Robert Livingstone is a Canadian journalist. He is the creator and producer of
GamesBids
GamesBids.com launched July 27, 1998 as Torontosummergames.com, and was published to follow the bid by the city of Toronto to organize the Games of the XXIXth Olympiad in 2008. After Beijing was eventually elected to host the Olympic Games, the ...
, a news and information website for the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
bid process, since 1998. He is a member of the
International Society of Olympic Historians
The International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 with the purpose of promoting and studying the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Games. The majority of recent books on the Olympic Games have been ...
and "is widely considered one of the world’s foremost experts on the Olympic bidding process."
Covering the Olympic bid process
Livingstone's specialty is the Olympic Games' site selection process and he frequently comments in the media as a notable expert on the issues related to hosting of the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
by various cities.
Robert Livingstone wrote a weekly op-ed column about New York's 2012 Olympic bid in the
New York Sun newspaper.
In 1998 he launched
GamesBids
GamesBids.com launched July 27, 1998 as Torontosummergames.com, and was published to follow the bid by the city of Toronto to organize the Games of the XXIXth Olympiad in 2008. After Beijing was eventually elected to host the Olympic Games, the ...
.com, a reference site for Olympic bids as well as BidIndex, an original Olympic bid rating system. There, he also serves as senior journalist.
Since 2000, Livingstone has been said to have been "comprehensively covering all Olympic bids for over two decades". He also covers bids for
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
,
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
,
Pan American Games
The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...
,
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
and more in both journalistic and opinion pieces.
Livingstone is an expert on all Olympic bids, but was noteworthy during the failed Calgary 2026 Olympic bid when he published his "Dear Calgary:" series that guided the city through the complexities of an Olympic bid prior to a decisive plebiscite. The series received media acclaim in Calgary along with several Q&A interviews.
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
mayor
Naheed Nenshi apparently took inspiration from Livingstone's remarks during his 2026 Olympic bid campaign when he said “This has been called the most transparent process in Olympic history.” "The mayor was alluding to a tweet from GamesBids.com journalist Robert Livingstone, who covers Olympic bids worldwide" a journalist from ''The Sprawl'' reported.
As a long-time Olympic journalist, in 2014 Livingstone was invited to carry the torch in the Sochi
2014 Winter Olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
torch relay where he ran a leg in
Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty language, Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi language, Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the admini ...
, Russia.
In 2010, Livingstone became one of the first web-only journalists accredited to cover the Olympic Games.
Television, video, radio and podcasts
Livingstone appeared as an expert on the television show to discuss the controversial Olympic bid vote-buying scandal involving
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
. He also appeared as an Olympic bid expert on show where he discussed issues with siting the Olympic Winter Games.
In 2021, Livingstone was featured in an Olympic-themed Off The Podium podcast which discussed his career included becoming one of the first-ever web-only journalists to receive accreditation to cover the Olympic Games and running in the Olympic torch relay at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Livingstone appeared in a CBC Sports Program "The Breakdown" in 2022 that took a critical look at the history behind Beijing being awarded the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, a process that he extensively covered with multiple visits to China, Switzerland, Indonesia and Kazakhstan from 2013 to 2014.
Livingstone had also been a guest on several radio programs including in 2021 on the Scott Radley Show in
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
to discuss the city's Commonwealth Games bid.
Awards
In 2015, Livingstone was nominated for an inaugural International Sports Press Association Sport Media Pearl Award in the category of "Journalistic Weblog" for his work on GamesBids.com.
In 2018 he was ranked first in North and South America.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingstone, Robert
1967 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Toronto
York University alumni