ABSTRACT
Barcelona’s dream of hosting an Olympic Games that would achieve the highest levels of human and sporting quality was fulfilled. In the process, the city underwent an impressive transformation. Overall, we can say, the Barcelona Games were a total success in organisational and sporting terms. The urban transformation generated by the Games had far-reaching economic and social impacts. Barcelona has been highly successfully in harnessing the impetus and legacy of the Games; for example, by 2006, the city was ranked as Europe’s fifth most attractive. Consequently, the Barcelona Games, their organisation and impact, have become a model from the sporting, organisational, economic, social and urban planning perspectives. This chapter examines the following:
the organisation of the 2002 Games in terms of the model adopted, 1. methods and resources used over the 1986-1992 period; the impact of the investments made on economic activity, employment, 2. income, construction, tourism and transport, with special emphasis on the 1992-2002 period; the city’s harnessing of the Olympic impetus to improve its strategic 3. position with a view to the future (2002-2010).
