Olympics games have inspired many villages and cities. The countries or cities which have organized the games have shot into limelight instantly and those athletes who got medals also continued to inspire generations.
Every city that hosted the Olympics showed greater degree of urban planning and management, be it Barcelona in 1992, Beijing in 2008, Athens in 1896, Stockholm in 1912 or recently london in 2012.
Since the modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens, there have been so far 25 Summer Olympic Games held in 22 different cities and 22 Winter Olympic Games held in 19 different cities. In addition, three summer and two winter editions of the games were scheduled to take place but were later cancelled due to World War: Berlin (summer) in 1916, Tokyo (summer) and Sapporo (winter) in 1940 and london (summer) and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (winter) in 1944. So far four cities have been chosen by the IOC to host upcoming Olympic games and they are building their infrastructure and games village. The cities include Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Pyeongchang for the 2018 Winter Olympics, Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
So far no African country has hosted Olympics games but they are very much inspired to do so. Bekoji is a poor cattle-herding village on the mountains of the Arsi Province in Ethiopia. Generations would have continued to be in oblivion, but for a petite cattle-herding girl from the village. She was Derartu Tulu. She changed all that when she opened the account for Ethiopian women in Olympic long distance running. That was 1992 in Barcelona. Perhaps many won’t have thought in the next two decades, the tiny Bekoji would go on to become the global hotspot of long distance running. Bekoji has dominated the world of long distance running in the last two decades. Derartu Tulu and Bekoji proved what a single person can change the world around her. And this is how Olympic champions shape a nation in global map beyond poverty.
Well there may not be any Smart City or Village in Ethiopia but there are smart athletes that make country proud. So Chinese and Koreans too have dozens of such athletes. How they addressed urbanisation with Olympics around it is surely a point to be noted. Korea for instance was not a very attractive, nor was its urbanisation model vibrant worth emulating on a world level, but in early eighties the transformation begun around Seoul city with 1988 Summer Olympics.
Being the host, Seoul emerged as an inspiring city for the rest of the world that it stands as role model for many not just Asian but cities around the world. The same was followed by Beijing in 2008.
Interestingly Beijing plans to use some of its venues used in the 2008 Summer Games that includes famous Bird’s Nest stadium and the Water Cube arena. Perhaps Beijing in past proved how successfully Chinese hosted the 2008 edition of Summer Olympics by spending near about $40 billion and also was able to earn billion dollars.
Similarly, Bhubaneswar can push itself as a Smart City with a clear vision around heritage, green and sports infrastructure by projecting itself to host future national and international sporting events.
Bhubaneswar has emerged now as a famous venue for international hockey matches. If Bhubaneswar projects itself as a strong competitor in Smart City race, then it must send a message very boldly that it becomes a next major sporting destination in the international map.
All it needs to do is after hockey it must create one velodrome and one Mountain Terrain Track and a good 150-km or so road track. Then the days are not far when Bhubaneswar could groom just like Ethiopian village Bekoji athletes of world stature.