As a way to persuade their citizens, countries bidding for the Olympic Games frequently assert that hosting the event will result in a higher medal count.

But new research published in Scientific Reports finds that this effect vanishes once socioeconomic variables are accounted for.

The results call into question the reality of the so-called “host effect,” in which host nations win more medals than normal, however, the authors emphasize that more studies encompassing more Olympic editions are required to corroborate these findings.

Countries that want to host the Olympics often tell their citizens that it will help them win more medals.

There have been previous claims that hosting the Summer Olympics leads to a 1.8% increase in the medal count for the host country, though this boost may differ depending on the sport.

Gergely Csurilla and Imre Fertő examined the impact of hosting the Olympics on medal wins by comparing medal count data for countries that hosted the Summer Olympics from 1996 to 2021, both in the year of the event and in non-hosting years.

The USA, Australia, Greece, China, the UK, Brazil, and Japan served as the venues for these competitions. The researchers compared the overall number of medals with the total number of medals won by male and female competitors.

The authors say that when socioeconomic factors like GDP per person and population size were taken into account, the host effect went away for most countries.

Only the UK (host in 2012) and Australia (host in 2000) kept their overall number of medals much higher. Australian male competitors got much more medals than anticipated, while male athletes from the UK and Brazil (the 2016 host nation) won significantly more medals than anticipated.

The authors advise nations vying to host the Olympics to be wary of setting unrealistic expectations for medal totals.

Source: 10.1038/s41598-022-27259-8

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