and social dimensions of the Games outcomes and tease out long-term urban sustainability value of the Games for Vancouver. 3. Focused on leveraging the Games to achieve desired social and policy outcomes. Building on VanWynsberghe’s findings (2012), this research sees the Games as an important opportunity and vehicle for host city governments to pursue its goals and generate new policies and programs. In the Olympic research field, this thesis has contributed to a shift from Olympic impacts to Olympic opportunities and leveraging thinking. The former focuses on retrospective analysis of the “aftermath” of the Games, invoking a negative, passive and reactive connotation, whereas the latter involves a more proactive, motivated and positive approach to Olympic Games planning and conveys an important idea that it is possible to steer it towards desired outcomes, including greater post-Olympic urban sustainability. This is a very important shift, especially in the context of sustainability planning, which is always long-term, forward-looking, purposeful and motivated. 4. Focused on the role of host city governments in Olympic sustainability planning. The literature on the Olympic Games has been primarily focused on the role of Olympic family members, such as the IOC and OCOGs, in delivering a “sustainable” Games. This thesis begins to explore the relationships and unearth the tensions between the Olympic movement members, OCOGs in the first place, and host communities in formulating sustainability visions and strategies. In particular, this thesis provides a number of recommendations for host cities to effectively promote and pursue their longterm urban sustainability goals, while successfully cooperating with OCOGs on delivering short-term Games production goals.
5.5 Potential for Further Research Further analysis of Vancouver’s case is important from the point of view of improving understanding of how the Games can be planned in ways that are not only environmentally responsible, but also socially equitable. Learning about Vancouver’s pioneer experience of meaningfully integrating social justice in the Games planning would be useful for future hosts of the Olympics and other large-scale sports events. Therefore, any research that explores in more detail social equity policies in the Vancouver Olympics, factors of success and reasons for failure and provides policy advice to host cities and OCOGs would be very useful. Further investigation of the relationship between urban sustainability and holding Games in compliance with sustainable development principles is also needed. It is important to understand the implications of sustainable Olympic operations for urban environment and whether staging a “sustainable” Olympic Games leads to greater urban sustainability beyond the Games. In this regard, it is particularly useful to examine the role of the IOC and OCOGs in shaping urban sustainability outcomes and to provide further policy advice on how the interface between the Olympic family and host cities could be improved to ensure greater post-Olympic urban sustainability.
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