When the deadline for submitting bids for hosting the 2022 Winter Games closed this weekend, the cities of Almaty (Kazakhstan), Beijing (China), Krakow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine) and Oslo (Norway) had all submitted their official host applications.

The Olympic Winter Games cost on average five times more than the organisers indicate. This includes Sochi 2014, which also experienced a quintupling of their costs. The IOC wants this to change, but has been powerless for decades.

The Olympic Games need to be reinvented in order to ensure their continuing longevity, says Swiss professor Jean-Loup Chappelet in this comment piece discussing ways to innovate the Games while maintaining their uniqueness.

The budget of the Olympic Games in Sochi is higher than all the Winter Games from 1924 until 2010 put together. Sochi 2014 is estimated to costs around 40 billion euro, where the 21 previous Winter Games cost approximately 35 billion euro altogether, a large scale archival research project reveals.

Athletes are more and more often using their fame to advance social causes. In this article from The Conversation, David Rowe examines the Sochi Olympics and the challenge of the activist athlete.

Leading up to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Swedish human rights watchdog Swedwatch has put the focus on the Olympics sponsors’ responsibility to work for human rights in Olympic host countries.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) yesterday agreed to amend its constitution after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) threatened to withdraw recognition of the body for failing to comply with the IOC’s rules for good governance.

Canadian journalist Laura Robinson is currently engaged in a tough legal battle with the prominent Canadian sports executive John Furlong, who she claims is covering up a shady past that includes cases of abuse of First Nations children. Robinson spoke at Play the Game 2013 despite warnings from Furlong’s attorneys.