Baku may be best known by some for Bond, BMW and Beluga caviar. Lying on the shores of the Caspian Sea, Baku the “windy city” combines the charm from the Ottoman Empire with state-of-the-art edifices such as the Flame Towers, fuelled by the glowing economy in Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire. The inaugural European Games took place in Baku in June 2015 under the auspices of the European Olympic Committee and organised by the Baku European Games Organising Committee (BEGOC), many members of which were...

Similarities to other major games and important differences are identified with regard to 3 criteria: 1. Organisation, 2. Clinical, and 3. Legacy of radiology services. Data from the Baku Games was gathered prospectively from the organisational stages and during games time using a bespoke RIS-PACS system (Distribution and Control Management, DCM http://www.first-global.com/en-us/Solutions/DCM ).

Baku hosted 5,000 athletes from 50 countries in 20 sports, compared with 10,000 from 205 countries in 41 sports at London 2012. Although there was a dedicated polyclinic, there were significant differences in organisation and structure with only 6 radiologists rather than 40; MRI, CT and radiography off-site but linked through a RIS-PACS system which was highly customised on site by First Solutions ( http://www.first-global.com ) to allow for the constraints of existing infrastructure but great expectations from European National Olympic Committees and teams. Special...

Similarities between the European and Olympic Games stem form clinical needs and injuries, differences are in sports, scale and resource. Planning for the next European Games should address these with specific regard to organisation, service provision of clinical radiology and legacy. The intangible legacy of enhanced sports imaging lives on long after Team Radiology has left.

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