One particular strategy employed by governments and government agencies to promote sport participation has been to support the hosting of international sport events. Governments and their agencies are increasingly identifying the promotion of grassroots-sport participation as one of the opportunities, and anticipated outcomes, of hosting a mega-sport event such as the Olympic Games. For example, in regard to the London 2012 Olympic Games, UK Sport (2005) has stated that ‘a comprehensive development strategy will encourage participation and boost all levels of a sport — everything from assisting potential medal winners to inspiring children to take up sport’ (p. 74). Given the considerable amounts of public funds that are spent in the staging of mega-sport events, it is inevitable that there will be calls for evidence of the effectiveness of such events in delivering the promised outcomes, including sport-participation outcomes.