28 August 2024
AUTHOR: UniSA Emeritus Professor of Tourism Management Graham Brown
With the sun setting on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, attention is turning to Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032. What lessons can we learn from this year’s Games?
The medal tally does not lie – Australia’s success at the Paris Olympics reinforces our identity as a sporting nation. But have the Games affected what we think about Paris? This has become a key issue for host cities with considerable investment in attempts to use the Games as a communication vehicle. It is seen as an opportunity to express a preferred vision of the city and the country in the modern world. Design teams prepare a distinctive ‘look’ that provides a visual template for everything associated with the event from merchandise to signage to venue design. This new language is a temporary addition to the existing fabric of the city, but the traditional attractions have stolen the show in Paris. Have the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Château of Versailles ever looked better? The light shows on façades and the colourful scenes of celebration in the crowds that surround the iconic structures add dimensions that only the Olympics can create.
The gold medal for risk-taking goes to the organisers of 2024 Olympic Games. Traditionally, the Opening Ceremony has been held in the main stadium but, in Paris, it was staged on and along the banks of the River Seine. This added great complexity to the management of security, traffic flows and the visitor experience. Planning by the broadcasters made it possible for the television audience to watch the performances that were held at different locations and to follow the mobile narrative as a caped torchbearer ran along rooftops. The quality of the vessels transporting teams down the river drew attention to disparities in the size of teams and the relative wealth of nations. For spectators, watching in the rain, the ceremony must have offered exciting moments but a very disjointed experience.
Should the 2032 Opening Ceremony use the Brisbane River?
Are there lessons for Brisbane 2032? Every host city offers different opportunities and the Brisbane River should feature as an integral part of the Games. It has transformed life in the city in recent years and will offer excellent sites for various forms of celebration. In some places, natural theatres exist where land is enclosed by cliffs at bends in the river. I am sure these spaces will capture the interest of event designers. But the Opening Ceremony should return to a stadium. The setting can be more easily secured and controlled and the combination of creative design and technology can best excite spectators, the television audience and the athletes who will, once again, be able to enjoy the atmosphere as they enter the arena. It is clear from Paris and previous Games that the city and its attractions will still be showcased as the venues for the sporting competitions.
How AI imagines South Bank Piazza could look in 2032 with Olympic crowds. Images created using generative artificial intelligence service Midjourney.
Sympathy for Tokyo has been heightened by the scenes in Paris. The organisers of the 2020 Olympic Games had faced insurmountable challenges; and when the rescheduled event was held in 2021, the streets were empty and there was silence at the venues. Surprisingly, a study conducted in Japan by researchers at Tohoku Gakuin University, which I assisted, found that despite the inability to deliver traditional outcomes, resident perceptions of community benefits were higher at the end than at the beginning of the Games.
In 2024, the threat of COVID is ignored, crowds throng the host city and the cry of “allez” at the aquatic centre will be a lasting memory of Paris 2024.
The Paris Games have provided a welcome distraction from mundane life, tragic world events and the horrific scenes which feature all too often on television news. The Games have been an opportunity to breathe rather than sigh; to shout with joy rather than despair; to embrace and celebrate together. Perhaps, it is a response to the decision by the IOC to add ‘Together’ to the Olympic motto of ‘Higher, Faster, Stronger’. Or, perhaps the atmosphere that has permeated Paris follows initiatives taken by the organisers of the Paris Games. The seating layout at the Aquatic Centre allowed competitors to embrace family and friends after completing their races and the Champions Park beneath the Eiffel Tower was the place where medal winners could party with spectators in touching distance of their newly-minted heroes. It is hoped that Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032 will find other ways to enhance the joyful sharing.
Graham Brown is author of Eventscapes: Transforming Space, Place and Experiences (Routledge, 2021), which describes many examples of transformations at Olympic Games.
Images of Paris and Brisbane were created using generative artificial intelligence service Midjourney.
You can republish this article for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons licence, provided you follow our guidelines.
