Olympic hosting race for 2036 set to be more transparent when India, Qatar vie for votes

With the race to host the 2036 Olympics on hold, the IOC gave its clearest signs yet Wednesday how it will decide with more transparency a contest India and Qatar crave to win.

More than 100 International Olympic Committee members got confirmation of what many lobbied for under their new president, Kirsty Coventry no repeat of the opaque, fast-track process that picked Brisbane as 2032 Summer Games host fully 11 years in advance.

India has confirmed its willingness to hold the 2036 Olympic Games in Ahmedabad

Instead, an IOC panel reviewing the process to choose future Olympic hosts promised greater transparency and input from the members.

A proposed short-list stage also would require cities to give the IOC a detailed project plan much earlier and credit cities for past hosting of multisports events.

“Clear criteria, documented procedures and more regular updates for both IOC members and for interested parties would build legitimacy and guard against perceptions of favoritism,” Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the former president of Croatia, told her IOC colleagues.

In the audience Wednesday to hear that were Thomas Bach and John Coates, respectively the IOC’s president and its most influential Australian member when Brisbane won in 2021.

Coates had overseen, as a senior Olympic lawyer and at Bach’s request, an overhaul of the traditional bidding contests that were long, expensive and exposed a risk of vote-buying.

In came a mostly confidential process of closed-door talks with Olympic staff and no set timeline that left IOC members merely to approve the one candidate presented by Bach’s executive board.

Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games and will host it again in 2030. New Delhi hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and 1951, and also the 2010 Commonwealth Games that was fraught with logistics problems. The Commonwealths will come to Ahmedabad in 2030.

Grabar-Kitarović proposed to her fellow IOC members they could engage with candidates in closed-door briefings and secure online talks to ensure confidentiality.

The next IOC Session meeting should be in June, when the hosting contest process outlined Wednesday can be approve and the 2036 race can formally resume.

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