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While organizers often promise the Olympic Games will bring an economic boom, citizens and governments can be left with big debts.
Lake Placid hosted the Games in 1980, when Olympic budgets were decidedly more modest than recent efforts.
That didn't prevent cost overruns, however. The Lake Placid Games were 320% over their original budget by the closing ceremony, according to the Oxford researchers.
The organizers were left with a deficit of about $8 million, and needed a bailout from the New York state legislature in order to pay creditors.