Hosting the Olympics and Paralympics does bring change, but that transformation comes at a cost

Big news last week on the Olympic Park slide. Perhaps you missed it amid the euphoria and phantasmagoria of Sunday night’s Paralympic closing ceremony, as the curtain finally came down on the vivid summer panorama that was Paris 2024. In the circumstances, then, the chequered fate of the ArcelorMittal Orbit – the Anish Kapoor sculpture in east London that like all the best art was named after a global steel conglomerate and fitted with a giant slide against its creator’s wishes – stands as a kind of totemic, even cautionary Olympic tale.

Officially, the Orbit has been closed since the start of 2024 for maintenance work. In practice, visitor numbers have emerged largely unscathed. Original projections of 350,000 a year were, it turns out, just another of London 2012’s grand numerical fictions. The true figure averages out at about 93,000, which given its steep maintenance costs means London taxpayers are still effectively paying for it.