The olympics isn't the only international sports competition. It's just the most daft one. It groups unrelated sports together like a circus. It slaps ads, sponsorships, and as much scrooging as it can all over the footage and then ironically pays the athletes a pittance to boot, making them rely on outside sponsorship deals.

Most sports have world championships. They don't need the resources that the Olympics do, because they are sport specific and not necessarily sponsored by the government. If I'm American and I goto the world boxing championship, I don't need Biden's permission to represent America. If I win, then an American won. I just get listed as holding the title. The Olympics on the other hand is an ill scandal based on bribes, doping and awful bureaucracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_Games_scandals...

Moving the athletes is effectively trivial for these completions. It’s the spectators and facilities which represent most of the pollution. Olympics is a huge outlier in terms of athletes and it’s still 100 spectators in the stands per 1 athlete.