Bent Flyvbjerg, Allison Stewart, and Alexander Budzier (Oxford): The Oxford Olympics Study 2016: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games. Let the games begin: The Rio Olympics are taking to the extreme the overblown promises and neoliberal development now typical of the games. A radical case for reinventing the Olympics: Paul Christensen on how the Olympics have become too big, too costly and too complicated to be hosted by a single city. Olympic executives cash in on a “Movement” that keeps athletes poor. Since ancient Greece, the Olympics and bribery have gone hand in hand. The strange rites of the ancient Olympics: Naked runners, deadly competitions and banquets to honor the gods — the original Olympics were far different from the modern Games. Mary Pilon reviews The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt.
The Rio Olympics will be a failure — but not for the reasons you think. People have always hated the Olympics: Protests against Rio’s Games aren’t the first — nor will they be the last. The sustainable Olympics: Nell Zink has a modest proposal for the next generation of global sport. You’re complaining about the Olympics wrong: Vincent Bevins on how to criticize The Games without sounding stupid.
