athletes who are still competing with the very best in their sport and for whom an Olympic gold would continue to be the pinnacle of success.
The modern Games are an adaptation of the ancient Greek ones that were held for a remarkable thousand years in Olympia, a religious center. Intra-Greek wars and travel barriers were suspended to allow athletes and fans to travel to and from Olympia and its renowned 40,000-person stadium. Although the Games were not always immune from politics — Roman Emperor Nero insisted on competing one year and suspiciously won six competitions — they had wide acceptance until ordered closed in 394 A.D. by a Christian Roman emperor who thought they glorified the wrong gods.
Contrast that to the modern Games. Reborn in 1896 to promote the ideal of peaceful athletic competition, wars were not suspended, but rather the Games during World Wars I and II were suspended. The Olympics have been used to glorify racism (Berlin 1936), subjected to politically-motivated terrorism (Munich 1972) and boycotted by major states (Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984).
While the Olympics have achieved the goal of engaging the world’s best athletic talent, the same cannot be said for their organization or hosting. Single city or country hosting has become prohibitively expensive, almost always requiring new multiple costly facilities. Therefore, hosts have been from richer countries or emerging ones willing to spend exorbitantly to mark their arrival on the global stage. While Australia and Northeast Asia have joined once-exclusive locations in Europe and North America, no Summer Olympics have ever been held in Africa, the Middle East, or South Asia and only once recently in South America (Rio de Janeiro, 2016).
A multisite Olympics is a complex model and will require adjustments by the nongovernmental International Olympic Committee, its constituent committees and the media. But there are many advantages: reduced costs, new global locations, less likelihood of boycotts, lower attractiveness to terrorists, and, hopefully, less frequent allegations of corruption that are often associated with Olympic hosting bids. The model should also help encourage local advertising and sponsorships while global corporations will almost certainly remain attracted by the world-wide audience.
If one location becomes problematic for natural or political reasons, it is easier to transfer its events to a back-up having existing facilities. And the international aspect of the Olympics will not be just in the competitors, but in the hosting, with hosts having to work closely together in any single Olympics.
Future proofing is not just about protecting our opportunities as fans to enjoy, but also to reward athletes for their enormous personal investments in preparing. They represent spectacular role models for the athletes of the future, and the future should encompass the world and last for a thousand years.
Charles E. Morrison is an adjunct fellow with and former president of the East-West Center. He occasionally writes on sports issues.