Olympic Games: why are they so important for countries and businesses?

The ancient Olympic Games were organised from 8th century BC to the 4th century AD and took place in Olympia in Greece. After a long brake, they were revived in 1896 when the first modem Olympic Games happened in the country of its origin, Greece. Since then, every four years eyes of spectators, leaders and businesses were oriented to this competition, but why?

For states, it was an opportunity to show the prosperity of their countries. No matter what the reality was, it was always a chance to give a nice image of their homeland. An extravagant opening ceremony, newly built stadiums and modern facilities allowed to at least show a beautiful and idealistic vision of a country which might have suffered from many severe problems on a daily basis including corruption, poverty and pollution.

For companies, it allowed them to make their brands known worldwide and improve their image overall. Initially, mostly Western enterprises were eager to do so but this year official sponsors included companies like Alibaba and Panasonic showing the rise of Asian corporations and shift of the power in the international arena. Furthermore, companies are looking for popular winners of the competitions and are prepared to be one of the first to offer lucrative contracts to medallists, which allow them to further promote their brands, products and services.

However, the games are a huge investment especially for countries which do not have already existing infrastructure in the form of stadiums, hotels and airports. The COVID-19 pandemic has further reinforced the view that the games are too expensive and there is a huge opportunity cost for the host country. One of the main issues are the massive infrastructure projects which are later unused due to the insufficient domestic demand. This is definitely an unsustainable vision of the future which does not go along with the net zero emissions goal. Thus, Olympic Games could follow the Euro 2020 format and be organised in many different countries rather than having only one host. This would be much more sustainable for businesses, states and the environment.