A074: National Image, National Brand, and Heritage of Major Sports
Events
Authors: Wang Dan 
Published: January 2025

Background/Purpose: The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, with the
concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, were
Olympic Games held in Beijing after 2008. Its Olympic heritage is more
macro, comprehensive, and distinctive of China, and is an important resource
for China's subsequent development. The cultural heritage of the Beijing
Winter Olympics, as a world-renowned historical landmark, has a sustained
endogenous driving force for the national image and brand building. Although
there has been some research on Olympic heritage, it has mainly focused on
the Summer Olympics, with relatively few studies on the heritage of the
Winter Olympics. The current research on the heritage of the Winter Olympics
has mainly discussed the definition and evaluation methods of heritage or
analyzed individual categories of heritage such as venue preservation, with
less exploration of heritage development strategies. In addition, although
existing research has yielded certain results in the subsequent development
of heritage from previous Winter Olympics (such as the Vancouver Winter
Olympics), each Winter Olympics has its own specific environment and
background, and its Olympic heritage also has its own unique
characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a specialized
analysis of the heritage of 2008 Beijing Winter Olympics. Based on the
analysis of the characteristics of the Beijing Winter Olympics heritage, the
purpose of this study was to explore issues such as how to utilize these
features in the process of national branding, and ultimately what kind of
national image should be formed.

Methods/Design: A semi-structured interview was conducted to
collect key experiences, opinions, and lessons learned from stakeholders in
the construction of selected national brands and the Winter Olympics, to
have a deeper understanding of the details of national image construction,
national brand development, and the Beijing Winter Olympics and its
heritage. Based on the list of stakeholder types mentioned in the
literature, the criteria of the population most likely to answer research
questions based on their first-hand experience, and expert knowledge of
large-scale events, 12 subjects were selected to participate in this study,
including members of the Organizing Committee for the 2022 Beijing Winter
Olympics, partners and sponsors of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics,
important mainstream foreign media journalists, academic researchers from
domestic and foreign universities in the impact of large-scale events and
national brand research. Interviews were conducted from January to June
2022, covering the preparation, organization, and review of the Winter
Olympics, providing interviewees with objective evaluation and reflection
space. Due to the pandemic, the interviews were mainly conducted online
through three apps: Skype, Zoom, and We Chat. The interview was digitally
recorded and transcribed with the informed consent of the interviewees, and
the interviewee's interview materials were encoded. The collection of data
takes saturation as the node until no more information appears. Through
constant comparison and inductive analysis, this study developed the
relevant characteristics of the cultural heritage of this Winter Olympics
and conducted discussions on this basis. Secondly, to make the text
materials more detailed and abundant, online ethnography was used, relying
on mainstream domestic and foreign online platforms, focusing on comments on
the Winter Olympics cultural heritage and national image in the "online
community", as part of the source of this research text.

Results: The heritage of the Winter Olympics presented four
important features that can be utilized in brand building: (1) consensus,
resonance, and progress: a major country striving for world unity; (2)
Green, environmentally friendly, and sustainable: the business card of the
"Double Olympics City"; (3) People oriented and responsible big country:
important achievements in the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic;
(4) Kind, joyful, and youthful: Happy Winter Olympics and sports stars.
These features were derived from China's early planning and have been
successfully perceived internationally. The dissemination effect was good.
Therefore, in subsequent development work, those features should be utilized
as a focus and highlight.

Conclusion: As an important connotation and clear goal of the
cultural heritage of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the benefits of a national
brand are considered a key achievement of the host country’s activities.
This study specifically analyzed the unique features provided by the Beijing
Winter Olympics that can create a national brand, and clarified the
interrelationships between major sports events, the development of the host
country's national brand, and image building work. Considering the long-term
and important nature of national brand building, further research is needed
to explore the specific media products and forms in which the
characteristics of the Winter Olympics heritage can be applied, as well as
how different media products should be coordinated.