With the 2022 Winter Olympics behind us, it is time to take a look into the future Olympic games. We already know where the next three Summer Olympics will take place, while the host city of the 2032 Games will be decided sometime between 2025 and 2029. Even though the final decision is still years away, a number of countries have already started to prepare for the bid.
One of the countries whose officials have already announced their plans to propose a bid for the Olympics is Egypt. The possibility of Egypt hosting 2036 Olympics was publicly discussed by the county’s Sports Minister Ashraf Sobhy in January 2022. A few months earlier, officials from Russia, China, and India hinted at something similar to the media.
Egypt Announces Plans to Bid for the 2036 Games
Only one continent still hasn’t hosted an Olympics – Africa. In fact, only one African city has ever made a bid to host the games. It happened back in 1997 when South Africa’s most populous city Cape Town made its bid to host the 2004 Games, eventually losing to Athens after finishing third in the five-cities poll.
Is it time for Africa to get its first Olympics? With the next three Olympics already having a confirmed city host, the year 2036 could be the first time that Africa gets to host the event. So, which African country has the best chance to get this honor?
According to Egyptian Minister of Sport, Ashraf Sobhy, his country is planning to make an official bid for the 2036 Olympics. Sobhy reminded everyone that Egypt has already started building a large sports complex worth millions of dollars in the outskirts of Cairo.
Named the Egypt International Olympic City, the project is located some 45 kilometers away from Cairo. When completed, the complex should have a total built-up area of 41,100 square miles, with an aquatic center, a 90,000-seat football stadium, several tennis courts, and more.
Chinese Bids for the 2036 Olympics
Officials from 12 Chinese cities have already revealed their wishes to join the race for hosting the 2036 Olympics. One of those is Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province that’s home to more than eight million people, but which became famous around the world in late 2019 as the place from which the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Another Chinese city in the conversation regarding the 2036 Games is Nanjing, which has already hosted one Game so far. This took place in 2014, when the city hosted the 2014 Summer Olympics.
Furthermore, there’s another city that’s already made a bid. The city in question is Chengdu, whose official – Pu Hu of the CPPCC Chengdu Committee – made two bits in March 2018. One of those was for the 2032 Olympics; the other one was the 2036 Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already given the rights to host the 2032 Games to the Australian city of Brisbane. What this means is Chengdu has lost one battle, but this doesn’t mean the city isn’t going to win the one for the Olympics taking place four years later.
India to Join the Race?
Even though it’s the world’s second-most populous country, India still hasn’t hosted an Olympics. However, the country seems to be determined to win the right to host the next available event. If everything goes according to plan, India’s first city to host the Olympics will be Ahmedabad.
The reason behind this is that Ahmedabad already has the infrastructure necessary to host a major sporting event. The Narendra Modi Stadium, a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, went through an expensive reconstruction process for several years before finally being open to the public in 2020 as the world’s largest sports venue. As of 2022, the stadium has a seating capacity of over 132,000.
Further, the country is also planning to construct a large sports complex in Ahmedabad which would be suitable for hosting the Olympics.
Other Potential Candidates?
Exactly one hundred years after the infamous 1936 Olympics held in Nazi Germany, there’s talk that Germany and Israel could host the Games together. If this scenario was to happen, the two cities that would co-host the Games would probably be Berlin and Tel Aviv.
Another city that could make a bid is Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg. Although the city officials have confirmed the plans to join the race, the IOC might not be willing to actually award a Russian city with hosting rights. The reason is that the Committee banned Russia from taking part in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo due to a doping scandal exposed a few years earlier.
