Are Olympics an unnecessary burden?

Over the past half a century, only one Olympics have been profitable (Los Angeles, 1984). Every other host city has ended up losing money while organising the quadrennial extravaganza. Greece has been on the verge of financial collapse for several years now after hosting the Olympics in 2004 and spending lavishly on it. Rio de Janeiro has probably been the worst organised Olympics of all time. But you can’t blame the organisers really. It was a bad idea to host it there in the first place. The country is a growing economy, but still a vast majority of people live in poverty. How can you justify spending billions on organising a sporting event when there are people living in the streets? The question about the importance of organising this event has to be asked.

It’s true that for many athletes this is the pinnacle for their efforts of a lifetime and not being an athlete, I won’t understand the importance of it. But people need to understand that sports does not occur in a vacuum, there are many social and economic aspect associated with it that need to be kept in mind.