Olympic Cities provides the first full overview of the changing relationship between cities and the Olympic events since 1896. With eighteen specially commissioned and original essays written by a team of distinguished authors from the UK and overseas, it explores the historical experience of staging the Olympics from the point of view of the host city. As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics continues unabated, this book's incisive and timely assessment of the Games' development and the complex agendas that host cities attach to the event will be essential reading not only for urban and sports historians, urban geographers, planners and all concerned with understanding the relationship between cities and culture, but for anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events.