The research team, led by Dr Andrew Smith of University of Westminster and Professor Graham Brown of South Australia, has been based across varying London 2012 venues examining how experiences are affected by an individual’s involvement with both the venue and the sports being held.

The research also aims to examine how attending the Games may affect future behaviour both in terms of tourism and sports participation.

Having achieved much-coveted London 2012 accreditation, the team are working across the Aquatics Centre, Greenwich Park and Wimbledon. The research team contains two postgraduate and three undergraduate students, some of whom who are also writing their dissertations on a similar subject and are gleaning first-hand information at the Games.

Dr. Andrew Smith, of the Architecture and the Built Environment at University of Westminster, attended Podium’s Olympic Reception at Senate House, University of London. He said: “I’ve been in interested in mega-events for quite a long time.

“We’ve been involved in a number of Olympic research projects at the University of Westminster so this is the latest in a whole series of research projects about sport events and mega-events.”

You can see Podium’s full interview with Dr. Smith by watching the video below: 

By Ruth Faulkner