(ATR) Thomas Bach says he is "impressed" with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison’s enthusiastic support for a potential Queensland bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.
"He made it very clear that Olympic Games would fit 100 per cent into his government’s 10 years infrastructure planning," the IOC president said in a statement after meeting Morrison with Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka.
"This early commitment and the well-known enthusiasm of the Aussies for sport are a great foundation for the Olympic Games 2032 in Queensland."
On Sunday, Morrison told reporters in Osaka: "A Brisbane Olympics has the potential to be a game-changer for southeast Queensland and my government will be there every step of the way.
"Just like in Sydney (which hosted the 2000 Olympics), a Queensland Olympics, led by Brisbane, would be an economic and job boom and would show off the entire state to the world."
Bach’s comments come after he held meetings with Brisbane Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner, the city’s ex-mayor Graham Quirk and Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson in May ahead of SportAccord. At the time, he praised the work being undertaken on Queensland’s feasibility studies for a possible Olympic bid.
The IOC president’s remarks also come hot on the heels of a reboot of Olympic bid procedures designed to offer a more flexible way to choose Olympic hosts. They were approved by the IOC Session in Lausanne last week.
Under the shake-up, the IOC will invite potential bids only after reviewing the circumstances they present. There is also flexibility to determine how far out the Olympics will be awarded, with the IOC working with aspirant cities to refine their plans. Selecting the Olympic hosts will be managed by two separate commissions, for summer and winter.
On Monday, Australian IOC member Coates, who has chaired the taskforce responsible for bringing bidding changes to the IOC, welcomed the Australian PM’s backing for a potential tilt at the 2032 Olympic Games.
He said the PM’s commitment to a united approach across all levels of government was a good sign for Brisbane’s prospects of mounting a compelling case to host the 2032 Olympics.
"Thomas Bach conveyed the new flexible approach the IOC has adopted to create a dialogue with potential Games’ hosts and for Games to be hosted in several cities or regions," Coates said in an AOC statement.
"There’s no question a Games could be held in Queensland that suits this model.
"We have significant existing sports infrastructure across multiple locations in South East Queensland - and preliminary group events for football, men and women, could be held in Townsville at the new football stadium being constructed there, with the agreement of the North Queensland Cowboys, for these Games in August."
Coates said that Cairns, the other large regional city, should be looked at to host preliminary group events, in either basketball or volleyball.
"However, President Bach warned against spreading events too far, being mindful of comments from the athlete members of the IOC, who are concerned about the loss of the magic for athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees, coming together," Coates said.
The next steps for Australia’s 2032 Olympic aspirations is the formation of the leadership group, completion of an economic feasibility study by the Queensland Government and finalization of the competition venue masterplan.
North and South Korea could yet provide some competition for Queensland in bidding for the 2032 Olympics. The two nations have been collaborating on a joint summer Olympic bid since the end of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
Reported by Mark Bisson
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
