IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v25y2024i7p866-886.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Was COVID-19 a Game Changer for the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics?

Author

Listed:
  • Xuepeng Liu
  • Emanuel Ornelas
  • Huimin Shi

Abstract

No, it was not. We do not find evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the distribution of medals in a systematic way. Countries that suffered a higher share of deaths due to the pandemic, or that imposed stricter lockdowns, performed just as prior performances and standard economic and demographic variables alone would have predicted. Hence, while COVID-19 has surely affected the performance of some individual athletes, it did not have a perceptible effect on the distribution of medals across countries. The only impact of the pandemic on the outcome of the Games was to reduce the advantage that host countries traditionally have. This effect, probably caused by the lack of local spectators in most competitions, was particularly strong for teams’ events, where the “host effect†vanished.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuepeng Liu & Emanuel Ornelas & Huimin Shi, 2024. "Was COVID-19 a Game Changer for the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(7), pages 866-886, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:25:y:2024:i:7:p:866-886
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025241269957
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15270025241269957
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/15270025241269957?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:25:y:2024:i:7:p:866-886. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.