Topic:
Country: Bolivia
Delegate Name: Quinn Suvedi
International Olympic Committee
Mitigating Negative Impacts on Host Cities
Bolivia
Quinn Suvedi
Forest Hills Northern High School
In the last decade, there has been a tremendous decrease in countries willing to host the Olympic games. When the Olympic games were first held in the summer of 776 B.C. in Olympia, Greece, there was only one event: a 600-foot-long race. The first Olympic games were held to honor Zeus, the king of the gods. For almost twelve centuries, the games were held in Olympia every four years. In 1896, a group of nations came together and decided to bring back the Olympic Games. It was a massive success. People came from around the world to watch and support their nation’s athletes compete. Today, there are more than four hundred events in which athletes compete. Athletes are given a chance to showcase their talent to the world and win international fame.
However, these competitions have recently been shown to have some negative impacts on their host cities, especially economically. The Olympic games have been shown to go 156% over budget. However, much of the time, these cities are not able to balance the costs. In addition, thousands, or even millions of residents can be displaced from their homes because of construction for the games. Significant amounts of environmental damage are given off to local environments, destroying habitats and wildlife.
The country of Bolivia has never hosted the Olympic games and has also never won an Olympic medal. Although, the country of Bolivia believes that this is a very pressing issue. No nation should be forced to face such great economic losses and environmental damage. The nation of Bolivia sees a few solutions to this problem. One solution would be to always host the Olympics in one designated location. This would decrease lots of the construction costs, which also take up lots of time and energy. In addition, fewer people would be displaced, and fewer environments would be harmed.
Bolivia looks forward to working with other nations of the IOC to come up with one or more solutions on how to protect cities hosting the Olympics from the many negative impacts that it may bring.
