This book provides the first full overview of the changing relationship between cities and the Olympic events since 1896. With specially commissioned, 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. A thought-provoking analysis provides overviews of the urban impact of the four component Olympic festivals - the Summer Games, Winter Games, Cultural Olympiads and the Paralympics comprises systematic surveys of four key aspects - finance, place promotion, managing spectacle and urban regeneration consists of chronologically arranged portraits of host cities, from 1936 to 2016. As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics continues unabated, this book's incisive and timely assessment of the Games' development is essential reading for urban and sports historians, urban geographers, planners and all concerned with understanding the relationship between cities and culture.