2036 Olympics: Seb Coe’s thumbs-up is welcome, but is India ready to host?

During his visit to India earlier this week, Lord Sebastian Coe made all the right noises as he expressed his delight at the country’s interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics. The bid is now official, with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) submitting its official letter of intent to the Future Hosts Commission (FHC) of the IOC last month.

The final decision regarding the venue — a specific city rather than a nation, though — is likely to be taken in 2026–27.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey are among the other countries that have also shown interest in hosting the 2036 Games. The next two editions (2028 and 2032) will be held in Los Angeles and Brisbane, respectively — both venues in countries regarded as major sporting powers. Still, India’s growing clout in the corridors of power at the IOC certainly makes us a worthwhile candidate as well.

A two-time Olympic 1,500 metres champion, Seb Coe is one of the seven high-profile candidates bidding to replace Thomas Bach as the next IOC president — a natural progression for the 68-year-old, who is the perfect example of having ‘been there, done that’. As the chairman of the organising committee of London 2012, he was the face of the Games in his own country and must have exchanged notes during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mansukh Mandaviya, union minister of sports and youth affairs as well as of labour and employment.

A word of caution

Currently, the long-serving president of World Athletics, the India-born middle-distance legend can be very much an influential figure in the 2036 bidding race, and Coe will also bank on India’s support in becoming the IOC chairman himself.

India’s growing influence of India in the Olympics firmament, thanks to the involvement of the Reliance Group, was palpable when Mumbai hosted the 141^st IOC Congress last year — not to speak of the India Pavilion at the Games Village in Paris 2024.

“We know that the Olympic Games is a unique sporting event and it doesn’t surprise me that a country with the type of ambitions that India has and the vision for sports beyond the field of play and into the delivery of social and economic benefits, (it) would look at staging a Games,” Coe said in an interview.

However, he also had a word of caution — it’s one of the most complicated operations to stage the Games which only three Asian nations (China, Japan and South Korea) have hosted so far.

Well, India is not exactly a stranger to hosting multi-event extravaganzas — what with the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games and then the 2010 Commonwealth Games, with its own share of controversy — apart from major single sport events like the Cricket World Cup and the Hockey World Cups. The time may be just right to think big, what with talk of India being the fifth-largest economy in the world.

Still, it doesn’t sit well when one is reminded that they finished a poor 71^st on the medals tally in Paris — not to speak of resources.

Media reports say that the IOA’s letter of intent has not identified any city as the potential host, but it’s one of Gujarat’s ill-kept secrets that the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar will be the frontrunners. The state government of Gujarat has apparently earmarked Rs 60 billion (USD 957.8 million) as its budget to build six sports complexes in the area — and that’s only one slice of the expenditure.