INTRODUCTION Due to their scale, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have the potential to place significant strain on local health services. The Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, and London 2012 Olympic host cities shared their experiences by publishing reports describing health care arrangements. HYPOTHESIS Olympic planning reports were compared to highlight best practice...

BACKGROUND National sporting achievement at the Olympic Games is important for national pride and prestige, and to promote participation in sport. Summer Olympic Games medal tallies have been associated with national wealth, and also social development and healthcare expenditure. It is uncertain however, how these socioeconomic factors translate into Olympic success. The objective of this study...

T most of its history, the IOC insisted that sport was apart from the world of politics, and that the Olympic Games should not be used by sovereign states to further their political goals. Avery Brundage reflected this position best when instructing Lord Killanin just before Killanin left for South Africa in September 1967 to head up the IOC’s fact-finding committee on sport and apartheid. Brun...

OBJECTIVE To describe the pattern of injuries and illnesses sustained during the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, hosted by Rio de Janeiro from 5 to 21 August 2016. METHODS We recorded the daily incidence of athlete injuries and illnesses (1) through the reporting of all National Olympic Committee (NOC) medical teams and (2) in the polyclinic and medical venues by the Rio 2016 medical staff. RES...

Summary Pre-Olympic Games predictions commonly include an increase in population-based physical activity the host city, as often stated bid, but post-Olympic effects on have not been summarised. In this Series paper, we aim to do following: examine mentions of a legacy pre-Olympic bid documentation; analyse existing surveillance data collected before, during, and after Olympic hosting ...