People watch the cauldron rise at sunset by the Olympic rings during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Could there be an Olympic Games in the future which sees five cities in five different continents hosting sports simultaneously? It could become a reality if Morinari Watanabe, one of the seven candidates to replace Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee, has his way.
Japan’s Watanabe has proposed the radical idea of staging the Olympics in five cities from the five continents, in the same period of time.
This came to light after the IOC published the manifestos of the seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as president in March this year. Watanabe’s radical proposal will see each of the five host cities be allotted 10 sports which would mean that the Olympics could have 50 sports in total. He adds that his idea would “see the Olympics being broadcast and streamed 24 hours a day, which will unite the world.”
Watanabe also mentioned in his manifesto that his proposal would enable many more cities — even small cities — to consider hosting the Games. Currently, the burgeoning costs of hosting the Olympics has seen many cities pulling out of hosting the most glamourous sporting event on earth.
“The Olympic Games have grown so large that it is now economically and environmentally difficult to host them in most cities. We will study the development of the new model of the Olympic Games,” Watanabe was quoted as saying by KYODO News.
The other contenders to replace Bach as IOC president are: Sebastian Coe from the UK, Jordanian Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, Swedish-British Johan Eliasch and France’s David Lappartient.
An IOC member since 2018, Watanabe is the President of the International Gymnastics Federation. He was elected as an IOC Member in 2018. He is currently a member of the Coordination Commission for the Games of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and is the Chair of the Boxing Task Force since 2019.
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