Following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to award both the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games simultaneously this year, with 2024 likely going to Paris and 2028 to Los Angeles, informal bidding for the rights to host the 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games has begun.
Earlier this summer the Indian Olympic Association requested the Indian government to allow it to begin putting together a bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games. In an attempt to follow neighboring China as a host of major international sporting events, India would also like the opportunity to showcase its growing economy through the spectacle of sport.
China, host of the 2008 Summer Olympic & Paralympic Games, 2011 FINA World Aquatics Championships, and upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games, has been flaunting its ability to create new infrastructure and host the world’s best athletes and their fans in fantastic venues for years. However, not even China has proven immune to the Olympic hangover that befalls most hosts; though the Water Cube still sees action now and then, other 2008 Olympic venues within the city of Beijing have fallen into disrepair.
Rio remains fresh in the minds both of fans and critics of the Games as a shining example of what happens when a country seemingly on-the-cusp of full-fledged industrialization takes on the monumental task of hosting an Olympic Games. Touted as a fantastic leap towards “A much better Rio” by the IOC, the 2016 Games were advertised as a modernizing gale to push Rio into the future. Alas, the predictions were overly-optimistic, if not straight-up baloney. Not even Montreal could escape the economic hangover prone to follow a bout of Keynesian spending on infrastructure, championed by members of the host organizing committee and contractors eager for a major payday. With these things in mind, one must question India’s ability to host the Games, even if they are 15 years away.
While the Zika virus threatened the very constitution of the Rio Games, with some calling for a postponement or re-allocation of the Games for fear of the largely-mosquito-borne illness, Dengue Fever has been a very real obstacle for India. If this seems at all contrived, it is certainly not mere conjecture: Dehli, India, played host to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which were nearly derailed by an outbreak of Dengue Fever due to water-logging of areas surrounding the Athletes Village.
On the other side of the world, meanwhile, Germany has unveiled a 13-city plan for the 2032 Summer Games. Though events would be spread throughout the country, Düsseldorf and Köln would host the majority of the sports. Four aquatic disciplines, including swimming, synchronized (artistic) swimming, diving, and water polo, would take place in Gelsenkirchen, per the preliminary plan.
Germany’s plan, while not as “compact” as the single-city approach historically taken by Olympic hosts, ought to reduce costs and potentially eliminate the need for new infrastructure. This strategy was utilized by Los Angeles and Paris as they put together their bids for the 2024 Games.
Though Germany and India seem to have the most interest right now in hosting the 2032 Summer Games, Brisbane, Australia, has also entered the conversation. Brisbane, which currently lacks the infrastructure to host an Olympic Games, chose not to involve itself with a bid for 2028.
The 2032 Olympic Games are set to be awarded by the IOC in 2025, so hosts have plenty of time to put together astute bids that might wow the IOC with their ingenuity and conformity to the Olympic Agenda 2020.
The best location is Mumbai or Mysore.I mean, how can cricket be not there in olympics?It is simply beacuse of less time.But, India will definitely host 30 games and it is going to be exiciting. For cricket-Wankhede,……… Equestrian/Polo- Mahalakshmi race course…. For swimming and many other there is D.Y. Patil Sports Complex and so on. Let it be like that.
I think the Ganges would be an ideal open water venue. Not going to find much cleaner bodies of water than that
Agree with PVDH. The pollution and over population would be a nightmare as well. India whose population will surely pass China in 20 years has only won 9 golds, 8 of which were field hockey, since 1900. It simply does not highly value sports as most western countries and other Asian countries like Japan and China.
I would readjust that to say “does not value Olympic sports with the exception of field hockey”. Its peak sport is one that is not currently an Olympic one; cricket.
It is just a lack of investment, with a population of 1.5 billion people is impossible to do not have some great athletes.
Who knows how many potential prodigies drive a tax down there….
Or the fact that an overwhelming majority of that population live “hand to mouth” existances …. and way out of range of any talent spotters. They HAVE, over the past dozen years, begun to produce some international class field athletes as well as in sports like shooting but swimming is WAY off the radar screen and is likely to remain so. The bulk of commercial investment in India is seen in cricket, in particularly the abridged 20/20 version where the Indian Premier League is where many international cricketers (from all intl playing nations can make the most money). A very poor and distant 2nd is field hockey.
Shouldn’t it be “bologna” not “bolognese”? Bologna is the sandwich meat often substituted for BS, bolognese is classic Italian meat sauce…
regardless of the city, the Olympics in India would be a logistics nightmare. Infrastructure is incredibly underdeveloped in even the major cities, and it is not something that can be reasonably fixed within the next 20 years. I would like it to be in Mexico City within my lifetime. If Germany is a must, then hopefully Hamburg and not Berlin (if they are able to host). I think Brussels would be a great city to host in.
But my fantasy for 2032 is a joint Cape Town/Johannesburg Olympics. Enough of Asia and Western Europe. Put the games where it has never gone before.
South Africa has it own problems too. and dont see them getting any better…
SA was a much better host for the WC than India was for the Comm games
Sorry but given the South African domestic economy, let alone political situation; ANY thought of hosting any major intl sporting event larger than a Rugby or Cricket World Cup is a non-starter for the forseeable future.
A joint Cape Town/Joburg bid …. logistically a nightmare given the distance of over 1500km between the two centres let alone trying to make an equitable split of events. Would also require enormous infrastructure outlays for facilities other than football stadiums of which there are plenty in most major RSA cities.
To diverge somewhat, the problem that Olympics have going forward is that their now gargantuan size is making its ongoing survival questionable unless it contracts significantly. The number of potential host cities… Read more »
In 20 years you can build a city from scratch. Especially in a third world country where you can expropriate easily.
Not with the corruption in India.
From which sport is far from immune. The BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) who run the most popular sport in the country as well as the major sporting money-spinner has had to have most of its hierarchy removed under High Court orders.
The 2010 CommGames, whilst not the outright disaster some feared, was no major success in any sense of the world and hardly painted a convincing case that India was anywhere near a realistic Olympic host. If we are talking East Asia/South Asia outside of the China/Japan/South Korea axis; the only realistic candidate would be a joint bid of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Mexico City is like Rio.