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While the Olympic Games are always under the spotlight, the Paralympic Games are somehow ignored. This paper aims to invite the general public to think about the para-athletes and the differential treatments they received.

Among the participating countries, many of them were unable to win a single Olympic or Paralympic medal. When the dependent variable is left-censored, ordinary least squares regression is asymptotically biased downwards. In the literature, researchers typically employ the maximum likelihood Tobit model to take care of the censoring problem. However, some researchers argue that the Hurdle model has an advantage over the Tobit model in identifying the determinants of winning Olympic medals. Following their wisdom, this paper employs both the Tobit and Hurdle models in analysis.

The empirical evidence gathered in this paper suggests that population size, host status and average years of schooling are the big three socio-economic determinants when it comes to winning medals at the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games. The findings support the hypothesis that sports talent is randomly distributed and a large country has a higher chance to have talented athletes or para-athletes winning the Olympic medals. The strong host advantage also showed up in the following Paralympics but was not so strong at the next Olympics.

This paper not only examines the relationship between various social, economic and political factors in determining the success of a nation in the Paralympic Games but also attempts to identify possible non-traditional determinants.

One of the most significant innovations to emerge from Sydney's hosting of the 2000 Olympic Games has been the way that Australian tourism organisations have built the Games into their marketing strategies. As the Business Manager Olympic Games for the Australian Tourist Commission, Maggie White is responsible for the ambitious international Olympic tourism marketing program. Here she talks to Dr Laurence Chalip of Griffith University, about her role and the challenges she faced.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consolidate knowledge and benchmark the progress being made across the 32 International Federations (IFs) in the Summer Olympic Programme.

Design/methodology/approach: A website content analysis, analytical hierarchy of information, and social media research was conducted to triangulate the barriers and drivers of environmental sustainability (ES) progress. This data was then analysed to empirically substantiate the findings of previous methods by exploring potential drivers of IF ES progress and communication and refining the ranking of IF ES progress.

Results and findings: World Sailing is by far the most advanced IF in terms of ES progress, followed by World Athletics. Only 4 out of 32 have any sort of strategic ES plans. Only golf, surfing, football, sailing, and hockey have received any academic attention. There is a significant lack of understanding of environmental practices across sport, and their drivers/barriers. There is limited accountability with regards to ES progress and activities throughout the Olympic Movement. This has resulted in uneven diffusion of environmental activities.

Originality: This paper is a new contribution to sport management and ES literature. It provides a benchmark of understanding for ES in the Summer Olympic Programme for the first time using a hierarchy of information to ground results. The exploration and comparison of the perspectives of separate sports adds to the paper's originality.

This study aims to provide the history and overview of the major categories of physical education (PE) assistance that Japan has provided to other countries by extracting the major categories from the various materials.

This study is divided into two phases, Phases 1 and 2. Surveys and analyses were further conducted. In Phase 1, a web browser-based survey was conducted to ascertain the major categories of PE assistance that Japan has provided to other countries. The practices and projects investigated were classified inductively, and the major categories were extracted. In Phase 2, a literature review was conducted to organise the history and overview of each category extracted in Phase 1.

Six major categories were extracted: (1) dispatch of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers engaged in PE assistance, (2) assistance through training for those involved in PE, (3) revision or formulation of a PE curriculum, (4) preparation of textbooks or instructional materials for PE, (5) organising sports event and (6) maintenance of PE equipment and facilities.

Japan has a long history of providing PE assistance to other countries. However, historical materials on the practices and projects of PE are becoming scattered. Little literature addresses this gap, which this study seeks to address. This study can help policy makers in other countries, who can use Japan’s PE assistance practices and policies for reference, to assist them in formulating their own policies.

Intangible legacy encapsulates the essence of Olympism and its manifestation, the Olympic Games. Despite significant interest in the capacity of the Olympics to produce notable changes in society, conceptual difficulties in defining and measuring intangible legacy persist. The study develops a conceptual definition of intangible Olympic legacy.

The study follows a four-step concept definition approach. It examines and integrates three strands of literature including intangibles, social interactions and public value, which is combined with insights from a longitudinal empirical investigation of intangible Olympic legacy for National Sport Organisations (NSO).

The proposed concept of intangible legacy defines it an emerging combination of attributes, interactions, processes and technology, with the goal of creating public value which is the ultimate goal of the Olympic Games. Since intangible legacy is qualitative rather than quantitative, a reconsideration of the current research paradigm is also proposed.

The study develops a new analytical device for the investigation of intangible legacies for specific publics such as NSO.

The study carries practical implications for Olympic and events/festival promoters as it allows defining and operationalising the key attributes of the concept.

This is the first study to conceptualise intangible legacy of mega events.

Mega sport events (MSE) are immensely popular but also highly criticized because these include large public budgets and involve politically sensitive topics. In this context, there is an increasing attention toward legacy planning, the effort to confer long‐term benefits to a host destination through organizing MSEs, such as the Olympic Games. When it comes to event planning, large‐scale master plans are a common approach. However, in the Netherlands the authors see that an alternative development model is pursued called the Dutch Approach to prepare for the possible candidature to host the Olympic Games of 2028. This paper aims to analyze this approach with a specific focus on whether this approach has the potential to result in a positive legacy.

The research involves a literature review which distinguishes factors that positively or negatively influence event legacies. This results in a framework which is used as a guide for a content analysis of data on the Dutch Approach. Hence, data are obtained from analyzing academic and professional literature, policy documents, research reports, and newspaper articles on the Dutch Olympic ambitions, and the planning approach thereof. Moreover, data are derived from a study by the authors on the development of the area “Sportas Amsterdam”.

The research identifies factors that can contribute positively and negatively to the legacy of events. It provides a unique insight into the planning process of The Netherlands in the context preparing a bid for the Olympic Games of 2028. What can be learned from the Dutch Approach is that planning for a positive legacy is a long‐term and complex process that heavily relies on the support of a range of stakeholders. Due to the range of actors involved, it involves much negotiations and becomes increasingly difficult to achieve consensus.

The paper provides a reflection on the concepts of legacy and legacy planning, and outlines a set of propositions concerning the future of MSEs that present an agenda for further research. By doing to, the paper highlights the importance of focusing on how the relations between stakeholder involvement, planning approaches, and types of urban regimes influence the extent to which a positive legacy can be achieved.

The paper provides a state of the art overview of contributions on event legacy and legacy planning. It draws attention to conditions for positive legacies and implications for planning and governance approaches. It is argued that a top‐down government‐led approach to a MSE will probably have less impact on future tourism compares to the Dutch Approach.

Dr Robert Steadward has been the International Paralympic Committee's only president since its inception in 1989. Within the Olympic movement, he is an active IOC member having roles on the 2000 Commission on Reform and Olympic Truce Foundation, and he has also been an integral driving force behind the growth and development of the Paralympic Games. Here he talks with David Legg of Mount Royal College about how the IPC'smarketing capabilities have evolved, the challenges facing the IPC, and current issues facing the IPC's marketing efforts.

Richard Pound, former Olympian, former Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee and Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency, discusses the impact of doping on sport and shares his views on steroid usage in Major League Baseball. He reflects upon the Ben Johnson steroid scandal and touches on broader issues related to the Olympics, such as the commercialisation of the Games, the role of the Paralympics, and how controversies surrounding the Games are handled. The interview was conducted on 19 April 2005 at the Fifth Annual Sport Management Awards Ceremony held at the SUNY College at Cortland.