From Lillehammer to ‘Lilyhammer’ Planned and unplanned legacies of the 1994 Olympic Winter Games

The aim of this study is to explore the concept of legacy in major sporting events. More precisely, it examines the distinction between planned and unplanned long-term outcomes of the 1994 Olympic Winter Games (OWG) in Lillehammer, Norway. The research, which entailed qualitative documentary analysis (e.g. bidding documents, government guarantees, white papers and minutes of meetings in the Parliament), shows a lack of coherence between the planned outcomes and the factual legacies. For example, in the bidding documents nothing was stated about environmental issues, which ended up as a very visible legacy of the Games. For many hosts of mega/major events, sport facilities end up with a negative legacy because of poor or insufficient planning. The overall impression of Lillehammer is rather positive due to its systematic location of the sport arenas in five municipalities, centralising the facilities in and around the host city, and establishing government funding to maintain the different arenas.  More than 25 years after the Games, the ‘after use fund’ has been depleted, which is challenging for Lillehammer because several of the municipalities in the Olympic region are also responsible for the funding. It remains to be seen if the positive legacy will remain positive in the years to come.