When financial times are tight, only those with soft power ambitions can see the economic sense in World Cups or Olympic Games.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Rio Olympics
Displaying 1 - 20 of 52 articles
Proposals to introduce a national sport lottery system in Australia are not new.
The lasting effects of Olympic Games are measured in more than just concrete stadiums.
The achievements of the Paralympians, and societal shift towards more inclusivity and the celebration of diversity, has had a dramatic effect on the lives of people living with disability.
Kenya's international success in track and field hides management inefficiencies and corruption that have frustrated athletes and fed a pipeline of runners willing to ditch the national flag
Instead of showcasing a rising global power with a booming economy, the 2014 Games put a spotlight on Brazil's most serious economic recession since the 1930s, along with a host of social problems.
Amid the hand-wringing about the price of an Olympic medal, our experts crunched the numbers on the cost of success in the arts. And at A$8 million per international award, it turns out that elite culture is a lot better value than sport.
The way we consume sport is changing, and that's having massive ramifications on the way sport and broadcast television are funded.
Racewalking has been part of the Olympic Games since 1904, but gets little respect in the United States. That might change if Americans knew a little more about it.
From a low point at Atlanta when Britain won only 15 medals, Team GB has improved every four years and stands on the brink of an historic achievement.
Unravelling the common assumption that runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have a natural advantage.
Imagine cities competed to eliminate hunger, poverty, unemployment, crime and greenhouse emissions, and to offer housing and transport for all. Don't scoff – urban planning was once an Olympic event.
Business Briefing: the big bucks of broadcasting the Olympics.
The Conversation16 MB (download)
The amount broadcasters will pay for the rights to the Olympics keeps going up, but is the value of the rights changing?
A former Olympic gold medalist reflects on his own financial struggles as he trained and competed for the 1984 Games. Decades later, not much has changed for many Olympians.
Your team mates might be the most effective performance-enhancers.
The Australian swim team hoping for medal success in Rio have a lot to thank one of the earlier pioneers of sport science: Forbes Carlile.
Over time, the body sizes and shapes of Olympians have been moving apart from each other at light-speed, and have become increasingly specialised and differentiated.
The IOC is incredibly protective of the Olympic brand. The rings, Rio 2016, and even the flame are all heavily guarded.
The IOC will allow Russian athletes to compete in Rio 2016 if they've been cleared by their respective international sporting federation of doping. Should other countries pull out of the games?
The Olympics provide Brazilians with a welcome distraction from their country's fraught and bitter politics.
Top contributors
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Professor of Sport Management, Sheffield Hallam University
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Professor of Health Sciences, University of South Australia
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Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria University
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Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, University of Stirling
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Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport, Abertay University
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Stuart Cunningham is a Friend of The Conversation.
Distinguished Professor, Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology
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Dean, College of Sport and Exercise Science and Institute of Sport, Exercise, Active Living, Victoria University
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Researcher, Institute for Sport, Exercise and Active Living and Senior Lecturer, College of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria University
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Cameron Webb is a Friend of The Conversation.
Clinical Lecturer and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, College of Sport and Exercise Science and member of Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living (ISEAL), Victoria University
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Senior Lecturer of Pedagogy and Sports Studies, University of Sydney
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Emeritus Professor of Endocrinology, St Thomas' Hospital and King's College, London; Visiting Professor, University of Southampton
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Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Oxford
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Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Research and member of the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
