The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) submitted their official Letter of Intent to host the 2036 Summer Olympic Games this week.
Though a location is not yet final, the Indian Express reports that western city Ahmedabad is a frontrunner. The campaign is pushing to add yoga, chess, and squash along with other traditional Indian sports like kho kho and kabaddi to the 2036 program.
If selected, this would be India’s first time hosting a major international multi-sport event in over 25 years. Most recently, New Delhi served as the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which was riddled with criticism and controversies.
During the construction of the games there were reportedly dozens of workers that died. Workers also reported receiving compensation below minimum wage. Furthermore, several publications reported evidence of child labor at the commonwealth games.
The week before the start of the games, 10,000 volunteers backed out from helping the event.
There were also swimming-specific issues at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. On the first night, debris from the ceiling fell into the pool, causing meet delays. The pool’s water filtration system also broke before the final session of competition.
Despite controversies of India’s Commonwealth Games, India’s 2036 plan has been backed by current IOC president Thomas Bach. Additionally, French president Emmanuel Macron supported the bid and said his country would exchange expertise from the Paris 2024 Olympics if India were to be selected.
India, the second-largest country on earth by population and fifth-largest economy on earth by GDP, has begun to catch the attention of the IOC for its commercial potential. Cricket, which is wildly popular in India, is being added as an Olympic sport by Los Angeles 2028 organizers, and the IOC is even considering moving the events from Los Angeles to the American east coast to make the time zone more convenient for fans in India.
Observers hope that a rapid modernization in India over the last decade along with increasing political influence will help it avoid some of the pitfalls that the Commonwealth Games faced.
India becomes one of four 2036 official bids thus far, joining Istanbul, TĂĽrkiye; Santiago, Chile; and Nusantra, Indonesia. The IOC reports that dozens of other locations have expressed interest in hosting the 2036 games. Other prominent campaigns include Doha, Qatar, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The host of the 2036 Games will not be decided until after next year’s IOC elections.
For Indonesia, it’s Nusantara.
Not Nustantra.
Macron’s expert advice – “clean the Ganges.”
The Indian and Indonesian bids seem like extreme long shots. Just for starters, the climates are horrible for outdoor sports. Imagine soccer in 95° heat/95% humidity.
Chile would be a great choice. Their economy and political scene are extremely stable. Santiago is a modern city with modern infrastructure. And Santiago is close enough in time zones to the US East Coast (two hours ahead in October-March, 1 hour in April-September). The issues there are the reversed seasons in the southern hemisphere. They could bid for dates in mid-late September, which is actually a great time of year there.
A lot of the world is not the US. But NBC will probably get whatever they want.
The IOC would have to change their host requirements if Santiago were to host in September. If the IOC are willing to allow hosts in September the Brisbane date should be changed.
Seoul ’88 was in September. And it was kimchi-rific!
The requirements changed after Sydney 2000.
Terrible idea.
It will be interesting to hear WADA’s opinion on this bid. India has perhaps the worst doping problem in the world regarding athletes and especially youth athletes. It was the site of the infamous 2023 race in which all but one runner fled the scene once doping testers were known to be on premises:
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/lone-100m-runner-in-infamous-delhi-meet-fails-dope-test-9054563/
Somehow I don’t think the IOC or WADA or Dick Pound will care about any of that, as long as certain criteria are filled. Handsomely filled
Be mindful of what you say about Dick Pound, or suffer the consequences!
Open water in the ganges boutta be lit 🔥🔥
if you mean people will be glowing when they get out of the water, I agree.
Mmmmmm…. corpses.
YOGA? Really??
Open water in India??? Yuck!
“ Additionally, French president Emmanuel Macron supported the bid and said his country would exchange expertise from the Paris 2024 Olympics if India were to be selected.” – dog you are not the one who should be talking right now.
For anyone unaware, Olympic bids/volunteers have been steadily decreasing for each games, so India volunteering is a positive thing imo, and the last time the games were held in Asia I feel like they were pretty non-controversial, I wasn’t that old then though. The 2010 incident is admittedly concerning, but after 26 years who’s to say significant progress can’t be made.
unfortunately, india is definitively not japan