After the Games Are Over
“Somebody needs to point to the legacies and cultivate them, to make sure that 10 years from now we can all acknowledge what they are; otherwise the venues become the only legacies and we know that’s not enough,” says Rob VanWynsberghe, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies and UBC lead researcher in charge of the Olympic Games Impact project.
The IOC-mandated Olympic Games Impact (OGI) research project is a combined effort between the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and UBC to determine the impact of the Games based on a variety of environmental, social and economic indicators. As the first Olympic host to undertake the OGI study, the 2010 Games held in Vancouver will set the groundwork for all future Olympic Organizing Committees.
“There is an emerging conversation about how to measure sustainability when you host a mega- sporting event such as this,” says Rob. “We can begin to think about how achieving sustainability in one event such as the Olympic Games might work for another event, or how things might be different from one another. I would suggest there would be lots of cross-over, despite the differences between host countries.”
The data gathered to date has revealed much in terms of how the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games have affected the region and the province on a number of levels. “I started to recognize that governments were actually investing in policy, programs and pilot projects designed to take advantage of the Games in terms of physical education and sport, and that community-level sport participation was increasing around the time of the Games. There were also a couple of really interesting developments regarding aboriginal relations and land claims issues in the province, which has helped to foster relationships with aboriginal peoples. The perceptions of Paralympic athletes and athletes with disabilities is another area that has been affected.”
