With the disorder online, social media still became the center of the 2012 Olympics, as each organization attempted to control the conversation to accommodate their own agendas and motives.

FORBES: A New Social Media Strategy for the Olympics, Future Sporting Events

Critics of the UPP (Pacifying Police Unit) in Rio de Janeiro are quick to question how community organization and development projects will take shape in the years leading up to the World Cup and Olympics.

FORBES: Alternative Models For Community Development Emerge Far From Rio's Bright Lights

Mike Lee is the chairman of Verocom, an organization which has successfully overseen campaigns to bring the Games to Rio in 2016, the Winter Olympics to Pyongchang in 2018 and the FIFA World Cup to Qatar in 2022.

CNN: Perfect pitch: How to get a sport into the Olympics

All that we have seen since, from entry into the World Trade Organization to Chinese-made toys at Wal-Mart to Louis Vuitton boutiques in Shanghai to the Beijing Olympics, started with that bit of ping-pong diplomacy.

FORBES: Ping-Pong Diplomacy For China, Soccer For North Korea?