The Olympics are expensive, leave the countries that host them with a huge deficit and a bunch of useless white elephant facilities, and increasingly cannot be hosted anywhere but in a few countries. Populations are turning against having the games and don’t want their cities to bid when people are struggling financially. They are often accompanied by human rights abuses - such as clearing out poorer areas - increased policing and surveillance, and are heavily corrupt.
Beyond that though, they also have an outsize profile - an athlete can set records, win world championships, but if you didn’t win this one specific event every four years you’re seen as a failure. It’s a lot of unnecessary pressure for an arbitrary event. The Olympics also don’t bring sustained viewership to sports and most sports would be better off investing in better promoting their world championships, which are much more accessible to hold.
The ideology behind the Olympics is outdated - first they were conceived as a demonstration of European superiority, it shifted in the Cold War to proxy warfare through sports, and then the idea of global unity through competing together. Those billions could be much better spent on global initiatives that actually promote peace and unity not just for elite athletes. There’s no indication that emphasis on elite sports leads to more fitness in the general population and money would be better spent making trails and facilities available to everyone. And perhaps without the Olympics there’d be less incentive to drug use if the idea that success at this one event defines athletic careers.
Is it time to stop investing in an expensive, exclusive Olympics?