The Graphic Truth: Olympic champs of budget overruns

The Graphic Truth: Olympic champs of budget overruns
Paige Fusco

With a current budget of $3.9 billion, the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics will be relatively cheap by modern standards for the Games. The cost of Tokyo 2020 was almost twice the initial budget, and doesn't even count infrastructure spending. Indeed, cost overruns are a given for the Olympics, which since 1960 have always gone over budget — roughly by 173 percent on average. Given that national governments end up footing most of the bill, it's no surprise that in recent years fewer cities have competed to host the Games, and that Brisbane's 2032 bid was unopposed. We rank the last 16 Olympics by how much their final cost exceeded their initial budget.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

Inside the Grand Palais at the 2025 AI Action Summit, global leaders and innovators gathered to showcase how artificial intelligence is tackling some of the world’s most urgent challenges. The Paris Peace Forum selected 50 groundbreaking AI projects from over 770 applicants across 111 countries for their potential to drive positive change, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2025.
Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” on Wednesday, during which they discussed ending the Ukraine War.

An artistic rendering of an asteroid or comet striking near the Moon's south pole about 3.8 billion years ago, an impact that carved out two large craters.
Lunar and Planetary Institute/Daniel D. Durda/Handout via Reuters

China is mobilizing against an asteroid with disturbingly good odds of hitting the planet. Here’s what you need to know.

US President Donald Trump speaks during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 10, 2025. He ordered a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, escalating his efforts to protect politically important US industries with levies hitting some of the country's closest allies.
Al Drago/Pool/Sipa USA via Reuters

US inflation rose to 3% in January, surpassing the expectations of many economists. This increase is driven at least in part by a sharp jump in egg prices, the result of an avian flu outbreak. But there may be other pressures at play that can create serious political challenges for President Donald Trump and two of his policy priorities.

An explosion is pictured at an exploration site of the company Greenland Anorthosite Mining of an anorthosite deposit close to the Qeqertarsuatsiaat fjord, Greenland, on Sept. 11, 2021.
REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Greenlanders are set to go to the polls next month as US President Donald Trump increases pressure on Denmark to transfer sovereignty of the semi-autonomous Arctic island to the United States.

Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2025. Donald Trump has called for the expulsion of Gazans and the redevelopment of the enclave as a US-controlled "riviera."
Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto

Trump has threatened to cut aid to Egypt and Jordan unless they accept expelled Gazans as part of his plan to build a "Riviera" in Gaza.