Olympic and Paralympic Analysis 2024 – Mega events, media, and the politics of sport

Articles from Olympic and Paralympic Analysis 2024 will be published throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the final report published on 18th September 2024

• Magnificent and humbling: the Paris opening ceremony was a tribute to witnessing superhuman feats of the extraordinary

  Sarah Austin, Lecturer in Theatre, The University of Melbourne   00:58 on 27 July, 2024
  For the first time in Olympic Games history, the ceremony took place outside a stadium arena.

• Paris Olympics: Canada’s soccer drone scandal highlights the need for ethics education

  Lianne Foti, Associate Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph   20:55 on 26 July, 2024
  This incident potentially impacts the nation’s international reputation and trust in Canadian athletes and raises questions about Canada’s commitment to ethical standards in sports.

• Before there was diving and relays, there was the Poetry Olympics

  Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney   04:46 on 26 July, 2024
  This particular revival of the games – which started about 300 years ago – was all about wordplay and battles of wit.

• Timber venues, river swimming and re-use: how the Paris Olympics is going green – and what it’s missing

  Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland   20:18 on 25 July, 2024
  The Paris games are shaping up as the greenest games yet. But some critics say even more needs to be done.

• The chaotic history of the Olympics in Paris, where one games nearly ended the movement – and the other helped save it

  Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania   20:17 on 25 July, 2024
  Between hammers in trees, uneven fields, audience members joining teams and post-humous recognition for winners, the 1900 Paris games left much to be desired. Luckily, 1924 made up for it.

• Politics, security and the Seine: where the Paris Olympics’ flashpoints will be

  Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University   20:17 on 25 July, 2024
  As the world’s attention turns to Paris, the French capital is under its strongest-ever security regime ahead of the Olympics.

• Faith Kipyegon is set to make Olympics history – what Kenya needs to do to keep producing athletes like her

  Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Professor and Chair of Kinesiology and Health Science, Stephen F. Austin State University   12:48 on 25 July, 2024
  Kenya must keep adapting its development programmes - and move beyond just high altitude running academies.

• Are the Olympic Games politically neutral?

  Julien Longhi, Professeur des universités en sciences du langage, AGORA/IDHN, CY Cergy Paris Université   07:38 on 25 July, 2024
  Since July 2020, the Olympic Charter prohibits “any kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda”. But what if the Olympic project was in its essence political?

• Surviving the Olympiczzzzz: how fans can best cope with sleep deprivation during major overseas events

  Shona Halson, Associate professor, school of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University   01:40 on 25 July, 2024
  Many sports fans will suffer sleep deprivation as they stay up to watch the Olympics but there are ways to minimise it and bounce back after the closing ceremony.

• Sustainability, cultural significance, and high fashion: the top five uniforms to look out for at the 2024 Paris Olympics

  Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney   20:15 on 24 July, 2024
  These uniforms are for the athletes to perform their best, be proud of their national outfits and feel they genuinely represent them.

• Paris Olympics promote sustainability for good reason: Climate change is putting athletes and their sports at risk

  Brian P. McCullough, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan   19:01 on 24 July, 2024
  The 2024 Summer Games are going all in on renewable energy, recycled materials and more to shrink their carbon footprint. They’re a test bed for how big events can do better for the environment.

• Paris 2024 reaches gender parity among athletes, but sport has always policed women’s bodies

  Olatz González Abrisketa, Profesora de Antropología, Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea   17:37 on 24 July, 2024
  The modern Olympics were designed for men, and have gone to great lengths to exclude female athletes.

• The colourful history of the Olympic opening ceremony

  Catherine Baker, Reader in 20th Century History, University of Hull   15:49 on 24 July, 2024
  At the first modern Olympics in 1896, in Athens, each country’s athletes simply entered the stadium to hear speeches and a specially composed hymn – though more than 50,000 spectators still attended.

• 83 bottles of wine per person: how experts are calculating the Paris Olympics’ carbon footprint

  Anne de Bortoli, Chercheuse en carboneutralité et durabilité des transports et infrastructures au CIRAIG (Polytechnique Montréal), chercheuse associée au laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transport (ENPC), École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)   09:33 on 24 July, 2024
  Organisers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have made big and bold green promises. Are they up to the heavy carbon lifting?

• Who will win Olympic rugby sevens gold? Our algorithm uses 10,000 simulations to rank the teams

  Niven Winchester, Professor of Economics, Auckland University of Technology   23:18 on 23 July, 2024
  The rugby sevens bring a festival air to the Olympic Games, but the competition is deadly serious. Here are the likely contenders in Paris.

• Nude athletes and fights to the death: what really happened at the ancient Olympics

  Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Melbourne   20:14 on 23 July, 2024
  Today’s Olympics are vastly different to those that began in ancient Greece. So what was it like attending those ancient games?

• Transgender athletes face an uncertain future at the Olympics as reactionary policies gain ground

  Travers, Professor of Sociology, Simon Fraser University   19:44 on 23 July, 2024
  While transgender people have gained some recognition and human rights in the past decade, a well-financed reactionary movement is rolling them back.

• Do hosts win more medals? Are athletes getting older? 128 years of Olympic history in 5 charts

  Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer   03:57 on 23 July, 2024
  Using data from every Olympics, we’ve charted which sports have stood the test of time, the changing age of athletes – and whether hosting really gives your team an advantage.

• The greenest games ever? How claims of Olympic sustainability hit a reef in Tahiti

  Belinda Wheaton, Professor, School of Sport, Health and Human Performance, University of Waikato   23:50 on 21 July, 2024
  Hosting the Olympic surfing half a world away from the host city of Paris has highlighted just how hard it is for mega-events to be truly environmentally sustainable.

• Why does the Olympics have an ‘AI agenda’ and what does it mean for the future of sport?

  Tom Hartley, Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania   20:22 on 21 July, 2024
  AI is finding applications across sport, from talent spotting and training to gymnastics judging and injury rehab.

• Sharing that moment: can collective experiences bring people closer together? Podcast

  Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation   10:14 on 18 July, 2024
  Pyschologist Garriy Shteynberg talks to The Conversation Weekly about his theory of the collective mind – and why you should think about it when watching the Olympics this summer.

• From the Clyde to the Seine, rediscovering Glasgow’s history of urban swimming could help shape the future of swimmable cities

  Lucy Janes, PhD Candidate, Literature and Languages, University of Stirling   09:15 on 18 July, 2024
  Connecting the rich, and often unknown, histories of open swimming in urban waterways to the growing swimmable cities movement could help to shape the futures of urban swimming.

• Brand Olympics: do the famous rings deliver value to host countries?

  Steven Greenland, Professor in Marketing, Charles Darwin University   02:26 on 18 July, 2024
  What makes the Olympics’ five rings such a powerful brand, and do they deliver value for host nations?

• Are running shoes getting too good? Why ‘technological doping’ is a growing concern for professional sports

  Shayne Vial, Lecturer in Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University   01:07 on 18 July, 2024
  When tech makes an athlete perform beyond their natural ability, you might call that “technological doping”. How can we make it fair for everyone?

• Olympics: Senegal won silver in 1988 – why it’s never managed to repeat this feat

  Nalla Socé Fall, Enseignant-chercheur, UFR des Sciences de l'Education, de la Formation et du Sport, Université Gaston Berger   13:22 on 17 July, 2024
  For Olympic sports to thrive, the government must commit and find additional financing, notably through the private sector and sponsorship.

• People with disability know bodies can be funny – so it’s OK that you’re laughing at the Paralympics TikTok account

  Shane Clifton, Associate Professor of Practice, School of Health Sciences and the Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of Sydney   20:22 on 23 July, 2024
  The genius TikTok account for the Paralympics draws on the comedic beauty of disabled bodies. It is a relief to see a promotion of the Paralympics that avoids the usual stereotypes.

• Are you too old to be an Olympian? Spoiler alert: probably

  Lyndell Bruce, Senior Lecturer in Sport Science, Deakin University   03:53 on 10 July, 2024
  Many athletes dream of reaching the Olympics but very few reach it. What is the process for identifying and developing athletic talent?

• From challenges to innovations, what lessons can Brisbane learn from the Paris Olympics?

  Richard Baka, Honorary Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Canada; Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University   02:28 on 9 July, 2024
  As world sports fans zero in on Paris ahead of the Olympics, what should Brisbane’s games organisers look to learn ahead of the 2032 event?

• Looking back at the Olympic venues since 1896 – are they still in use?

  Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania   01:39 on 8 July, 2024
  Most Olympic stadiums, venues and structures continue to be used long after the games finish. But how are they used and what happened to the venues that have fallen into disuse?

• Does sports participation boom during (or before, or after) the Olympics?

  Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania   01:15 on 1 July, 2024
  In sports-mad Australia, the Olympics are always a huge deal. But does this interest result in increased sports participation?

• London Marathon: how visually impaired people run

  Jessica Louise Macbeth, Senior Lecturer in Sports Studies, University of Central Lancashire   12:01 on 18 April, 2024
  Running is empowering for many blind and partially sighted people, but they can face a range of societal barriers to get involved.

• Why Australia’s Olympic funding changes might widen the gap between rich and poor sports

  John Cairney, Head of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland   00:53 on 17 April, 2024
  A new Olympic funding strategy aims to boost the finances of smaller Australian sports like table tennis – but will it actually work?

• How much sport will you be able to watch for free under proposed new Australian broadcast rules?

  Hunter Fujak, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University   02:11 on 11 April, 2024
  From what sports you can watch with an old aerial, to what apps you’ll see when you switch on a new smart TV – sports lovers can expect big changes ahead.

• Recovering after a false start? What’s the state of play for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic and Paralympic planning?

  Leonie Lockstone-Binney, Professor, Griffith University   02:25 on 21 March, 2024
  Queensland premier Steven Miles is walking a tightrope in trying to deliver a spectacular yet sustainable, legacy-driven 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Featuring over 100 contributors from leading institutions from around the world, this publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections, and insights from the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games from the cutting edge of communication and media studies of sport.

Published in the wake of the Tokyo 2020 Games, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis of the Olympics and Paralympics, including research findings and new theoretical insights. Contributions come from a rich array of disciplinary influences, including media, communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and psychology. The report is free to download and can be deposited in any repository or library.

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