The Olympic Games and Their Legacy Impacts on Urbanism, Society, and the Economy: A Scientific Literature Review from the 1890s to the Present[Les Jeux Olympiques et leurs Impacts-Héritages sur l’Urbanisme, la Société et l’Économie, une revue de littérature scientifique de 1890 à nos jours]

The Olympic Games and Their Legacy Impacts on Urbanism, Society, and the Economy: A Scientific Literature Review from the 1890s to the Present. Since the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896—conceived in a spirit of cultural revival inspired by the ideals of Pierre de Coubertin—scholarly inquiry has persistently engaged with the multiple dimensions of these global events. From that foundational moment to the organisation of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG), researchers have examined a wide range of themes, including urban planning and territorial development, economic, social, and cultural impacts, as well as effects on ecological awareness and governance. Over the past two decades in particular, academic studies have demonstrated that such mega-events frequently operate as levers for urban transformation: they have spurred the modernisation of transport infrastructures, the rehabilitation of neglected districts, and the creation of dedicated "Olympic neighbourhoods." At the same time, they have provoked growing debates on the long-term sustainability—economic, environmental, and social—of these ambitious undertakings. For nearly fifty years, scholarly literature has increasingly addressed the multidimensional impacts of the Olympic Games—and more recently of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG)—on fields as diverse as urbanism, sport, economics, management, marketing, society, and the environment, as well as cultural history, archival studies, the history of sporting practices, diplomacy, and the role of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Conducted at both national and international scales, this body of research offers nuanced insights into the Games as catalysts for urban and economic transformation, and occasionally for sport-related development—while also drawing attention to secondary effects that are often underestimated or fraught with controversy. Since the 1970s, academic discourse has increasingly recognised that the Olympic Games are far more than sporting competitions. They have become a subject through which questions of temporality, concealed ambitions, the pursuit of diversified benefits, and broader geopolitical dynamics are expressed. As a result, the Games stand as a complex and frequently contested mega-event—one that is continuously being reimagined in light of global challenges.