Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha says India’s commitment to hosting the 2036 Olympics “remains steadfast” after a letter of intent expressing the country’s desire to host the 2036 Summer Olympics and Paralympics has been submitted by the IOA to the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission.
This signifies the first major official step in implementing India’s long-standing ambition to stage the marquee quadrennial showpiece.
“Since last year, we have maintained regular communication with IOC president Thomas Bach and with the officials of the future host commission. We also remained in touch with the officials at the Paris Olympics, during which our officers attended the executive program and observer program organised by the IOC. These interactions and learning led to the submission of the letter of intent in early October,” Usha said in a statement.
“Despite some internal challenges within the IOA, our commitment remains steadfast. I am optimistic that India will be viewed by the IOC as a gracious host,” the IOA president added.
With the Summer Games set to take place in Los Angeles, United States in 2028, and Brisbane, Australia in 2032, the decision for the host of the 2036 edition is yet to be decided by the IOC, and is likely to be finalised after the IOC elections slated for next year. In the running alongside India are the likes of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Hungary, Indonesia and Qatar.
When Mumbai played host to the IOC Session last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had publicly declared India’s ambition to host the 2036 Olympics. The city of Ahmedabad is the top contender to host the Games. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was set up in July 2023 to oversee the planning and execution of Olympic-standard infrastructure in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. A 6,000-crore master plan proposal was conceived to build a 300-acre Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave in Ahmedabad’s Motera locality. Besides six new stadiums with a total capacity of over 1 lakh, the sports enclave will include the existing 1.10 lakh-seater Narendra Modi cricket stadium.
The preliminary official step to hosting is taken with this ‘Letter of Intent’, that has moved the process from the ‘Informal Dialogue’ to the ‘Continuous Dialogue’ stage of the host selection process, which will include a ‘Feasibility Assessment.’
“As part of the Feasibility Assessment, independent sources in a wide-ranging number of areas are taken into consideration, including in human rights, through Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), and sustainability, through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),” the IOC states on their website.
The next step in the process of selecting the hosts for an Olympics is ‘Targetted Dialogue’ during which the IOC conducts what it calls an “extensive consultation” with the stakeholders of the Olympic Movement. This involves discussions with international sports federations and “experts”, as well as further reports on factors like environmental impact and overall costs. Following the conclusion of this ‘Targetted Dialogue’, a decision is finalised.
The background discussions to make India an appealing package to the IOC to host the 2036 Olympics had begun ever since PM Modi’s audacious pitch in October last year. The push to host the Olympics even found a mention in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls that took place this summer.
As Usha mentioned in her statement, an ‘India House’ was also created at this year’s Paris Olympics, where reportedly, an extensive amount of lobbying was done by the IOA contingent.
The Indian Express had reported earlier that two months after the Prime Minister’s speech, during a meeting of the Sports Authority of India’s Mission Olympic Cell – a committee which includes some of India’s top former athletes, high-ranking federation office-bearers and officials from the Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India – there was even a discussion about the six sports that they wished to be included in the programme: yoga, Twenty20 cricket, kabaddi, chess, squash and kho kho.
Among other things on the agenda of that MOC meeting were doping control (with India being among the top offenders on the World Anti Doping Agency list), making sports federations more transparent and accountable, and appointment of ‘high-performance’ directors within those federations.
It has not all been smooth sailing though. Last month, The Indian Express reported that the bid from the sports ministry had been stalled due to the infighting within the IOA’s officials over the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer, Raghunath Iyer.
This latest breakthrough, of the submission of the letter of intent, comes as a positive, concrete step for India to confirm its ambitions to host the Olympics.
