Local protests against the 2024 Olympic Games in European cities: the cases of the Rome, Hamburg, Budapest and Paris 2024 bids

International audienceWhile Olympic bids were for a long time diplomatic and strategic decisions taken in a very narrow circle of sport, political and economic stakeholders recently, new forms of grassroots participation and citizens’ efforts have arisen, striving to influence the orientation of the projects. This article examines the socio-political construction of protest fronts against the 2024 Olympic bids in Europe through a qualitative study of four cities: Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Hamburg (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary). Findings show that the bids (supported or challenged) essentially serve local political strategies. Mainly, opponents seem to be able to achieve their goals only if they rely on advocacy coalitions based on multiple actors and organizations which give them an access to strategic resources such as political networks or traditional media. Although the repertoire of action is similar -and in some ways standardized -across all the bids, it seems that the determinants of contestation are profoundly contextual, according to local political spaces and conjunctures