Does the Olympics Regenerate an Urban Area and Produce Lasting Benefits - Essay Example

The International Olympics Committee, the task of which is to evaluate the facilities of each city that bids for holding the Olympics, thoroughly examines the sustainability, accessibility, and integrated city development (IOC, 2005). The Report of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012, for example, stresses out that even bidding for holding the games helps candidate cities to develop positive legacies from the bid, no matter whether the city is awarded the Games or not (ibid). Therefore, it can be said that even an attempt to hold the Olympic games positively influences urban areas in terms of infrastructure, accommodation, and technology development.
The following factors are evaluated by the International Olympics Committee when choosing a host a city for the Games (IOC, 2001):
- general national, regional, and candidate city characteristics,
- legal aspects,
- customs and immigration formalities,
- environmental protection and meteorology,
- finance,
- marketing,
- sports & concept,
- paralympic games,
- Olympic village,
- medical and health services,
- security,
- accommodation,
- transport,
- technology,
- communication and media services,
- Olympism and culture,
- guarantees.
Consequently, keeping up high standards and complying with the requirements of IOC and International Sports Federations regarding urban development becomes a priority task for each city attempting to stage the Games.
After 1960, the Summer and Winter Olympic games became extremely visible in the sports world events and started involving large-scale transformations of urban areas, which, as a result, lead to more intense regional development. Advanced transportation facilities and even multiple Olympic villages have become the features of contemporary Olympic games (Chalkley and Essex, 1999).
A bright example of how holding the Olympics can change a place is the Park City of Utah. From a hillside mining town, which it originally was, Park City became an internationally acclaimed arts center and a popular touristic destination (Arias, 2010). The city’s design and architecture were changed for holding the 2002 Olympic games. Lower slopes of Park City’s valley were made into easy suburban dwellings gave dramatic views of the sporting venues. Straight parallel blocks have intensified highway-to-recreation traffic, while recreational zones got combined with commercial ones, thus having extended the growth ratio of the urban plan.
Today Utah Olympic Park, which was initially built in preparation for the Winter Olympic Games of 2002, is a popular place used by Olympic and development level athletes as a training center. Moreover, the Games gave the city such facilities as the 2002 Winter Olympics and Ski Museum, a day lodge, a splash pool, ziplines, and a mountain coaster, among others. On this matter, Jill Adler (2010) writes that holding the Games contributed to the growth of Utah’s tourism and convention industries, as well as facilitated economic development.
The 29,000-square-foot three-story building of Park City’s Sports Park is holding a museum, an Olympic highlight gallery, a cafe, a retail shop, a research library, sports exhibits, and decks for watching freestyle training areas. Furthermore, the park is frequently used for music, lecture, and film series, as well as hosts weddings and banquets (Grass, 1999).