International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach would like to see a first Olympics on the African continent and Games once again in his native Germany. In an interview with Germany’s Sport Bild published Wednesday, Bach did not specify whereabouts in Africa but said he was following “with great sympathy” Olympic initiatives in Germany such as in the Ruhr region.
Germany has hosted three Olympics, the last in Munich in 1972.
Since then for the summer Games it made an unsuccessful bid through Berlin for 2000, while Leipzig failed to make the shortlist for 2012 Failed winter Games bids since 1972 were Berchtesgaden (1992) and Munich (2018), while Munich’s 2022 winter Games bid intentions were rejected in a referendum, as were Hamburg’s hopes of bidding for the 2024 summer Games. No African nation has ever bid to host the Olympics.
South Africa which hosted football’s 2010 World Cup — had reportedly once been contemplating Durban as a potential host.
However the city had to withdraw as 2022 Commonwealth Games hosts due to financial constraints. Bach dismissed talk of an Olympics crisis as a result of local referendums against the Games, saying half the world’s population followed the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
However there has been “a strong change in the political decision-making process in the western world, especially in Europe.”
Whereas in the past governments, opposition, business and sport came together in support of the Games, people now say that when the elites agree on something “there must be something wrong” and “an anti-feeling ensues.” This affects not only the Olympics but other future-orientated projects, he said.
Looking towards the 2018 winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Bach said the IOC was carefully observing developments as a result of political tension affecting the Korean peninsula.
Pyeongchang is some 80 kilometres from the border with communist North Korea.
Bach said the IOC was not expecting an armed conflict, which would in any case not be “a question of kilometres.” He added: “We see that China and Japan as the hosts of the next Games have a special interest in a peaceful solution to the situation. “This makes us very confident that the Games will not be affected by political uncertainties.”
Tokyo is hosting the 2020 summer Games and Beijing the 2022 winter Games.
Thomas Bach
