Oliver Wyman Partner and Sports Industry Lead Tony Simpson caught up with Jason Gardener, MBE, Olympic gold medalist and former president of UK Athletics to discuss the lessons learned from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including how the tournament championed innovation and sustainability by using iconic city landmarks as event backdrops, promoting urban sports, and transforming public spaces.

Oliver Wyman leaders Jennifer Tsim, Chris McMillan, Jolee Tung, and Kent Valentine further emphasize the eco-friendly practices, such as using renewable energy, reducing waste, and encouraging public transportation, aiming to set new standards for future sporting events, particularly the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.

Tony Simpson

It's Olympic month and what better time to catch up with gold medal winner and former president of UK Athletics, Jason Gardener, MBE.

Jason, this is a pretty impressive Olympics, you know, in many ways. Why do you think it's different or better than previous Olympics before?

Jason Gardener
Well, Paris has definitely put itself out there to be the most inclusive and most innovative games that has ever been held. I mean, you've only got to look at some of the ticketing solutions. I believe it's the first games too actually where there's no paper hard copy tickets, everything's digital. So, the most amount of AI that's ever used in the games to improve the fan experience, to even security surveillance. There are 10,000 athletes participating in 329 sports. But more crucially about that, there's actually a gender balance. There's the same amount of female athletes competing against the males, and of course, it's also been seen to be one of the most accessible games as well, from a disability point of view.

Tony Simpson

So bigger, cleaner, and more cost effective. Something my colleagues have all been grappling with.

Chris McMillan

Paris has refreshed what the Olympics mean and how it can grip the world. In 2028 Los Angeles will host the first privately funded Olympics. $6.8 billion dollars of private funding is going to go into those games. This is a trend we are seeing across major leagues, foundations, sports clubs and events.

Jennifer Tsim

These are the first games that will be aligned to the Paris agreements on climate change. And a number of initiatives have been deployed to achieve this, such as avoiding investment in new infrastructure, doubling down on plant-based ingredients and also sourcing food locally to feed both athletes and attendees, which has reduced scope 3 emissions and also the travel impacts. The bar has been set high, and of course, when we think forwards to the games in LA, they will have a whole new set of different challenges, particularly around public transport and consideration to their sponsors on aligning to their sustainability objectives.

Jolee Tung

Media is one of the most important parts of the sports industry. It represents one of the biggest revenue streams for leagues and federations around the world. At the Paris Olympics this summer, the media rights were valued at $3.3 billion, about a 10% increase from the last Olympics in Tokyo. However, the sport media landscape is rapidly changing from how new audiences as Gen Z are consuming sports content to the ever-changing technologies in broadcasting data and graphics, it’s going to be really critical for players across the value chain to stay innovative going forwards.

Kent Valentine

Paris Olympics are the first in history to achieve a full gender parity with a better gender balance of medals and also mixed gender events, which have proved incredibly popular. The Olympics and the Paralympics are a global platform to promote the equality and empowerment of athletes, but they can serve as a model for not only business community, but also wider society in general. And most importantly, they’re a catalyst for driving positive social change further afield, something that Los Angeles’28 needs to enhance and refine.

Tony

So as Paris hands over the baton to Los Angeles, let’s think about the key learnings. Jason, do you fancy a coffee?

Jason

Yeah, sure.

Oliver Wyman Partner and Sports Industry Lead Tony Simpson caught up with Jason Gardener, MBE, Olympic gold medalist and former president of UK Athletics to discuss the lessons learned from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including how the tournament championed innovation and sustainability by using iconic city landmarks as event backdrops, promoting urban sports, and transforming public spaces.

Oliver Wyman leaders Jennifer Tsim, Chris McMillan, Jolee Tung, and Kent Valentine further emphasize the eco-friendly practices, such as using renewable energy, reducing waste, and encouraging public transportation, aiming to set new standards for future sporting events, particularly the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.

Tony Simpson

It's Olympic month and what better time to catch up with gold medal winner and former president of UK Athletics, Jason Gardener, MBE.

Jason, this is a pretty impressive Olympics, you know, in many ways. Why do you think it's different or better than previous Olympics before?

Jason Gardener
Well, Paris has definitely put itself out there to be the most inclusive and most innovative games that has ever been held. I mean, you've only got to look at some of the ticketing solutions. I believe it's the first games too actually where there's no paper hard copy tickets, everything's digital. So, the most amount of AI that's ever used in the games to improve the fan experience, to even security surveillance. There are 10,000 athletes participating in 329 sports. But more crucially about that, there's actually a gender balance. There's the same amount of female athletes competing against the males, and of course, it's also been seen to be one of the most accessible games as well, from a disability point of view.

Tony Simpson

So bigger, cleaner, and more cost effective. Something my colleagues have all been grappling with.

Chris McMillan

Paris has refreshed what the Olympics mean and how it can grip the world. In 2028 Los Angeles will host the first privately funded Olympics. $6.8 billion dollars of private funding is going to go into those games. This is a trend we are seeing across major leagues, foundations, sports clubs and events.

Jennifer Tsim

These are the first games that will be aligned to the Paris agreements on climate change. And a number of initiatives have been deployed to achieve this, such as avoiding investment in new infrastructure, doubling down on plant-based ingredients and also sourcing food locally to feed both athletes and attendees, which has reduced scope 3 emissions and also the travel impacts. The bar has been set high, and of course, when we think forwards to the games in LA, they will have a whole new set of different challenges, particularly around public transport and consideration to their sponsors on aligning to their sustainability objectives.

Jolee Tung

Media is one of the most important parts of the sports industry. It represents one of the biggest revenue streams for leagues and federations around the world. At the Paris Olympics this summer, the media rights were valued at $3.3 billion, about a 10% increase from the last Olympics in Tokyo. However, the sport media landscape is rapidly changing from how new audiences as Gen Z are consuming sports content to the ever-changing technologies in broadcasting data and graphics, it’s going to be really critical for players across the value chain to stay innovative going forwards.

Kent Valentine

Paris Olympics are the first in history to achieve a full gender parity with a better gender balance of medals and also mixed gender events, which have proved incredibly popular. The Olympics and the Paralympics are a global platform to promote the equality and empowerment of athletes, but they can serve as a model for not only business community, but also wider society in general. And most importantly, they’re a catalyst for driving positive social change further afield, something that Los Angeles’28 needs to enhance and refine.

Tony

So as Paris hands over the baton to Los Angeles, let’s think about the key learnings. Jason, do you fancy a coffee?

Jason

Yeah, sure.