ABSTRACT
The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games may well be the last chapter in the expansionist cycle of aligning large-scale urban development projects with the hosting of mega-events. According to this policy approach, it is promoted that the city and the population can benefit from the legacies of venues built for the event and repurposed to wider uses as well as from the leveraging of infrastructural projects tied with fixed deadlines. However, the track record of host cities has been contested and marked by cost overruns, corruption, social impacts, and democratic deficits. This chapter analyses the urban interventions of the 2016 Games through a multi-scalar process involving the Olympic governance system, the mega-event global complex, government and private interests at different levels as well as the host population. Rather than a discreet episode of Olympic hosting, it argues that the experience is exemplary of the contemporary phase of mega-event hosting.
