This study seeks to unravel the management structure of sport mega-events with the dependency model suggested by Andre Gunder Frank, as well as Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems theory, using the case of Daegwallyeong-myeon in PyeongChang, South Korea, host community of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Gunder Frank argued that in the model of dependency, the developed part extracts resources and profits from the underdeveloped part while the latter believes it is being developed to the level of the former. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate how and in what ways the Olympic management processes involved and displayed the structure of the dependency model, similar to colonial exploitation through which a developed part extracts resources and benefits from an underdeveloped part. Multi-faceted qualitative data were analyzed, collected from four months of fieldwork in Daegwallyeong-myeon before, during, and after the Olympic Games. Data collection involved interviews, observations, field notes, and collection of text, image, and media data. This study extends the discussion on the relationship between the developed – the core – and the underdeveloped part – the periphery – of the globe (Wallerstein, 1978), aiming to engage in decolonizing the management structure of the Olympic Games.