ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the extent to which nations that are awarded the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games benefit from success in elite sport through a quantifiable home advantage effect. Our study includes seven nations that have hosted the Summer Games and seven nations that have hosted the Winter Games between 1992 and 2018. Two key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure the level of success achieved by host nations. These are the number of gold medals won and the number of total medals won. For each KPI, home advantage was calculated as the difference between how nations performed at their home Games and how they performed in the Games immediately prior to hosting. For both Summer and Winter editions of the Olympic Games, there is evidence that host nations experience a home advantage effect in terms of both gold medals and total medals. Summer and Winter hosts of Paralympic Games appear to have a statistically significant home advantage effect as far as total medals are concerned but not for gold medals.
