The first steps towards an official Indian bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games have reportedly been taken.
A letter was sent to the Future Host Commission at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in early October, by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), expressing India’s desire to host the events.
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2036 is the earliest Summer Olympics that India could bid for – 2028 is set for Los Angeles and the 2032 edition will take place in Brisbane, Australia.
India has been mooted as a potential host for the 2036 Olympics repeatedly over the last few years, and in October 2023 its Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the country will look to host the 2036 edition of that iconic quadrennial event.
In October, Christophe De Kepper, director general of the IOC, told media the organization was talking to “10 interested national Olympic committees and regions across four continents” around future candidacies for the Summer Olympics, with the 2036 games the next to have a host or hosts awarded.
The 2036 hosting rights are likely to be allocated in 2026, the year after IOC president Thomas Bach is set to stand down (there are currently seven presidential candidates looking to replace him).
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By GlobalDataIndia has never hosted the event before, and will likely center its efforts in a bid for the 2036 edition on the city of Ahmedabad, where the Narendra Modi cricket stadium has a capacity of 132,000.
Last July, Populous, the Australian architectural design firm, won a contract to prepare a 'strategic master plan' for Ahmedabad's bid to host the 2036 games.
Other countries that are set to formally bid for the 2036 Olympics, meanwhile, include Indonesia, Chile, and Turkey, while other possible bidders include Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Mexican authorities had also originally said they would bid for either the 2036 or 2040 games, before publicly opting against such a move in January this year.
This formal move by India comes with the country’s own Olympic body in turmoil, however – last month, the IOC informed the IOA that it would be bringing its payments to that national body to a halt, as a result of internal conflict.
James Macleod, director of National Olympic Committee relations at the IOC, said that the main reason for bringing its IOA funding – amounting to around €1 million ($1.09 million) annually – to a halt is “ongoing internal disputes and governance issues.”
The dispute is based around the appointment, back in January, of Raghuram Iyer as chief executive of the IOA – various members of the IOA’s executive council have refused to ratify that decision by the body’s president, P.T. Usha, while there are ongoing disagreements about his salary.
In addition to this issue, the IOA has been accused of not submitting compulsory financial reports, thereby impacting its eligibility to receive Olympic Solidarity Grants.
