What goes into insuring the Olympics?

It’s that time again: the Olympics have arrived, and sooner than we thought possible. (Time, according to football quarterback Aaron Rodgers, is a construct after all). Thousands of Persons of Outstanding Athletic Ability will be gathering this month in China to compete in sports like skiing, ice hockey, and something called the skeleton, which we’d never heard of before writing this article. What can we say, we aren’t Sports people! But we do know insurance, and with over a hundred events, there are a lot of health and safety risks inherent to the Olympic Games. 

Given the complex nature of the games — Multiple sites! Thousands of spectators! Icy roads! — it’s no wonder that dealing with the insurance paperwork is a bit of a nightmare. Unfortunately for the International Olympic Committee’s Health & Safety team, there is no single umbrella policy that covers all possible scenarios. 

Over the past decades, budgets for the Olympics have ballooned (the 2014 Sochi Winter Games cost $51 billion to produce, and that didn’t even take into account medical claims from things like Sochi Eye™). With the cost of hosting the Olympics reaching higher and higher numbers, it’s no surprise that the cost to insure the games have also increased (Chicago and Boston, two cities who were in competition to host the 2016 Olympics, planned for insurance premiums around $66 million and $128 million, respectively.) And yet, it’s still almost impossible to formulate an accurate insurance assessment in advance. 

While the athletes themselves are required to have their own personal insurance, realistically there is no amount of insurance that could entirely cover the Olympic Games. In part, this is because the scope constantly changes through the games. You can insure your house against a hurricane because that’s a rare but specific event, whereas the Olympics have too many moving parts. And that’s before you throw in things like Covid-19. It’s no wonder that budgets are so bloated! 

But there are some things that are insured each Olympics: event cancellation owing to illness, terrorism, and even natural disasters (Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics includes plans for climate-related emergencies, for example) — not to mention personal injury and property coverage. (If you happen to be a winner, congratulations! And might we suggest you take out a policy that specifically covers your medal?)

Whether you’re Nathan Chen competing for the gold medal in figure skating or you’ve entirely forgotten that the games have come around yet again, you can be glad you’re not in charge of insuring the Olympics. But fortunately, controlling your own insurance doesn’t require super-human strength or skill. Just create your Marble account to start easily keeping all your policies organized and at your fingertips. Plus, you’ll even earn rewards for insurance — which is almost as good as a gold medal!