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Abstract: This paper investigates the extent to which the spatial organisation of Rio 2016 Olympic Games territorialised a number of targeted event and venue spaces across the host city. The paper unpacks, using on the ground in-depth descriptive analysis, how Rio 2016’s main Games sites and ancillary event zones were spatially organised. It also explores the variegated implications of the Olympic Games spatial organisation for Rio’s host communities. Qualitative in its focus, in-depth insights are shared through the use of narrated observation and photo and video diaries captured in advance of, and during, the Rio Games. The paper finds that whilst the city of Rio and associated event spaces became controlled and striated in a variety of ways, they simultaneously emerged disorganised, somewhat chaotic, but in turn more open, fluid and ‘democratic’. The authors argue that host community, venue, and Last Mile spaces offered greater propensity for creative resistance, plurality of voice, and the affordance of alternative narratives.