ABSTRACT
The chapter covers the participation legacy claims made for Olympic and Paralympic Games from Sydney 2000 to London 2012. It begins with a brief critical analysis of the concepts of legacy, participation legacy, the demonstration effect and measuring legacy before going on to outline both the claims and the reported results for participation legacy from Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 and a more detailed outline of London 2012. The London 2012 section critically analyzes a number of issues, including:
How the wider context and political economy in the host country can impact on opportunities for legacies to succeed
The top-down approach to legacy planning taken by most Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) and host country governments and its impact upon the grassroots sports clubs that have to deal with the outcomes
Whether a ‘legacy’ can actually happen before an event actually takes place
This sets the stage of what is known so far about the Rio2016 legacy. Finally, conclusions will be drawn as to whether a participation legacy is actually a viable claim for any host country OCOG to make.