IOC will take action with the new Olympic and Paralympic selection process

Nancy Gillen

The news that the Board of Governors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) intended to confirm Brisbane in Queensland as the preferred candidate for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games this week was surprising, but not surprising. completely unexpected.

The IOC established a new approach to the implementation of the 2019 Summer and Winter Olympic Games with the creation of a future Hosting Commission. This group was asked to identify and recommend venues for the Games before embarking on contacts with potential host countries, suspending the long-running tender races.

With this new process in place, a bid from Queensland was seen as a key start for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, largely because of the region’s success in hosting the Commonwealth Games. in 2018. The claim was preferred even when he was briefly arrested from May to December last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, Brisbane was then entering into “targeted communications” with the IOC. It was more than decision time. The IOC had not set out a precise timeline for when they planned to implement the Games so the progress of the process this week was somewhat out of the blue.

The IOC’s decision to put all the eggs in one basket 11 years before the Games has certainly caught the eye, especially as the ongoing pandemic has shown that life can be very changeable. . Moreover, the economic impact of the global health crisis remains to be fully publicized and could still be damaged by the best plans.

Brisbane now appears to be hosting the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics after the IOC Board of Governors confirmed the city as their favorite candidate for the Games © Getty Images
Brisbane now appears to be hosting the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics after the IOC Board of Governors confirmed the city as their favorite candidate for the Games © Getty Images

Interestingly, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic was believed to be a reason for the early decision. “The decision to take the process forward was taken at this particular time, given the current uncertainty in the world,” an IOC statement said.

“This uncertainty is expected to continue even after the COVID-19 health crisis is over. The IOC is considering seizing the trend of the excellent Brisbane 2032 project and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) offers, in this way, stability to the Olympic Games, the athletes, the IOC and the entire Olympic movement. “

People still question whether it was necessary to eliminate other hosts so early in the process, especially since a few cities were shouting for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.

This included the Qatari capital of Doha, which was scheduled to host the Games as a follow-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2030 Asian Games. Budapest in Hungary and Rhine-Ruhr in Germany had also hoped to put together bids, while Chinese cities Chengdu and Chongqing announced they wanted to bid in December.

Jakarta in Indonesia, New Delhi in India, Istanbul in Turkey and Saint Petersburg in Russia were other cities exploring application potential. At one time, there had even been interest in a joint bid from North and South Korea.

Big cities like Doha may feel frustrated at the decision to go ahead with Brisbane's bid for the 2032 Games © Getty Images
Big cities like Doha may feel frustrated at the decision to go ahead with Brisbane’s bid for the 2032 Games © Getty Images

Many of these cities may feel that they are now suddenly out of the race, not getting a real chance to raise their case for the Games. They may feel saddened that John Coates chaired a working group in 2019 that examined the process change for selecting a host city for 2032 onwards. Coates is President of AOC and a close ally of IOC President Thomas Bach, suggests a conflict of potential interest.

Bach rejected the notion that Coates had no influence in Brisbane’s decision to prove himself as the preferred candidate for the 2032 Games, and dismissed criticism that the city’s new publicity process did not want . He said the new process was “cheaper, helping to prevent overcrowding, making it more political, and making it bigger and more flexible.”

For cities hoping to bid for future editions of the Games, however, it seems that the sooner a proposal is put together to impress the IOC, the more better. Someone high in the IOC coming from that country may help.

As colleague Michael Pavitt said, the new process could preclude organized public protest against an appeal. Anti-Olympic sentiment has previously been a downfall for a number of bidding campaigns for both the Summer and Winter Games.

Recently, the first field of seven candidates for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics was drawn to two after a series of withdrawals, with applications from Calgary in Canada, Zion in Switzerland and Innsbruck in Austria all scrambled by the effect of the referendum. In fact, Calgary, which hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, became the ninth Olympic bidding city just to lose a referendum when its residents voted against the candidate in November 2018.

AOC President John Coates had been involved in the decision to change the city's election process © Getty Images
AOC President John Coates had been involved in the decision to change the city’s election process © Getty Images

Munich dropped out of the race for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which was eventually awarded to Beijing after losing a referendum, while Hamburg ruled out the process for the 2024 Summer Olympics after lost a poll in the city. Opposition to hosting the Games finalized bids for the 2024 tournament from both Budapest and Boston.

It is unlikely that a bid race will be affected by a campaign or a referendum, as such competition no longer exists. After that, it is unlikely that there will be the same level of organized complaint against re-application.

On the other hand, Queensland ‘s bid for the 2032 Games is not kept secret, and it will be difficult and wise for future host cities to stop communicating with the public about their plans. This still gives campaign groups space to come up with a plan to welcome the Olympics and Paralympics.

Eleven years is more than enough time to resist garner support at least, especially with those initial steps in the host city process that are not binding for Brisbane.

Of course, 2032 is not certain, the best athletes in the world will head to Brisbane for the Olympics and Paralympics. The application still needs to submit documents and the necessary commitments required to host the Games before it can be formally proposed as a host city. But for now, we’ve seen the first steps of the IOC’s new process for selecting the host of its flagship event play out.

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