Whether your country won gold medals or not, the Beijing Winter Olympics of last month must have grabbed some of your attention. Whereas the large arenas filled with a soaring audience could not get fuller of life and energy, the states of these same places some years later could not be further from the opposite. Countries spend billions of euros to host the Olympic Games, for the sake of promoting their country and culture to the world, attracting tourists and for the overarching goal of uniting people through sports. However, the negative externalities of hosting the Games are oftentimes forgotten. Some countries have been facing deep economic and political crises after hosting the games, as was the case with Greece and Brazil in 2004 and 2016, respectively.

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