How Olympic cities are selected

How Olympic cities are selected

Subject :IR

Section: International organisation

Context:

• India has declared its intention to host the Olympic Games, preferably in 2036, and Youth Olympics in 2029 during the opening ceremony of the 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on October 14.

Details:

• Only three Asian countries have ever hosted the Olympics — China, South Korea and Japan, with Japan hosting the games twice in 1964 and 2020.

How was a host country selected?

• Older system:
  • Cities, through their respective national Olympic committees, would submit a letter of interest to the IOC to start a multi-year, multi-step evaluation process. Then a series of questionnaires, evaluated by the IOC.
  • Second step involves scrutiny from the IOC Evaluation Commission and a series of inspections of all venues before the final bids are put to vote at an IOC session, ending in a host being decided seven years in advance as per the Olympic Charter. It often leads to excessive spendings from the bidders.
• New system of host selection:
  • Thomas Bach took over as the IOC president in 2013 and introduced the Olympic Agenda 2020 that includes the new process of host city selection, called the ‘new norms’, that was officially adopted during the 2019 IOC session in Lausanne.
• ‘New norms’:
  • Emphasis on three main aspects — flexibility, sustainability and cost-effectiveness — with the motto being ‘The Games adapt to the region, the region does not adapt to the Games’.
  • There is now a two-stage process — a continuous dialogue and a targeted dialogue — without any fixed deadlines, to assess, discuss and guide potential hosts.
  • Continuous dialogue: Unlike the past, the Games can be planned to be held across cities or even in conjunction with another country.
  • Targeted dialogue: It explores the proposals to host a specific edition of the Olympic Games and brings the IOC’s executive board into the picture for detailed discussions. This is where each of the ‘preferred hosts’ answer the (Future Host Commission) FHC’s questions and provides guarantees on infrastructure, accommodation, security and public services among others and makes the final submission. The FHC then prepares an advisory report for the executive board which has the power to either recommend a single host or shortlist more than one for elections by the IOC members.
  • In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the infrastructure and to avoid any public backlash, hosts are encouraged as far as possible to use existing and temporary venues. Any new venues built must be in line with existing developmental plans and have a long-term justification irrespective of the Games.
  • The focus on using existing and temporary venues has led to an 80% decrease in the bid budgets for the 2026 Winter Games compared to the 2018 and 2022 editions.

Who are the other potential bidders apart from India for the 2036 Games?

• Mexico (spread across the four cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana), Indonesia (at the new capital of Nusantara which is still under construction), Turkey (Istanbul) and Poland (Warsaw). India has not yet decided the cities.
• Among these, Mexico is the only one to have previously hosted the Games in 1968.
• Other potential bidders include Egypt, Seoul, China, Qatar, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Canada and Germany.

Multi-discipline events held in India:

• Regional South Asian Games in 2016,  2010CommonWealth Games, 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the Asian Games (1951 and 1982) and the 2007 World Military Games.

Source: TH