Interest in hosting the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games is high, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said Monday in Beijing claiming that regions interested in bidding have climbed to the “double digits”.
Bach invited China to enter the race for that next available Games according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.
“Candidatures from China are always the most welcome,” Bach said during his five day visit to the capital where he met with Premier Li Qiang to discuss the legacy of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
During the visit Bach said the IOC will donate its share of the USD $52 million Games surplus, amounting to USD $10.4 million, to support the legacy of Beijing 2022 in China.
“Young people engaging in winter sports will greatly benefit from this contribution of the IOC,” the President added.
But China will have to wait, Bach warned, before it can host the Summer edition for the Games a second time after initially staging the event in 2008.
“…Right now we have already allocated the hosts until 2032, so China still has some time to think about the next candidature, which will be 2036. But I’m really looking forward to many major international sports events taking place in China in the coming years.
“There is still some time to go. We will maybe have a better feeling what the world will look like in 2036 than we do at this very moment now.”
Nations expressing interest in hosting in 2036 are known to include South Korea, India, Indonesia, Germany, Qatar, Hungary, Turkey, Mexico, Egypt and U.K. There is no set timetable for awarding the 2036 Games. Prospective bidders enter into ongoing discussions until the IOC chooses a smaller number of candidates for targeted dialogue aimed at a final election.
Bach confirmed that he IOC will not choose a host for the next available Winter Games in 2030 earlier than next year.
“By then we will have a clearer picture of the overall impact of climate change and the other challenges winter sports are facing,” the President added, referring to a study the IOC is conducting to identify regions capable of hosting Winter Olympics in the coming years.
Last December the IOC announced it is considering several options, including a double-allocation of the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games and the possibility of naming a pool of permanent rotating hosts.
Current interest in the Winter Games has come from Sapporo in Japan, Salt Lake City in United States, British Columbia in Canada, Sweden and Switzerland. Earlier this year the IOC confirmed that more than six parties are involved in ongoing discussions.
Paris is set to host the Summer Games in 2024 followed by Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032. The next Winter Games are due to be staged in Italy by Milan-Cortina in 2026.
