The report written by Tor Selstad, titled "Local Consequences of the Olympic Games. Economic, Social, and Physical Effects of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer" (ØF-report no. 1/1984), is among the earliest contributions to the research on the Olympics in Lillehammer.
After Lillehammer was awarded the Winter Olympics for 1994 in September 1988, the interest in research related to the event increased. The Research Council supported a collaborative project between The Eastern Norway Research institute (ostforsk.no), Oppland University College / ODH (today; inn.no), and Maihaugen/Opplandsarkivet (opam.no) to establish an Olympic documentation service. As part of this project, surveys were conducted, and five reports were published based on a series of research seminars, titled "OL-94 and Research I-V," with Professor Roel Puijk as the editor.
The subsequent research conducted by The Eastern Norway Research Institute /Østlandsforskning (ØF) and Oppland University College (ODH) (today: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciencs) in the years that followed covered various topics. Olav Spilling led a project on the regional impacts of the Olympics. His article titled "Beyond Intermezzo? On the Long-Term Impacts of Mega-Events. The Case of Lillehammer 1994" was published in the journal Festival Management and Event Tourism, volume 5(3):101-122. Spilling and Vonlanthen published the report "OL-94 and Tourism. Development Trends and Challenges" (ØF-report, 14/1992) and Dag Leonardsen contributed with the report "The Social Construction of the Olympics. On the Local Population's Encounter with a Mega Event" (HiL-report 9/1996). Jon Helge Lesjø studied the planning and decision-making process, documented, among others, in his doctoral thesis titled "The Olympics Case. A Process-Sociological Study of Planning, Politics, and Organization" (HiL-report no. 100/2003). Selstad and Skjeggedal evaluated the environmental efforts in the publication "Beautification without Sustainability. An Assessment of Lillehammer Olympics' Environmental Initiatives" (ØF-report 29/94). Studies on the Olympics and regional development in connection with events are analyzed in H. Teigen, M. Mehmetoglu, and T. Haraldsen (eds.) "Innovation, Experiences, and Tourism," Fagbokforlaget 2009. Teigen also led a project in 2007 that discussed the future of the Olympic Park.
Significant research related to the cultural dimension of the Games was conducted under the leadership of social anthropologist Arne Martin Klausen at University of Oslo (UiO). The most important publications from this project was: Klausen (ed.) "Fakkelstafetten – an Olympic Overture" (ad Notam, 1995); Klausen "Lillehammer Olympics and Olympism. A Modern Ritual and an Ambiguous Ideology" (ad Notam, 1996); R. Puijk (ed.) "Global Spotlights on Lillehammer. How the World viewed Norway during the 1994 Winter Olympics" (University Luton Press, 1997); Klausen (ed.) "Olympic Games as Performance and Public Event. The Case of the XVII Winter Olympic Games in Norway" (Berghahn Books, 1999).
Jon Teigland at The Western Norway Research Institute (Vestlandsforskning/ www.vestforsk.no) has studied the significance of the Olympics for the development of tourism in the region. Key publications from Teigland include: "Impacts on Tourism from Mega-Events. The Case of Winter Olympic Games" (Vestlandsforskning, report 13/1996). Additionally: "Mega-events and Impact on Tourism: The Predictions and Realities on the Lillehammer Olympics" in the journal Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 17(4) 305-317.
A study of the Olympic organization LOOC (Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee) was conducted by researchers from BI Norwegian Business School and NHH Norwegian School of Economics, documented, among others, in the book edited by Bente Løwendahl and Odd Nordhaug: "OL 1994. An Inspiration for Future Business?" (Tano, 1994).
Norway has hosted one Winter Olympic event before Lillehammer. Gaute Heyerdahl at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH) has conducted research on the 1952 Oslo Olympics in addition to the 1994 Olympics. His doctoral thesis is titled "Winter Olympics in the Cradle of Skiing: The VI Olympic Winter Games in Oslo, 1952, and the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, 1994" (Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, 2014).
Lillehammer has also hosted another Olympic event, albeit on a smaller scale: the Youth Olympics in February 2016. Research related to this event is gathered in the book edited by Hanstad and Lesjø: "Youth Olympics in Lillehammer. Children's Ski Race or Olympic Innovation?" (Akilles, 2017). Research on the Youth Olympics has been published in a special issue of the journal International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing in 2017 (Vol 17, nos 4-6), with the theme "Youth Olympic Games: Management and Legacy." Additionally, E. Skille, T.L. Syversen, and D.V. Hanstad have studied the organization that prepared and executed the Youth Olympics, with a focus on organizational culture, published in the European Journal for Sport and Society (2019).