India is hoarding its dream to host marquee events while continuing to become successful in hosting events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2017 FIFA World Cup.
After submitting a letter of intent for the 2036 Olympics, India has also shown interest in hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games.
As far as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) events are concerned, one of its vice-presidents Juan Antonio Samaranch, believes that showing interest to host its events puts India in the right place in the Olympic movement.
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“We claim to be a universal organisation. There is no universality nowadays without India, and it stepping up and taking its rightful place in the Olympic movement,” Samaranch told the Hindustan Times.
“This means Olympic teams, medals, organising Olympic events and eventually the Games. The final decision of the Olympics will be taken by the IOC governance body. But certainly, candidacy from India means very good news for the world. It means that you are coming, and we are happy to give a helping hand so you can take your rightful place in the Olympic movement,” he added.
Cities like Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, are consistently undergoing infrastructural changes for the development of sport. There are reports in Indian media suggesting that the Taj Mahal’s garden might host the archery event if India succeeds in its bid to host the 2036 Olympics.
Samaranch believes even though hosting Olympic Games can be expensive; it makes perfect financial sense in today’s world.
“This issue became obvious a decade ago, that we were seeing a lack of interest or a lack of possibility by many territories and cities to organise the Games. We even found ourselves with only two candidates for the 2024 Games, but both very strong. The team back then was courageous enough to double award the Games to Paris (2024) and LA (2028),” the Spaniard said.
“The situation today is different. Many territories, not least India, are pushing to organise the Games for 2036 or 2040. With the Agenda 2020 and 2020+5, which made it less expensive and more reasonable to organise the Games, we’re going into a new world, one that makes more financial sense now,” he added.