Current Issues in Sport Science 5 (2020) A positive legacy – against all odds Olympic facilities at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games Dag Vidar Hanstad1,2,* & Jon Helge Lesjø2 1 Department of Sport and Social Sciences, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway 2 School of Business and Social Sciences, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway * Corresponding author: Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, P.O. Box 4014 Ullevaal Stadion, N-0806 Oslo, Norway Tel.: +47 90892229 E-Mail:
[email protected] ORIGINAL ARTICLE ABSTRACT Article History: The aim of this study is to explore the concept of legacy in mega sporting events. More precisely, Submitted 9th March 2020 it examines how one of the smallest cities to host the Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer in 1994, Accepted 16th October 2020 more than 25 years after the Games, has a rather positive legacy of the investments in sporting fa- Published 18th November 2020 cilities, opposite to a majority among the hosts of the Winter Games. The research, which entailed qualitative documentary analysis (e.g. bidding documents, government guarantees, propositions Handling Editor: and minutes of meetings in the Parliament, supplemented with interviews), shows how the concept Martin Kopp was changed after Lillehammer was awarded the event in 1988. Lillehammer went from an extreme University of Innsbruck, Austria compact Games model to place the venues in five municipalities. Also important was the establish- ment of government funding to maintain the different arenas. For many hosts of mega/major events, Editor-in-Chief: sport facilities end up with a negative legacy because of poor or insufficient planning.