India’s Bid for Hosting Olympics Amidst Global Competition

• India’s Interest: India has expressed interest in hosting the Olympics in the year 2036 during the recent opening ceremony of the 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai.
  • India has also expressed its ambition to host the Youth Olympics in 2029 although the quadrennial event will be held in 2030.
• Previous Asian Hosts: Till now, only three Asian countries have ever hosted the Olympics — China, South Korea and Japan. Japan has hosted events twice—in 1964 and 2020.
• Interested Parties: With India expressing its intention, there are at least five confirmed countries interested in hosting the 2036 Games and nine others in various stages of preparations and discussions.
  • In case India manages to secure the hosting rights, it will be the first big-ticket multi-discipline sporting event in the country since the Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) in 2010. 

• Other Rival Bidders: 
  • Apart from India, Mexico (spread across Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana), Indonesia (new capital of Nusantara), Turkey (Istanbul) and Poland (Warsaw) have expressed interest.
  • Egypt, Seoul, China, Qatar, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Canada and Germany have also shown interest. 

The Evolution and Significance of the Olympic Games: A Historical Overview

• About: This Games is the leading sports event featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate.
• Occurrence: These games are held every four years, and have alternated between the summer and winter Olympics every two years. 
• Inspiration: Modern Games was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.
• The 1st Modern Olympics: The first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896 after Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894.
• Upcoming Olympics Games: The next Summer Games will be held in Paris in 2024 and 2028 in Los Angeles.

Traditional Olympic Host Selection Process: Steps and Regulations

• Letter of Interest: In the older system, the interested cities, through their national Olympic Committee, would submit a letter of interest to the IOC to start a multi-year, multi-step evaluation process. 
• Questionnaire Filling: The interested cities would need to complete a series of questionnaires, evaluated by the IOC.  
• Inspection and Scrutiny: The IOC Evaluation Commission would carry out a series of inspections of all venues before the final bids are put to vote at an IOC session.
  • According to the Olympic Charter, the host city would be decided seven years in advance.

Reforming Olympic Host Selection: The ‘New Norm’ Approach Explained

• After Thomas Bach became the president of IOC, he put in place a new process for host city selection, called the ‘new norm’.
• Pillars: The new approach is based on three pillars of flexibility, sustainability and cost-effectiveness. The motto is ‘The Games adapt to the region, the region does not adapt to the Games’.
• Flexibility: The seven-year rule is no longer valid. The 2036 edition could be decided even as late as after 2030. 
  • A two-stage process — a continuous dialogue and a targeted dialogue — will be put in place without any fixed deadlines, to assess, discuss and guide potential hosts.
  • The continuous dialogue is a discussion between the IOC’s Future Hosts Commission (FHC) and interested parties about the hosts’ vision for the Games, its purpose and long-term legacy.
  • Interested countries then have to put together a master plan and work out logistical details, with every potential host free to work out their own template.
  • Unlike previous criteria, Games can be planned to be held across cities or even in collaboration with another country.
  • Once there is seriousness from potential parties, negotiations will enter the ‘targeted dialogue’ phase with the interested parties termed ‘preferred host’. 
  • Rejected parties would not be discouraged from bidding again, but can continue continuous dialogue for future events.
  • The targeted dialogue explores the proposals to host a specific edition of the Olympic Games and brings the IOC’s executive board into the picture for detailed discussions. 
  • All the ‘preferred hosts’ must answer the FHC’s questions and provide guarantees on infrastructure, accommodation, security and public services etc before making the final submission.
  • An advisory report will be prepared by the FHC for the executive board which can either recommend a single host or shortlist more than one for elections by the IOC members.
• Sustainability: In order to ensure long-term sustainability of the infrastructure, hosts are encouraged as far as possible to use existing and temporary venues.
  • New developmental plans for the games must have a long-term justification. All editions of the future Olympic Games from 2030 must also adhere to the IOC’s climate positive commitment.
• Cost-effectiveness: The IOC’s emphasis on using existing and temporary venues can lead to up to 80% decrease in the bid budgets of future.
  • Support is provided by the IOC to ‘preferred host(s)’ on marketing, venue development and sustainability to reduce costs.

Benefits of Hosting the Olympic Games for Nations and Communities

• Tourism Potential: This Games will be the perfect opportunity for a country to boost its tourism potential as large numbers of tourists are expected to visit to watch the games.
• Foreign Revenue: Tourists visiting the country during the Olympic Games will help increase foreign revenue reserves of the host country. 
• Brand Building: A country’s global brand can be built using these Games as an opportunity as the event gives large-scale publicity.
• Local Economy: Local hospitality industry will be greatly boosted due to the Olympic Games. This will help in reducing unemployment and poverty levels.
• Progress Demonstration: Developing countries have used the Olympic Games to demonstrate their progress on the world stage.
• Long-term Benefits: These Games are a reason for countries to improve their basic infrastructure, reduce pollution and modernize cities. In the absence of the Olympics, these changes may not have happened.

Challenges and Concerns of Hosting the Olympic Games

• Excessive Funding: In order to secure rights for hosting, the bidders will carry out excessive spending, often ending in huge debts for the host country. The Athens Olympics was one of the reasons for Greece’s debt crisis.
• Corruption: Games hosting can often lead to corruption scandals, affecting the reputation of the host country.

• Sportswashing:  Authoritarian regimes use global events to improve their government’s reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. In recent times, China, Russia and Qatar have employed sportswashing extensively.
• Security Issues: Hosting an event of such magnitude requires a high level of security. This could potentially backfire on a country’s reputation in case of any untoward incident.
• Political Instability: The cost of hosting an event requiring a large sum of money can potentially lead to uprising by the public, causing political instability.
• Environmental Burden: Developing new infrastructure for the Olympics will need further construction. This is likely to burden the environment in the form of pollution and exploitation of resources.

Conclusion:

Olympic Games need reforms to make them more affordable for the countries hosting them. Sustainability and cost-effectiveness can make them affordable for developing countries as well, thereby allowing the popularity of the event to soar.