Planning, History & Environment
Olympics, Paralympics, Olympic villages, sustainability, Urban regeneration, Security, Tourism

Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World’s Games, 1896–2032

John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold
19 Mar 2024

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The first edition of Olympic Cities, published in 2007, provided a pioneering overview of the changing relationship between cities and the modern Olympic Games. This substantially revised and much enlarged fourth edition builds on the success of its predecessors. The first of its three parts provides overviews of the urban legacy of the four component Olympic festivals: the Summer Games; Winter Games; Cultural Olympiads; and the Paralympics. The second part comprises systematic surveys of six key aspects of activity involved in staging the Olympics and Paralympics: finance; sustainability; the creation of Olympic Villages; security; urban regeneration; and tourism. The final part consists of ten chronologically arranged portraits of host cities from 1960 to 2032, with complete coverage of the Summer Games of the twenty-first century.

 
As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics, with associated issues of democratic accountability and legacy, continues unabated, this book’s incisive and timely assessment of the Games’ development and the complex agendas that host cities attach to the event will be essential reading for a wide audience. This will include not just urban and sports historians, urban geographers, event managers, and city planners, but also anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events and concerned with building a better understanding of the relationship between cities, sport, and culture.
 
 
John R. Gold is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London and Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes University.
 
Margaret M. Gold is Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries at London Metropolitan University, and Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London.
 

Contents

  1. Introduction
    John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold 

Part I The Olympic Festivals

  1. The Summer Olympics, 1896–2020
    John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold
  2. The Winter Olympics, 1924–2022
    Stephen Essex
  3. The Cultural Olympiads
    Beatriz García
  4. The Paralympics
    John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold

Part 2 Planning and Management

  1. Financing the Games
    Holger Preuss
  2. Olympic Sustainability
    John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold
  3. Olympic Villages
    Tony Sainsbury
  4. Security
    Jon Coaffee and Pete Fussey
  5. Urban Regeneration
    Andrew Smith
  6. Olympic Tourism
    Mike Weed

Part 3 City Portraits

  1. Rome 1960
    Giuseppe Telesca
  2. Sydney 2000
    Robert Freestone
  3. Athens 2004
    Margaret M. Gold
  4. Beijing 2008
    Ian G. Cook, Stephen Miles and Giorgos Chatzinakos
  5. London 2012
    Graeme Evans and Özlem Edizel
  6. Rio de Janeiro 2016
    Gabriel Silvestre 
  7. Tokyo 2020
    Yasushi Aoyama
  8. Paris 2024
    Cécile Doustaly
  9. Los Angeles 2028
    Sven Daniel Wolfe and Cerianne Robertson
  10. Brisbane 2032
    ​Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes