India has an excellent chance of securing the Games after Los Angeles and Brisbane, but things could change with the election of a new president of the International Olympic Committee in 2025. Meanwhile, cricket will be included in the list of sports again in 2028. Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto has travelled to Paris to support his country’s bid.
Paris () – Indonesia has reiterated its interest in hosting the 2036 Olympic Games. Prabowo Subianto, the president-elect who will take office in October, recently met in Paris with the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach. But to win the bid, it will have to compete with another Asian giant, India.
Prabowo was accompanied to France by State Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, who highlighted Indonesia’s ambition The minister continued that Indonesia has also hosted several international events in various cities in recent years, from the Superbike and MotoGP World Championships in Mandalika to the 2018 Asian Games, the ASEAN Paralympic Games in 2022, the Basketball World Cup and the U-17 Football World Cup last year.
All of these events were actually organised by the current Indonesian administration headed by President Joko Widodo, who had already expressed his desire in November 2022, during the G20 in Bali, to host an edition of the Olympic Games in the country’s new capital, Nusantara, although its construction is suffering several postponements.
Indonesia is also a candidate to host the 2030 Youth Olympic Games along with Thailand, India and Mexico, and this is the priority of the National Olympic Committee, explained Raja Sapta Oktohari, president of the organization.
Indonesia’s bid thus appears to be a counterweight to India’s, after proposals from Chile, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, although these bids have not yet been formalised. With several emerging athletes and a rapidly growing economy, India has a good chance of winning the 2036 Olympic Games (the 2028 Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, USA, and the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia). But the decision will not be taken by the IOC before 2025, probably after the election of the new president.
The government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, the ultra-nationalist Hindu party from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes) immediately took the bid for the 2036 Olympics very seriously, and it was even one of the main points of its election manifesto. The Sports Authority of India has created the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), a unit that includes several sports leaders and whose main task is to support Indian athletes in their quest for Olympic gold, but which in recent months has also submitted a report to the Ministry of Sports on the Olympic Games. Steps to follow to obtain the assignment of the Games. These include, for example, the construction of adequate infrastructure, the need to train referees and coaches, and the creation of mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment and reinforce anti-doping practices.
The Indian Olympic Committee also intends to propose the inclusion of several national disciplines, such as kabaddi, kho kho, chess and even yoga. Meanwhile, cricket will be played again as early as 2028. It was first included in the 1900 Games (only the men’s competition), after years of opposition from the English and Indian federations (which they feared would disrupt the World Cup calendar and reduce advertising revenue) and will now be played in an abbreviated version, called Twenty20 or T20. Final approval was given in October last year, at the end of an IOC session that (coincidentally) had been held in Mumbai.
But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that the inclusion of yoga, which has been used as a weapon of soft power around the world in recent years, would be a great success at the national level. Demonstration yoga classes have already been organised in front of the Louvre during the Games taking place in Paris.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed support for India’s candidacy (the two countries are linked by important trade agreements in the defence sector), while the Paris organising committee had already made itself available, before the opening of the 2024 edition, to share its experience with Indian colleagues. It will be difficult for Indonesia to convince the IOC’s sports representatives, but much could change after the election of the new president in Athens, Greece, next year.
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