With the race to host the 2036 Olympics on hold, the IOC gave its clearest signs yet Wednesday how it will decide with more transparency a contest India and Qatar crave to win.
More than 100 International Olympic Committee members got confirmation of what many lobbied for under their new president, Kirsty Coventry — no repeat of the opaque, fast-track process that picked Brisbane as 2032 Summer Games host fully 11 years in advance.
Instead, an IOC panel reviewing the process to choose future Olympic hosts promised greater transparency and input from the members.
A proposed short-list stage also would require cities to give the IOC a detailed project plan much earlier and credit cities for past hosting of multisports events.
“Clear criteria, documented procedures and more regular updates for both IOC members and for interested parties would build legitimacy and guard against perceptions of favoritism,” Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the former president of Croatia, told her IOC colleagues.
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How Brisbane won
In the audience Wednesday to hear that were Thomas Bach and John Coates, respectively the IOC’s president and its most influential Australian member when Brisbane won in 2021.
Coates had overseen, as a senior Olympic lawyer and at Bach’s request, an overhaul of the traditional bidding contests that were long, expensive and exposed a risk of vote-buying.
In came a mostly confidential process of closed-door talks with Olympic staff and no set timeline that left IOC members merely to approve the one candidate presented by Bach’s executive board.
Brisbane won that way — blindsiding rivals bids from Doha and Budapest — and so did the French Alps for the 2030 Winter Games. It will be different for what shapes as a blockbuster contest for 2036, which is the next Olympics available.
Coventry takes pause
The first big decision by Coventry when she formally succeeded her mentor Bach last June was to pause the 2036 contest in which India was widely seen to have built momentum.
Coventry ordered a wider review of Olympic issues under the banner of “Fit for the Future” and empowered Grabar-Kitarović to look at how hosts are chosen.
The system “requires refinement,” Croatia’s former ambassador to the United States said Wednesday, setting goals of “structured timelines, greater transparency and more meaningful IOC member involvement.”
The IOC said during Bach’s presidency it was in ongoing talks with a “double-digit” number of countries wanting to host a Summer Games in 2036 or beyond.
Ambanis and the Emir
An India project in Ahmedabad backed by the wealthy Ambani family and the latest Qatar bid in Doha have seemed strongest. Both Nita Ambani and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, are IOC members with a combined 34 years of service.
The IOC’s “double-digit” list likely included Turkey, Hungary, Germany, Chile and Indonesia, which was excluded in October after refusing to host Israeli athletes at the gymnastics world championships.
Grabar-Kitarović suggested a new “transitional” stage in the process to focus on a short list of serious bids ready in advance with some plans that currently can be agreed after a host has been picked.
Those criteria for “deeper evaluation” should include “venue master plans, clarity on sports program, financial guarantees and the added value of prior experience in hosting multisports events,” she said.
Multisports hosting experience
Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games and will host it again in 2030. New Delhi hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and 1951, and also the 2010 Commonwealth Games that was fraught with logistics problems. The Commonwealths will come to Ahmedabad in 2030.
Grabar-Kitarović proposed to her fellow IOC members they could engage with candidates in closed-door briefings and secure online talks to ensure confidentiality.
The next IOC Session meeting should be in June, when the hosting contest process outlined Wednesday can be approve and the 2036 race can formally resume.
