This unit is about sustainability, humanitarian issues and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Sydney 2000 Games are often portrayed as a first - the first to plan most events on a single Olympic Park, and the first to claim the term 'green games' for the Olympic and Paralympic movement. True, the Games were unique in these respects. But Sydney's was not a first for regeneration - it drew heavily on the experiences of those who planned the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and Paralympics in regenerating and re-branding an inner urban brownfield site. However, its focus on sustainability brought it to the world's attention, such that subsequent bids by Athens, Beijing and especially London, have developed interpretations of what sustainability means for their own Olympic bids.
