India has not made an official bid for 2036 Olympics; faces major hurdles for even initiating the process

Mumbai, Oct 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have expressed India's interest in hosting the Olympic Games in 2036 and proclaimed that his government will not leave any stone unturned for that, winning the hosting rights would be as difficult as it can get.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Sunday made it clear that it has not received any formal proposal or letter of interest from India regarding their intention to bid for the 2036 Games. 

It also made it clear that as far as the bidding process for the Games, it only recognises the National Olympic Committee (NOC), the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in this case. As of now, India's interest has been shown by Prime Minister Modi, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and the Gujarat Government through the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), which hired PwC as its consultant and gave a final report on which venues and general infrastructure have to be built for the Olympics to be held in Ahmedabad.

And therein lies a big hurdle for India's bid for the 2036 Olympic Games as IOA's stock with the IOC is currently at its lowest and the way the IOC officials are dealing with the issue, it seems the global Olympic body is not at all happy with the way IOA has handled many things.

The message is clear -- before they hear from it regarding India's bid for the 2036 Olympics, the IOC wants the IOA to put its house in order before making a bid.

The IOC Executive Board had asked the IOA to appoint a secretary general or the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the earliest after it withdrew the sword of suspension following the delay in organising the elections. 

The IOA has thus far not appointed a CEO or secretary general and joint secretary Kalyan Choubey is still holding the additional charge of CEO since December 10, 2022, when the elections were held.

The IOC is not very happy with the delay in the process and has made it clear that it will only communicate with the secretary general or CEO.

On the opening day of its annual Session, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned countries that exclude athletes from competing for political reasons they could risk harming their plans to host Olympic Games.

IOC member and chairman of the Future Host Commission for Summer Olympics, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, in an update to global sports leaders on Sunday, flagged the “growing politicisation of sport” as a problem that could impact countries who want to host the games in future.

The IOC also made it clear that no decision will be made on the hosting rights for the 2036 Olympic Games before 2026. "President Thomas Bach has made it clear today that he is not in favour of a decision on one more host city during this term of his presidency," said an IOC spokesperson on the sidelines of the 141st IOC Session here.

Apart from that, India/Ahmedabad will face a battle from 10 cities/regions including Mexico, Egypt, Poland, Indonesia and Turkey, that have already expressed interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics to get into a dialogue with the IOC on the hosting rights for 2036.

The process is that the NOC will have to make an official bid with a formal letter of interest. Then only will India get recognised as an interested party, informed Mark Adams, IOC's Director of Media and Communications after the traditional day-end press briefing on the first day of the IOC session.

As per the resolution passed by the 134th IOC Session in 2019 the IOC has set up a separate Future Host Commission for Summer and Winter Olympic Games which has been tasked with getting into a discussion with candidate cities or interested parties.

The Future Host Commission will conduct the bidding in two dialogue stages -- Continuous Dialogue, which is a con-commital conversation with the interested party/parties, and Targeted Dialogue, an advanced discussion with one or two interested parties.

The IOC has implemented this process to reduce the bidding cost by around 80 percent and to avoid corruption.