• An Indian delegation, including Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president P.T. Usha and Gujarat's Minister of State for Sports Harsh Sanghavi, met officials of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne to explore the opportunity and feasibility of India hosting a future edition of the Olympic Games. 

• The delegation also included senior officials from the IOA, the Union sports ministry and the government of Gujarat, which is positioning itself as the future host.

• India submitted a Letter of Intent to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games in October 2024.

• The delegation was in Lausanne despite new IOC president Kirsty Coventry declaring that the entire host selection process was being paused and a working group being set up to figure out the appropriate time to identify a future host.

• This crucial exchange aimed to explore the opportunity and feasibility of India hosting a future edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Where will be the next Olympic Games held?

• 2028 - Los Angeles, USA, from July 14 to 30.   

• 2032 - Brisbane, Australia.

How are Olympic hosts elected?

• An Olympic host election is the result of a close collaborative partnership between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the potential host, together with its National Olympic Committee (NOC), to explore every aspect of the proposed Games vision and plan.

• Cities and regions interested in hosting the Olympic Games should reach out first to their NOC, to request its official support. The NOC then makes contact with the IOC, which provides support and advice from the early stages.

• If the NOC decides to take the project further, it can send an official letter to the IOC as an Interested Party.

• With the submission of a ‘Letter of Intent’, the process moves from ‘Informal Dialogue’ to the ‘Continuous Dialogue’ stage of the host election process.

• In this stage, the IOC conducts a ‘feasibility study’ of the progress of projects associated with the Games in the potential host.

• As part of the feasibility assessment, independent sources in a wide-ranging number of areas are taken into consideration, including in human rights, through Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), and sustainability, through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

• The host election process is overseen by two Future Host Commissions, one for Summer, and one for Winter Games. 

• When it feels a project is ready to move to the next stage, the relevant Future Host Commission can recommend to the IOC Executive Board (EB) to open a Targeted Dialogue for a specific edition/year of the Summer or Winter Olympic Games, with one or more cities or regions. From this point the Interested Party is known as a “Preferred Host” for the Games edition.

• During this process, IOC members will have a number of opportunities to learn more about the project from feasibility reports by the Future Host Commission and presentations by the Preferred Host.

• At the end of the Targeted Dialogue, following a detailed report and recommendation by the Future Host Commission, the IOC Executive Board will decide whether to propose one or more hosts for election by all IOC members at an IOC Session.

• If the Executive Board calls an election, the Preferred Hosts will be invited to a meeting to present their project and discuss it with all the IOC members. They will then give a final presentation to the IOC Session, which will be followed by the IOC members voting by secret ballot. If elected, the Host will immediately sign a contract with the IOC.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store