The politics of the Olympic Games

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

The Olympic Games is all about sport – but it is unavoidably also all about the politics. So two days after the opening ceremony, the IfG team assembled its crack team of sporting fanatics to discuss the links between power and the Olympic Games. From claiming credit to trying to duck the blame, prime ministers, presidents and mayors are as involved as any athlete – signing off on bids to host the games, settling on multi-billion budgets, being booed in the stands, and keeping fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly. So just how political are the Paris 2024 Olympics Games? And how do they compare with what has come before – including the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Games in London – and what might follow in Los Angeles, Brisbane and the Games of the future? Podcaster, academic, historian and author David Runciman returns to Inside Briefing for a fascinating tour through the ever-changing relationship between sport and the Olympics that has defined over a century of successful (and not so successful) Games. Hannah White presents with Jill Rutter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Hannah White.
0:15.0	The Olympic Games are underway. For the third time, Paris is the host city, but it has never seen anything quite like this.
0:23.3	More than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries are competing in the Olympics, with lucky or
0:28.8	extravagant ticket holders attending over 300 events. But the organisers immediately encountered a bit of a
0:34.6	double nightmare. First, major rail lines into Paris were subject to
0:38.7	coordinated sabotage, delaying visitors and a few athletes. Second, it rained and rained on
0:46.1	spectators and participants for the opening ceremony along the seine. Gistama wisely brought his own
0:52.1	anorak. Since then, the focus has switched to the sport. But with
0:55.6	this many countries involved and this much money spent, there is a lot of politics in play too. So today
1:01.1	we want to focus on the politics of the Olympics and what they tell us about government. So this inside
1:06.7	briefing is going to explore the relationship between the Olympics and politics, what the games can do for politicians, what politicians can do for the games, and what happens when
1:15.2	it works, or sometimes when it doesn't.
1:17.7	Joining me throughout is Jill Rutter, IFG Senior Fellow, Sports Fanatic, and author of our brilliant
1:24.0	2013 report into the London Games.
1:26.9	Hi, Jill.
1:29.5	Hi, Hannah. You're off to Paris to the Games. I was telling you before we started how envious I am. Yes, I actually didn't get tickets,
1:34.7	but a friend was left stranded with some tickets. So we're going to quite a lot of tennis
1:38.9	and at a couple of sessions of athletics. And to see the new Aquatic Centre, we're also going to the water polo.
1:47.0	So, and we're very, very interested to see how Paris stages the games compared to London.
1:51.0	Excellent. Well, as I say, I am very envious.
1:54.0	But I am also really delighted that we're joined again today by David Rundsman, author, historian, podcaster, commentator and much more.
2:02.7	Hi, David.
	...

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